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quote:
In other countries, over the years, people recognized the places of power. Sometimes it would be a natural formation, sometimes it would just be a place that was, somehow, special. They knew that something important was happening there, that there was some focusing point, some channel, some window to the Immanent. And so they would build temples or cathedrals, or erect stone circles, or…well, you get the idea.”

[…] In the USA, people still get the call, or some of them, and they feel themselves being called to from the transcendent void, and they respond to it by building a model out of beer bottles of somewhere they’ve never visited, or by erecting a gigantic bat house in some part of the country that bats have traditionally declined to visit. Roadside attractions: people feel themselves pulled to places where, in other parts of the world, they would recognize that part of themselves that is truly transcendent, and buy a hot dog, and walk around, feeling satisfied on a level they cannot truly describe, and profoundly dissatisfied on a level beneath that.
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

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This week our stories will be exploring places of power.

Ley lines, ancient burial grounds, spots where settlers ate one another or giant dinosaur sculptures are all up for grabs. At the center of your story should be the feeling that the fantastical is accessible through a physical place, preferably one that exists in this plane of existence though it may give access to another in your story. Fantastical can be real, imagined or somewhere in between.

As per previous entries "No erotica, fanfic, topical political satire/screeds, archive-breaking formatting, or dick pics. Other standard TD rules apply."

Questions that have arisen:
Q. "I like my Flash Rule but do I have to set the story in the stated location or can it be the same thematic event set somewhere else?"

A. The judges have been working hard to establish USA places of power and not-USA places of power since the 'places of power' narrative gets consolidated in Europe and USA and the judges hoped to spread out the settings a bit more.

We won't be a complete hard ass about the location being exact for flash rules, though deviation from the flash rule should be weighed against how much the deviation can improve your overall story.
aka don't set the doll forest on a space island and then write me a bad doll forest space island story.

There are some locations where the setting is directly influenced by the location (e.g. The Mug Tree set outside a town of 100 people in the Midwest) and those are more difficult to replicate in a different setting because the oddity of it existing outside that small town makes it a place of power. If you have questions for the judging team, don't hesitate to reach out.

Q. 'My location was assigned as a flash rule, can I write a duplicate?'

A. Please. And write it better.