Chrissy

That’s 31st October!

Thank you @Seagreen ! The prompt was a challenge, in a good way, and I’m very pleased to have been picked from such a strong collection of stories.

Care Package

450 words

Her brother and she were the youngest of five, he the youngest of all.

‘Follow me!’ he called, pedalling hard. To keep up, when he was eight and she nine, stole her breath. Also, there were more interesting things to do: reading a book, doing piano practice. Soul-bolstering things. Becoming your own person.

Ahead, her…[Read more]

@athelstone

I realised after I pressed send that the POVs of your three characters  responded to the three possible POVs I’d put in my comp task. Neat!

As befits pieces about holidays and sea, all this month’s entries evoked a sense of place and, in their different ways, the rituals of leaving home for time away.

@jillsted

A lovely interweaving of different memories focused on the annual seaside holiday. Your depictions are very atmospheric, such as, “We would stand in the corridor and e…[Read more]

A quick reminder that the end of the month is growing near for anyone who’d like to enter the monthly competition.

August, peak holiday season. For the August comp please combine the themes of holiday and sea. It could be from the point of view of a holidaymaker or a person who works in the tourist industry or someone who simply observes.

500…[Read more]

Great blog as usual Richard. It’s a fascinating story. One of those that has so much promise of what might have been, yet also so typical of the often shambolic British way of going about things that one feels it could only ever have ended up this way. Look at the contemporary British aviation industry – much brilliance and yet so much avoidable c…[Read more]

We’re half way through August. The heat isn’t a great supporter of creativity. On the other hand it could be a prompt. Here’s a reminder of this month’s competition.

August, peak holiday season. For the August comp please combine the themes of holiday and sea. It could be from the point of view of a holidaymaker or a person who works in the…[Read more]

That was quick, Jill 🙂

Thank you, Ath! Thanks also for your comments and careful reading of my story – always helpful for an author. And thanks to Jill, Sandra and Terrie for such evocative, enjoyable pieces.

Thanks, Janette!

Fuel

(385 words)

At dawn she was in the kitchen, a follow-on to hours of restlessness, the turning over under heavy blankets, a heart driven to pump quicker than usual, a fluttery stomach. She was sixteen. It was a relief to get up and do something.

The first person downstairs each morning had to check the Aga. The temperature gauge on its…[Read more]