Hilary

Having heard Athelstone indisposed again, it’s unlikely he’ll be be judging  this any time soon

Damn! It messed with my formatting 🙁

The madness is all mine for thinking I could do this!

All words taken from Rod Judkins’ The Art of Creative Thinking.

DRIBBLES AND SPATTERS

Inner demons

chisel

creative confidence

Ideas so strange

wither.

Radiate defiance

Salvage mistakes with freedom

and

transform the message

Come alive!

Not yet mad enough …

Wine-heavy eyes and naked, she was cleaning her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror when he came in through the door behind her.   He stood behind her, serious-faced, saying nothing, but unignorably attentive.   She finished brushing. Spat, rinsed and spat a couple more times then put the toothbrush back in the glass on…[Read more]

Madness on the Ides of March

493 words excluding title

All those years ago she had been teased relentlessly by friends about her wedding date, the Ides of March.   ‘Beware!’ they had warned her.  ‘You must be mad,’ they said, laughing.

But here the happy couple of that March day were, celebrating a Big O anniversary and enjoying a holiday in t…[Read more]

Congratulations, Athelstone –  well deserved.  Peeked at your March challenge and looking forward to meeting it.   Sandra, I loved your intriguing extract from what I presume is a finished novel or one in progress?  Thank you Libby for the February competition which I enjoyed entering and for your kind comments.  Very interested in your inte…[Read more]

Thank you for such a satisfactory February topic, Libby, and for your generous appraisal! I loved the other two entries; they could easily have won.

Congratulations, Ath – more Teabreak always welcome, and well done Jill for so richly regarding the rules. Thanks Libby for appreciating my desire to take part, but this extract the only one I could recall which specifically mentioned ‘loving’

Teabreak in love

Maureen Chapman. No, tell a lie, it was Chaplain, like a vicar. Her name, I mean—she wasn’t like a vicar. Anyway, Maureen Chaplain was perfect from my ten-year-old point of view. But I’m getting all jumbled up about how to start, so I’ll take a breath. See, it really began when the Brazells moved out from next door and the Cha…[Read more]

‘Snap’ snippet

From the steps of Leith’s registry Office, exceeding the word count and containing expletives, but the best I can do given other demands.  

Then, hand in hand, another looking-to-be-wed couple arrived from the rear carpark. On foot and windblown,  Well-matched in the scruffiness of their clothes. Even earlier for their ceremony th…[Read more]

Terrie, I had a tricky January but that’s no excuse. Sorry for missing a super monthly comp. Well done Libby, a really great entry. Well done all.

LOVE

399 words

Isabel woke from her nap to be greeted by the sweet scent of freesias.  Sunlight was flooding into the bedroom she now occupied in her daughter’s home.  Isabel was very old and frail, but still mentally astute and the scent of the delicate flowers which she had always loved set off a raft of thoughts about love.

She associated f…[Read more]

Congratulations, Libby – I, too, winced but enjoyed the humour in your story.  I enjoyed Sandra’s offering also and even picked up a discarded copy of Anna Karenina after the mention, but could not get into it I fear.  Thank you,Terrie for setting the challenge and for the kind comments.  Mine was fiction but did have echos of much earlier life ex…[Read more]

Well done Libby, like Terrie my mind was contorting to keep up; the wellies adding much to the scene. And thank you Terrie for a theme which was instantly  fulfilled (and I’m still re-reading and finding further inspiration, except I can’t get my head around irony)

I know that feeling. I was also a government employee who found himself parcelled up and sold to the highest bidder, or at least the one that made the most empty promises and said the things that our betters at the high table wanted to hear. I recall now how our managers queued up to tell us what a good thing it was and, yes, they used that exact…[Read more]