Tag: Short fiction

#Friday Fictioneers

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I know it isn’t Friday now, I’ve been away so I’m late.

But, Madison’s  http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/photo-prompt-for-100-word-flash-fridayfictioneers-30/  photo kept popping into my head so I wrote this.

Going home is copacetic but the journey from my daughter lacks the joy of the one towards. In the bus someone plays a line from the carnival is over on a tinny echoing phone.

I recline and check the double deck view, a twin chakra of rainbows, moments from the M27 with its pylons and industrial units, on a bench that feels like bone on bone to my spine. Hawthorn next and cemetery birds in a corridor called Wellow.

Disgorge at Salisbury, grateful for a wait uninterrupted by a questioning Mancunian, grasping for minutiae from a trapped, hungover, hen party goer.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups Week #42

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This week’s 100 word challenge over at Julia’s http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-42/

has five words for the prompt. They are LIBERTY, APPLE, YELLOW, ENORMOUS AND EMPIRE. I’m told my attempt is too cryptic this time so you may not get it 😦

Speed Date

It took me all night to make this. I’m so out of practice, haven’t cut a pattern for years. Enormous amount of fabric, Liberty print the length of the hall. Thank goodness it’s bright yellow; you can’t really see where I spilt the apple juice.

Hooray for chicken fillets, I’ve always wanted to wear an Empire line dress. A bonnet would be too much, but my hair’s up. I feel like a bride, perhaps that’s a good omen.

Speed dating with an Austen theme, only in Winchester eh? Is this the right room?

Oh my God.

Austen.

Powers.

Not Jane.

# Friday Fictioneers – Lunacy

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This is my first Friday Fictioneers 100 word post. The photo below is the prompt for this week.

moon

Here is the link if you would like to join in. http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/photo-prompt-for-100-word-flash-fridayfictioneers-29/ and my story.

Lunacy

‘Daughter, at last it is favourable. Yesterday’s rains have made the earth soft, and moist. Now, the moon is shining her benevolence.’

‘This is a good time mummy? What makes it so?’

‘She is waning and her energy draws into the soil, she makes roots grow strong, it is time to sow our yam seed.’ They bent to dig and plant the seed together.

‘Wife what is this crazy woman talk you put in the child’s head? Plants need sun and water, not this lunacy. Tell me when you’ve finished and I will slaughter the goat and sprinkle its blood.’

A Sequel to Short Listing

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This is the logo for Flash Fiction South West and I am proud and excited to be part of the very first published anthology, Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories. Not only is it a first for FFSW, it’s a first for me! My very first time  in print.

I know that lots of you are published writers, do you remember the feeling you had when you first held a book with your name inside? I’ve been bouncing for twenty four hours now!

May 16th is National flash Fiction Day, perhaps you will be inspired to write something on that day. If not, check out the talent that the West Country has to offer,

http://flashfictionsw.co.uk/ and it’s even better to run your hands over the sleek cover and inhale the fresh, gorgeousness of new book.

 

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups # 40

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This is my post for Julia’s 100 word challenge, with the prompt of ruby to mark the 40th week. Take a look over here http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-40/ and maybe join in.

Pearl of Ruby?

I stretched myself awake and saw a carved ivory box on my pillow.

‘Oh no,’ said Leila, ‘They will come tonight then, but you are so young.’ I opened the box and my heart stopped.

‘A ruby.’ As big as an eye.

‘You must be valued highly; the old fool usually sends a pearl, as if that makes up for his stench.’

I was shaking as Leila opened the note.

‘But no . . . Prince Mustafa awaits you . . . the young handsome one is yours, a ruby your price’ she said running her pearls between her fingers.

100 Word Challenge Week 39

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This week Julia’s challenge is to use the prompt ….I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you…. So here is my attempt.

Caring

Right, your groceries are sorted, dishes washed. I’ve changed your bed and made up the spare room for your brother. The fish pie I made is in the fridge and a lemon meringue. I’ve refilled your medi-wallet too, okay?

The recycling bin is outside and the cats are fed. All the laundry is ironed and tomorrow’s shirt is hanging with those jeans I took up. I’ve booked you a test ride with motability and your wheelchair’s being serviced on Tuesday. Okay?

‘Where’s the remote? I can’t reach it.’

‘My sweets and beer?’

‘…. I’m exhausted; shut the door behind you….’

