Bella

That’s “pleaseD” of course.

So please, Richard. A brilliant and moving story, written with an intensity but also a subtlety that really marks it out.

Thank you for the link, Richard! 😊✨

4 longlisted and 2 shortlisted. I call that impressive for a small site like this.

I didn’t make the shortlist but I tell myself it was obviously a moment of madness by whoever made the choice 😀

Well done, Sandra. Another great competition. And well done to my co-competitors. Two top-notch entries. Congratulations, Alex. A nice twisty yarn!

<p>Congratulations @Alex!! 🥳🥳</p><p>I too am a fan of the penny-brown eyes. Well done, you 😃</p><p>Also another stunner from Ath; Top-shelf characterization in a small pinch of words. #howdoeshedoit </p><p>Sandra, this was a marvellous prompt and I fully enjoyed it! Can’t wait to see what Alex comes up with, for August :)…[Read more]

Only three entries depicting Andrew’s possible future, but each of a quality and breadth of imagination that makes the judging, the choosing of a “winner” extremely difficult.
Knicks opening sentence an instant hook, her choice of verbs ¬– “breathing hitched”, corner of mouth “kicked up” – is inspirational, and Andrew initially appears to have co…[Read more]

My One and Only Love. That’s from the Cloud and all the way back to 2014/2015.

Congratulations, Richard. It’s a powerful story that deserves recognition.

I see from the website that my entry has been longlisted, too, which feels rather good. I didn’t recognise any of the other titles.

Andrew, 1975

It’s February, and evening is upon us. Andrew goes unnoticed. Pedestrians streaming by the Palace Theatre barely even see a youth leaning against the wall. Some look towards him, but they are peering through the glass doors. Maybe they are wondering whether Jesus Christ Superstar is worth the ticket price. The traffic sweeping a…[Read more]

I like Discord for all those reasons too @raine.

It may well and best suit the members who will show up there, and couldn’t there be an influx of new writerly blood from the different tags we use on open channels?

There’s a lot to be said for Discord. There are a number of pages I visit regularly. I don’t imagine it would suit some of our members, but there may be no alternative in a year’s time.

Sorry Sandra, I copied it in from my phone and forgot the ever-imperative word count: 500 words excluding the title.

No preference.

My WIP is first person, present tense. I didn’t choose or plan this; it just happened when I started writing. I think it fits the voice of the MC.

I suppose that many people who are mainly familiar with a narrator, often omnipotent, addressing the reader in past tense, assume that present tense (especially first person) is likely…[Read more]

Just realised, quite a few of my Challenge stories are written in first person present. I think to give myself an extra treat!!Would definitely deny they are static!