Emma Robinson

Oh blimey! Did not expect that at all… Wow, thanks, Sandra.

Everyone else’s was fab. Feel a bit of a fraud having popped in here for the first time in ages and getting to set this month’s challenge, but I’ll do my best x

Congratulations @squidge  A fabulously tense story.

Thank you Sandra for setting such an interesting challenge.

Not quite sure where this was going, but it felt good to respond to a prompt for the first time in ages… Also not sure why only a bit of the text unbolded when I was aiming for the lot! Ah well…

“In a yellow rectangle, in the black facade of a house, a woman is laying a table.”

He could have picked any window, of any house, in any str…[Read more]

Picture Gap

296 words 

The woman standing at the dining table carries an unsmiling, get-to-work concentration. Her hair is grabbed into an updo clip, and beneath a lit pendant lampshade she shifts paperbacks from the tabletop into a box, tucking away volumes of sky-blue, white and pink. Beach reads.

The woman, or someone, has chosen Scandi…[Read more]

Some more thought on influences. In a way every novel and short story I’ve enjoyed is an influence in a composting kind of way. That’s not very helpful here though.

Carys Davies’ short stories. I tried to improve one of my own stories this morning and for inspiration I once again looked at the openings of several of hers.

Katherine Mansfield.…[Read more]

I agree, John, this is a difficult one. I’ll have to think about it.

Some influence comes from writers whose style I don’t like. I make mental notes not to do things like ‘whoever’ (they’ll remain nameless :-))

Then there’s the memory of a feeling a book created at the time I read it.  They include authors I couldn’t or don’t feel drawn to read…[Read more]

July monthly comp reminder – three more days to post an entry 🙂

Tell a story of building work that suffers some kind of mix up. The wrong site, the wrong builder – anything you like.

Deadline midnight 31st July.

300 words maximum