Shortlisted, me?

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Yes me! I submitted to South West Flash Fiction just for fun really and never dreamt that I would be short listed. National Flash Fiction day is on May 16th and Rachel http://rachelcarter.me an inspiring writer herself thought it would be a good idea to have a page to showcase the work of Westcountry writers.

So there I am and on the front page as well.

http://flashfictionsw.co.uk/ Do have a read, my story is Mystery Lady on The Train, written after I spotted an ad in the local newspaper.

100 Word Challenge For Grown Ups # 37

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Julia’s 100 WCGU this we at http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-37/ says this:-

The prompt this week is to go back to last week’s entries. You are to use the last 10 words of the post next to yours and using just 100 words create a story. It may be a follow-on from the previous one or you may like to take it in a different direction.

I’m told that what I have written is quite a bit ‘Off in left field’  and that it will confirm my craziness but hey, I like to play! My section of prompt is ‘walked up to the table slowly, “what is going on?”, here it is.

Growing Table

The medical authority, are battling to control an obesity epidemic, but an abundance of sweets and biscuits covered the office table. There were back-from-a-Transylvanian-holiday treats, and dunkies provided by the plumptious boss. Fresh today, a stack of cakes, brownies and shortbread, courtesy of GT Porky and Co, auditors.

The scrawny dietician walked up to the table slowly, ‘What is going on here?’ ‘Not in my clinic, WE set an example.’ Behind her, the boss’s kilogramically challenged boss, with an epicurean feast of hot cross buns and Easter eggs, retreats, his face flaming, as she swept the booty into the bin.

100 word Challenge for Grown Ups: Week 35

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This weeks 100 word challenge over at Julia’s http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-35/

is ‘The Red box’ and this is my take on it!

Red Box Versus Tree

It wasn’t exactly a bang, more a low clunk like an Ikea drawer closing.

‘You’re going to die’ he mocked the older sister he was so jealous of, ‘Just wait ‘til . . .’

‘Shut up, I’ll just have to pay’.

‘Yeah, for about seven years, that’s how long he waited for it’.

She couldn’t settle, Luke kept smirking at her. She checked the window every five minutes, eventually the Jack Russell yapped as it chased through the gate. She went outside.

‘Dad . . .’ she sobbed.

‘I saw, don’t cry angel it’s just a red box on wheels’.

 

How it should be

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He just wished that one day he would come home from work to find her normal. Not perfect, he didn’t expect an immaculate house, squeaky clean kids and for her to be glamorous. No, if nothing else he was realistic. He’d seen his ideal when he’d followed Geoff home to fix his computer. Alice tried to persuade him to stay and eat with them, an aromatic curry cooked from scratch. Geoff dipped his finger in to taste and pretended to groan in agony when she swiped him with the spoon. ‘Oh I’m sorry, let me kiss it better’ she reached for him and then thrashed and giggled as he tried to claim a full on snog with tongues.

‘Get him mum,’ the teenaged twins said in unison, accompanied by the manic yelps of their Labrador. Biting his lower lip, Paul leant against the table watching while a scene of mock smacks and tickles unfolded, yes this is how it should be.

That night was one of the worst for ages, because he was late. He heard a smash of glass as he pulled into the drive and found her trying to mash shards down the sink with an empty wine bottle.

‘Come here’, he took her hand and wrapped a towel around it; her blood had mixed with the wine in the sink. She let him help for a minute then pushed him away and slumped on the sofa. He felt the familiar rocks in his belly as he climbed the stairs.

‘Hello dad, thank God you’re home, Dan’s really miserable’. Jessica was oldest by a year and Paul was ashamed at how much he relied on her.

‘Come on, let’s talk, did you and Dan eat? ‘ello mate, how you doin?’ the boy maintained his stare at the screen where fantasy fighters destroyed each other and the planet. ‘Dan, can you leave that a minute I’ve got something to say.’ Paul hit the power on the speaker and swivelled his son around to face him.

‘We’re going at the weekend; I’ve got the keys today. There won’t be a garden but it’s a huge flat, really funky and you’ll love it. What d’you think?’ the boy’s eyes welled up, a small chink in his mask and Jess held on to both of them.

‘But mum . . . what will happen to her?’

‘There’s help if she will take it and we’ll see, but this can’t carry on. I’m going to look after you now, we’re going to be normal.’