Shared Storytelling: Advent Ghosts 2010

Sixties-era songsmiths Eddie Pola and George Wyle may have memorialized any number of longstanding yuletide traditions in "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," but there's one commemoration their famous song mentions that seems to have slipped from popular consciousness -- "scary ghost stories." Though Charles Dickens and M.R. James both celebrated the season with spooky tales, such stories have been surmounted by twinkling tinsel, shiny lights and a certain ineffably optimistic red-nosed reindeer.

That's something we here at ISLF want to remedy.

Every year, this blog hosts a round of Advent-themed storytelling, a time for us to gather around the dying fire and share tales as the cold wind moans outside. These aren't long stories, just 100 words each, and it's open to anyone and everyone who'd like participate. Why not read some of last year's selections? What's that, you want to know how to join in? Well, I'm glad you asked ...

1.) Email ISawLightningFall [at] gmail [dot] com and say that you'd like to participate in Shared Storytelling: Advent Ghosts 2010.
2.) Write a spooky piece of flash fiction exactly 100-words long. Note that it doesn't have to be a ghost story, but it should possess a certain eeriness, that feeling that makes you want to pull the blanket a bit tighter around yourself and maybe leave a light on in the hall, just in case. A prime example is Neil Gaiman's "Nicholas Was …"
3.) Post your story to your blog on Christmas Eve and email the link to me. Hosting can be arranged for those who don't have blogs.

Come, won't you join us? The night is so very dark, and why not pass the time together as we wait for the light of the world to rise.

(Picture: CC 2007 by Denis Collette...!!!)