A Midsummer Tale 2023

Featured

Posted on April 1, 2023 by TC Editors

A Midsummer Tale is a summer-themed narrative writing contest open to non-genre fiction and creative nonfiction.

The theme of the 2023 A Midsummer Tale writing contest is: Best Friends Forever…?

Inspired by optimistic yearbook signatures, this year’s theme is a tribute to our once-upon-a-time BFFs, the friendships we couldn’t imagine not lasting forever. For this year’s A Midsummer Tale contest, write about a now-troubled—or severed—friendship between two people who were once-inseparable besties. Did the friendship slowly unravel or suddenly break apart? Could the pieces be put back together again or was it time to let it go?

Your story must be set during the hot summer months and the theme must play an integral role in the story.

Deadline for entries is June 21, 2023.

May 2023
Daily Writing Prompts

Posted on May 31, 2023 by TC Editors

Write about Mayday: distress call, labor day, or pagan holiday.
Use these five words: profile, death, danger, tote, wing
Write about the final rehearsal
Use these five words: creatives, platform, data, best, soccer
Write about a disguise
Write about breaking a record.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: shadow, flush, piece, marine, article.
2. Use the phrase, “kick off your shoes.”
3. Write about removing a mask.
Use these five words: vast, relaxed, splashy, personal, trail
Use the phrase, “Isn’t that wonderful?”
Start your story with an obituary.
Work a software bug into a story.
Use these five words: blood, messages, blocked, agenda, memoir
Write about being too busy.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: timetable, arrest, ant, draft, shallow.
2. Use the phrase, “It’s a mystery.”
3. Write about someone else’s holiday.
Use the phrase, “Do we need to do anything about it?”
Start with this line: “And what do you do?”
Write about an interruption.
Start with this line: “Enough is enough!”
When is not objecting good enough?
Write about freshly baked bread.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: sheep, revoke, gate, personal, cellar.
2. Use the phrase, “You need to decide.”
3. Write about a library.
Write about a repressive regime.
Use the phrase, “I’m not late, yet.”
Use these five words: solitary, radical, violence, possessions, disarmament
Write about a wilting plant.
Use these five words: screen, delete, indigenous, black stone, secret
Write about the first really nice day.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: red, familiar, cap, cruel, embark.
2. Use the phrase, “It’s electric.”
3. Write about olives.
Misquote Shakespeare.
Write about a vacation playground.
Write about a legendary vehicle.

2023 Savage Mystery Writing Results

Posted on May 1, 2023 by TC Editors

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Savage Mystery Writing Contest!

First Place: “A Dance Around an Oak Tree” by Ogu Nnachi
Second Place: “Grandpa’s Map of Amazing Places” by Miguel A. Rueda
Third Place: “The Curse of Too Much Air Time to Fill” by Sue Seabury

The winning entries will appear in the upcoming issue of Toasted Cheese.

We’d like to thank everyone who entered. There were many creative treasure clues and treasure hunts. I hope everyone had as much fun writing the stories as I had reading them.

Amanda (The Bellman) Marlowe

The Savage 48-hour Writing Contest is back in September with our science fiction/fantasy edition.

The 2023 A Midsummer Tale Narrative Writing Contest (open to creative nonfiction and non-genre fiction) is currently open for entries.

