Flash Fiction Fridays - June

June Release:
Joseph's Gold.

​This story came about as a challenge to myself – using one of my latest prompts to write this month’s Flash Fiction Friday story. I thought that’d be challenge enough, but of the five prompts I’d set myself to choose from, the one that sang out to me just happened to be in a genre I hadn’t attempted before: western. So, a double challenge then! Oh, fun and games!

Click cover to go to Free Flash Fiction Fridays page

​I decided that the prompt itself demanded to be the opening of my story:

The boy staggered into town just on dark, filthy, half-starved, and delirious. We took him to the infirmary, fed him, cleaned him up, and let him sleep. It wasn’t until I passed his cot the next morning that I noted the glint of gold between his clenched fingers and the fervent look in his eye.
                                   - Original writing prompt by Emily Larkins.

The boy’s plight caught me in the chest, however I didn’t feel that this story was his in the telling. Instead, the narrator is an observer, though no less part of the story. Both are caught in that hazy zone between boy and manhood, and both have weights on their shoulders that aren’t a boy’s to carry. They share desperation, drive, and more…
This story required research. I’m not a natural Western writer, but I have taken on historical fiction pieces in the past, and approached it from that direction. I wrote the guts of the story first, then went digging for information on the Western genre – particularly the identifiable features of Western – and swept back toward places I knew, lending them to the story. My experiences with gold come from the Central Otago region of New Zealand, particularly Cromwell, Arrowtown, and Queenstown. I panned for gold on school camp when I was eleven, but before that, family holidays to Bannockburn and Cromwell were spent out in the old diggings; dry, dusty places of shale, burning sun, and the evidence of the search for gold back in the late 1800s. I also borrowed from T.V. and movies, particularly scenes involving medicine and hospitals/infirmaries.
But how to get all that into 1500 words? Well, not easily! I had to balance what was important to the genre with the heart of the story, which essentially is the idea that a strike (yours or not!) could change a life. I found it addictive and used it to build the desperation within the story. If you want to find out how, I suggest you have a read when Joseph’s Gold comes up for FREE Flash Fiction Friday, or, if you can’t wait, Joseph’s Gold (and all other Flash Fiction Friday stories) is locked down to a tiny price throughout the month. If you’d like to check out the images I collected that helped inspire Joseph’s Gold, there’s a link just over here! I’d also love to hear what you think of the story, so feel free to pop a review on via the link. Plus, this prompt, and more, are available on my Prompts by Emily board on Pinterest, so go to it! Write your own version of the story!