Elle

I have tried for years to get into the habit of using notebooks. Success has been limited. Yes, I can write and I know how to write in a notebook. I also know how to carry things, especially in pockets. I certainly have thoughts that I think, ‘Ooh, that would be good in a story’. If only I could get, carrying the notebook and writing in the…[Read more]

Mishaping to fit

Only as he pushed open the door into Haugesund’s Folkepuben, his mind occupied not only with what he needed to establish with Lars Sigmundssen but also a slightly fearful curiosity as to how Lars would react to his having slept with Maja, Lars’ current woman, was Rick Thorssen reminded, by the roar of convivial con…[Read more]

My route.

Life’s not so bad. Not anymore. Not now that I’ve got a job and a place to live. The job’s easy enough. I have a route and a barrow. I wheel the barrow to the start of the route and then I clear the rubbish along the whole of it. Some people here don’t manage it for long. They say it’s too tiring, or too boring, or we’re expected to…[Read more]

Great prompt, Terrie. Well done, Sea, absolutely well deserved. For my part it was fun to relax with a bit of 1960s -style pulp sci-fi 🙂

Thank you for this challenge Terrie, and your kind comments; I was glad of the opportunity to make best use of it. Well done Sea – and never doubt those who have read you KNOW full well you are indeed a talented and sparkling writer, and thank you Ath for evoking. albeit dimly, the challenges of childhood.

The Leap

Before I knew what The Leap was, I thought it was magic. Like I thought magic was a real thing. Me and Cob and Dez and Piggy were all under ten years old. I mean, I didn’t know what a year was. That was an earth thing. Piggy was nine, and he said that a year was like four and a bit turns of the stars. Turns were an asteroid thing, a K…[Read more]

Cheeky leap into an attempt of an opener for ‘Snap is not a children’s game’ 

Vic Duncan. Did Lucy but know it, the first of three Duncan men she’d sleep with before she died, possibly dangerous, but an especially satisfying addition to her habitual  maintenance of a quartet of alphabetically consecutively-named lovers.

It began in the final yea…[Read more]

Well done, @purplewitch. That was an excellent return to the monthly competition 🙂

Liked that prompt @pinkbelt. Super bunch of entries this month.

Congratulations Terrie – a tale that got richer with every re-reading, as did those of Alex at Ath. And thank you Pinkbelt for the challenge.

First of all, thanks for allowing me to come back into the fold and do this. I’d forgotten how much fun these are, and I can’t believe just how much people can express in so few words. I loved all of them in different ways.

Sandra, I found your piece thoughtful and intriguing. I love the part of writing when you revisit a character to find out a…[Read more]

The Return

Brenda’s dad died in 1983, so when he returned forty years later, it was a bit of a nuisance. Brenda woke up and went down to make a cup of tea. She was rather surprised to see him sitting in the kitchen looking out of the window.

‘You’ve let the garden go,’ he said without looking round. Then he did look round, and he added, ‘Bloody…[Read more]

Retrieving memories

When on the Word Cloud, in 2014, Alan P proposed the challenge ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’, I was in need of an explanation as to why Luke Darbyshere ( DI and main character in my ‘Love triangles with murder series) regularly sabotaged relationships at the point when they looked like becoming meaningful. His upbring…[Read more]

Have to confess I avoid much of that for Steve, by ordering and collecting the books I want and handing them over for him to ‘hide’ (recognising he is doubly challenged by my having a birthday five days before Christmas.)

Every year I aim to be organised (see Terrie above) and pick presents well in advance. The practice is different. I may not be quite as bad as the proverbial desparate man, the evening before, in the petrol station shop, but I’m cutting it close.

@ Terrie – I second Ath’s recommendation for hard drives: the one my thoughtful elder son bought for me, having listened to my moans, scrambled its contents when my laptop blew several gaskets.

@Athelstone – “gift lists for next year” not illegal, they masquerade as Amazon wish lists, ready to be re-written for handing to my local bookshop.

By the way, ” I’ve even written my gift list for next year”. I believe this is actually against the law.