April 2023
Daily Writing Prompts

Posted on April 30, 2023 by TC Editors

Use the phrase, “I will not live to see it.”
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: obscure, option, treasury, seasonal, friendly.
2. Use the phrase, “I wasn’t expecting that.”
3. Write about breaking for lunch.
Use the phrase, “Do I need more coffee?”
Start your story with a choice that is not a choice.
Write a ten-year-old flashback.
Use these five words: spirit, merger, bowls, threatening, indicator
Your character apologizes for asking too many questions.
Start with this line: “It’s getting chilly outside.”
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: behavior, pierce, vacuum, crime, coast.
2. Use the phrase, “I haven’t heard that before.”
3. Write about avoiding a celebration.
Start your story with a toy drive.
Use the phrase, “Those are not birds.”
Start with this line: “What will it take to win?”
Write a shocked reaction.
Start your story with your MC picking up a hitchhiker.
Write about blowing off steam.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: breed, twin, move, reach, reserve.
2. Use the phrase, “What day is it?”
3. Write about talking in code.
Write about skipping an obligation.
Use these five words: red sea, reality, collective, evaporate, suspicious
Write about inventing tasks for another person.
Start with this line: “I’m so happy for you!”
Use the phrase, “I can’t believe it’s been a month already.”
Write about the results of a poll.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
Start with this line: “Do you ever get a feeling that…”
Coin a word and use it three times.
Start with this line: “What’s going on here?”
Write about light at the end of a tunnel.
Start your story with your MC finding a body.
Write a rhyme for remembering something.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: protest, island, forge, opposed, hallway.
2. Use the phrase, “The colors are impressive.”
3. Write about an excuse.

March 2023
Daily Writing Prompts

Posted on March 31, 2023 by TC Editors

Write about waiting for the alarm.
Use these five words: state, students, angels, confinement, men
Set a conversation in the kitchen.
Start with this line: “You’re so tenacious.”
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: bay, low, vacuum, spend, obligation.
2. Use the phrase, “caught on camera.”
3. Write about feeling seen or feeling understood.
Start your story with financial support being withheld.
Write about forgetting someone’s name.
Write about having baggage.
Is it possible to have too many books?
Start with this line: “Can you get a closer look?”
Write about lying by omission.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: problem, suntan, tidy, soar, habit.
2. Use the phrase, “someone would notice.”
3. Write about feeling alone in a crowd.
Write about turning the calendar a week late.
Start with this line: “Where are you from?”
Write about getting something you always wanted.
Write about the wrong kind of shoes.
Write about a historical artifact.
Write about an emotional tribute.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: cake, forestry, kidney, flourish, solve.
2. Use the phrase, “I don’t know what that means.”
3. Write about an empty bottle.
Start with this line: “You were warned.”
Use the phrase, “Once a season, whether we need it or not.”
Write about a nanny school.
Write about using a partial deck of cards.
Start with this line: “But I always thought…”
Write about a failed organizer.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: publish, articulate, monstrous, carry, imperial.
2. Use the phrase, “…and a half.”
3. Write about a traffic jam.
Write about avoiding the city.
Use these five words: house, sailing, withdrawals, subscribe, history
Translate some goose honking.
Write about a word that is overused.
Write about a classic car.

The 2023 Savage Mystery Writing Contest is CLOSED

Posted on March 17, 2023 by TC Editors

The 2023 48-hour Savage Mystery Writing Contest is now open.

Entries must be received by 5 PM Eastern Time, Sunday, March 19, 2023.

Write a mystery that features a clue to a buried treasure.

Word range: Between 3000–3500 words.

Send entries to: savagemystery23@toasted-cheese.com
Your subject line must read: Savage Mystery Contest Entry
Paste your story directly into your email. No attachments please.

For complete rules:

Toasted Cheese 23:1

Posted on March 1, 2023 by TC Editors

The March 2023 issue of Toasted Cheese features poetry by Darren C. Demaree, Marchell Dyon, Jenny Hockey, James Croal Jackson, Vyarka Kozareva & Ogu Nnachi; flash by Tim Love & Shoshauna Shy; fiction by Maithreyi Nandakumar & Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson; and creative nonfiction by Jason Irwin.

TC 23:1 also includes the 2022 Dead of Winter Horror Writing Contest winning stories by Alex Grehy, DJ Tyrer & David Pugh.

At Candle-Ends, Shelley Carpenter reviews Mending the Moon by Emma Pearl & Sara Ugolotti and Six Old Women and Other Stories by Sharon L. Dean.

The cover image is by Su-Lin on Flickr, with additional photos by photographers around the world, all of whom have generously made their work available for use under Creative Commons licenses. Please click through and check out their photostreams.

Congratulations to all. Happy reading!

