JT.

Salter is an author I’ve never read. 90% of my favourite                                                                                                                                                   contemporary authors are women, but that may be as much about genre as gender. I read very few thrillers or crime novels, and only occasional l…[Read more]

Salter is very much a writer of men. I was somewhat horrified by his treatment of women in All There Is (although there’s always a detachment to his writing that means it’s never entirely clear who his sympathies lie with). I find his earlier work rather tighter.

Sandra, interesting you say that about unconscious influence from books you read years ago. I’m generally reluctant to specify my influences because I’m certain that I don’t know who all of them are. On more than one occasion I’ve reread something I read in my youth but had only the haziest memory of. And, to my horror, encountered somethi…[Read more]

I wrote a short story with an MC lacking almost all redeeming qualities. It didn’t go down too well, although I quite enjoyed writing it. Patricia Highsmith’s writing is wonderful. Tom Ripley is a work of genius.

Also, hello stranger. How’s it going?

Anyone else getting question marks instead of the smiley face?

Oh, crikey! This has caught me on the hop. Such a great catch of entries!

Squidge – thanks for the prompts. I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to do them justice.

Libby, Sandra, Janette and Alex – there wasn’t a single story I wouldn’t have picked to be a winner ????

A great batch of entries. Sadly, my good idea didn’t finally coalesce until I was dozing off last night.

UNTITLED (300 words)

Betty Hoskins – aged 95 years – and probably a pipe smoker for the last 85 of them. She’s at the allotments, perched on a ragged, weather-beaten wicker armchair beneath an arch of bamboo rods and green netting, enveloped in a haze of what she calls her ‘medicinal’ blend.

It’s late evening, the sun is bedding down behi…[Read more]

Congratulations to Squidge for winning and to the rest of us simply for being amazing ????

Also thanks to Sandra for shooing me in an unexpected direction ☺️

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

Thanks for the prompt, Sandra. Enjoyed it this month. And very well done to Squidge. A worthy winner!