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Drabble Corner

Michelle Swisz

Circumstances have stolen MicheleAnn from the column, and for me, it's a pleasure to now be editing Drabbles. My name is Michelle Swisz; another Michelle, just to confuse everyone. I've been working on the fiction panel recently, and am greatly looking forward to Drabbles. They're an opportunity to focus the meaning in thoughts, feelings, and questions into a succinct and particularly memorable form that happens to be fun, but deceptively hard to write. The Drabble Project, has collected and published three books' worth of them, by such authors as Isaac Asimov and Larry Niven. Thanks, Alison, for the link!

Here is April's Drabble, on the theme of War:

Splashed by Jim Hatfield The first sign they'd been hit was a thump behind the cockpit. The aircraft lurched as if it had been T-boned at a bad intersection. Acrid smoke swirled through the compartment. His earphones buzzed. "We just bought it, Jacko. Eject, eject!" Jack pulled the firing handles and the canopy whipped away like a candy wrapper in the wind. Then his seat seemed to explode, carrying him straight up into the sun. Finally, his chute popped and he found himself drifting lazily toward the Gulf. His knee throbbed. His heart pounded. "Jesus, I'm alive," he thought. Then he hit the water.

May's theme is "Exploration," due April 10, and June's is "It Came to Life," due May 10. See the guidelines for submission details. And please send me your comments, questions, suggestions, or ideas, whether they're about upcoming or desired themes, ideas brought up in Drabbles, or anything else related to the column.

A new tradition: When you have a one-line reply to the most recent Drabble (sort of a one-line Drabble in response) send it on in. Maybe we'll call them Dribbles, although I'm not sure about the imagery there. Any suggestions?

Happy writing!

Email me your drabbles and themes at drabble@wvu.org.