February 2023
Daily Writing Prompts

Posted on February 28, 2023 by TC Editors

Answer a question with, “Wait, what?”
Start your story with a viral video.
Write about a tune that’s stuck in your head.
Start with this line: “I was set up!”
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: hook, turkey, predict, wrist, accent.
2. Use the phrase, “I didn’t need to hear that.”
3. Write about searching for that something you’ve almost forgotten about.
Start with this line: “I don’t fit that description.”
Write about a heating system failure on a cold day.
Start your story with your MC faceplanting in mud in front of witnesses.
Write about a machine making a mistake.
Start with this line: “I’ve had enough.”
Write about a meeting in the dark.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: scrap, first, transparent, trick, opposed.
2. Use the phrase, “need to know.”
3. Write about deciding what to eat.
Write about not celebrating a common holiday.
Write about a female character who eschews femininity.
Write about the life of an escaped pet.
Write about having embarrassing taste.
Write about looking at a closed book.
Write about a great opportunity.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: merit, ward, water, concept, charismatic.
2. Use the phrase, “is that my phone?”
3. Write about trying to do too many things at once.
Start your story with your MC making the next round of a competition.
Write about reclaiming a misused word.
Start with this line: “I don’t know if I can do this right.”
Rewrite a story from a different point of view.
Start with this line: “The lesson is…”
Write about returning to a cold cup of tea.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: cunning, chorus, fortune, hallway, formulate.
2. Use the phrase, “fairly weak tea.”
3. Write about trying to avoid conflict.
Start with, “How do I do that?”
Use these five words: court, daily, lobster, round, fancy

Dead of Winter 2022 Winners

Posted on February 1, 2023 by TC Editors

The winning stories in our 2022 “Dead of Winter” short fiction contest are:

First place: The Facilitator by Alex Grehy
Second place: Quiet Child by DJ Tyrer
Third place: Sinister Melody by David Pugh

The first, second, and third place stories will appear in TCLJ 23.1, our Spring issue.

Our next contest is “The Savage Mystery Writing Contest,” which is a 48-hour contest for mystery stories.

Dead of Winter 2023 opens October 1; Toasted Cheese’s contest info is here.

January 2023
Daily Writing Prompts

Posted on January 31, 2023 by TC Editors

Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: heavy, fisherman, sin, inspector, justice.
2. Use the phrase, “How much does this free stuff cost?”
3. Write about brunch.
Write about living mindfully.
Write about missing the point of a holiday.
Start with this line: “It’s hopeless.”
Write about being too tired to think straight.
Use these five words: catastrophic, remove, boring, space, patterns
Write a ‘what if’ scenario.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: tile, cable, skate, doubt, fence.
2. Use the phrase, “stay tuned.”
3. Write about misusing a map.
Write about talking to a gardener while they work.
Start your story at a wedding where everything goes wrong.
Write about a machine that fails at a critical moment.
Use these five words: corgi, treasures, environment, moderation, toxic
Write a flawed explanation.
Write about evaluating someone else’s work.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: recruit, management, suggest, parade, suit.
2. Use the phrase, “I would like to thank …”
3. Write about an annoyance.
Write about a human-sized teddy bear.
Use the phrase “It doesn’t make sense.”
Write about an ugly sweater.
Write about a dead battery.
Use these five words: boost, shortage, pitches, distortion, subscription
Write about an unfamiliar food.
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: horizon, articulate, name, dictionary, kick.
2. Use the phrase, “I had such an experience when …”
3. Write about losing something of no consequence.
Write about a flickering votive candle.
Start your story with a character watching an ’80s TV episode.
Write about hunting for a parking space.
Start with this line: “Hi, it’s me.”
Write about cooperating on a building project.
Use these five words: games, studying, faint, performance, months
Join us for a live Writing Chat every Sunday!
1. Use the following five words: screen, list, growth, drawing, sandwich.
2. Use the phrase, “That’s all, folks!”
3. Write about deciding what to do with a day off.
Start with this line: “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
Use “You can’t leave until you finish this.”

Toasted Cheese

Literary Journal + Writing Community