Trifextra: Week Thirty-Six

Happy October, Trifectans!  Autumn is upon us, despite what the weather may have us believing, and we are getting ready to celebrate it Trifecta-style.  Next month is Trifecta's one year anniversary (birthday?), and we'll have some tricks up our sleeves, for sure.  In the meantime, we are looking for the perfect way to celebrate Halloween.  If you have any ideas for us, hit us up in the comments.

First place in last week's uneasy challenge goes to the ever-talented Jester Queen for her piece, On The Cutting Room Floor. The writing here is tight, controlled and purposeful.  Jessie excels at cranking out interesting, technically-sound, inspiring pieces.  See if you don't agree:

Kallum breezed into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. “Hey, babe.” He kissed the top of his wife’s head. She had on her bathrobe, and a folded towel sat beside her coffee. 

“Newspaper attack you on the way to the tub?” 

“Hey.” Jeanette looked up from her crossword puzzle and pushed her reading glasses up her nose. She didn’t answer the question. 

“You look distracted.” 

“I need a seven letter word that means samurai suicide. I’m trying to fit harakiri, but it’s too long and doesn’t start with ‘s’.” 

“Try ‘Seppuku’.” Kallum crunched into the apple. 

“Ugh. Of course.” She looked back down and started writing. “Thanks, I guess.” When she had finished marking the squares, she set down her pencil, but she didn’t move her finger over to another clue. The room filled with uneasy silence. Jeanette took off her glasses and patted one of Kallum’s massaging hands. 

“Make you think about Tina?” 

Jeanette hiccoughed, then rose and turned into her husband’s embrace. “I can’t figure out how she slit both wrists. After the first one, shouldn’t her hand have been too bloody and slick to hold the knife?” 

Kallum stiffened for a moment, then he stroked Jeanette’s hair without answering. When she finished crying, he let her go. “You OK?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Like if I go mow, you’ll be all right in here alone a few minutes?” He handed her a tissue from the box on the table. 

Jeanette sat back down. “I’ll be fine after I finish my coffee.” 

“Don’t forget to shower today.” He nodded to the towel. 

“I must smell awful.” 

“It will make you feel better.” 

After Kallum had gone, Jeanette picked up his apple. She took a bite, then threw it away. Leaving the towel on the table, she removed her robe. 

Naked, she took a knife from the chopping block and walked to draw herself a bath.

Second place this week goes to Hoofprints In My Garden for her piece, Offering Severance.  It's the all-too-familiar tale of being made redundant (shout out to our British former Trifecta Editor) told in beautifully sad, careful poetry.  She makes unemployment sound good, right?

Third place goes to People Do Things With Their Lives who writes about an even tougher subject.  The casual tone of the piece sets the stage perfectly for the twisted ending.  I got a very Catfish feel from this piece.  How about you?

Please remember to leave a comment on this week's critique.  Comments have been falling off a bit lately, and we're not sure why.  The first few critiques got a much better response from you guys.  Is it because they were posted anonymously?  Let us know what we can do on this end to ensure a better experience for you guys on that end.

On to the fast and furious weekend challenge.  This weekend, we are addressing the idea of analogy, simile and metaphor.  Without romancing you back to eighth grade English class to explain the differences between the terms, we'll sum it all up quickly by saying that these literary techniques involve comparing one thing to another in order to dress up your writing a little.  There's a decent article on the topic here, if you want to take a look.  Notice, specifically, the examples given towards the end of the article.  This is what we're asking of you this week.

Here are some photos to inspire you.  Choose one and give us a metaphor or simile to help describe what you see.  Make your analogy 33 words or less, and make it clever or witty or unusual enough to grab our attention.  You are free to use these images on your own blogs, if you like.

This weekend's challenge is community-judged.

• For the 12 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.  
• In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link.  To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.
• You can vote for your top three favorite posts.
• Voting is open to everyone. Encourage your friends to vote for you, if you wish, but please don't tell them to vote on a number.  The numbering of the posts changes regularly, as authors have the ability to delete their own links at any time.
• You have 12 hours to vote.  It's not much time, so be diligent! We'll send out reminders on Twitter and Facebook.