John S Alty

Thanks for this. I remember your ‘The Truth About…’ blogs on the Cloud, and used to enjoy them immensely: perceptive (Isn’t hindsight wonderful?), moving, and uncompromisingly honest. This one is no exception.

And yes, there has been a sad dearth of blogs lately. Maybe it’s time for another tale of the rails…

Great stuff. Very readable, with enough mini-ouches to keep us viscerally involved.

Memories, memories

Through a mane of blonde hair, through streaks of bleached and of darker dyed strands, her eyes flickered upwards. “Can I help you, sir?”

Behind me the door hissed shut expensively, hinges well greased by wills and probates. “Do yer know where Bryant Street is?”

“I umm… don’t know.” She bent her head back down to the screen…[Read more]

That looks amazing, congratulations @katemachon !

Here is the link to the Corrugated Sky Urban Fantasy book my short story Changing Gabe is included in. Some of you will have come across it in Athelstone’s Room with a View writing challenge at the beginning of the year.

The theme for the anthology was Sass and Magic. If that tickles your fancy, I hope you will go and take a look.

It feels a bit…[Read more]

Yin and Yang

A gurgle of whiskey titillated the silence, ending with a full stop tap of glass on glass. Darrol picked up the tumbler and drifted over to the window, mind still emersed in his Yin and Yang infatuation. Her long blond hair against his dark skin; her crystal cry above his leather groan, their lovemaking uniting them – like the i…[Read more]

Untitled (314 words)

We’d been to Tesco’s. A late night shopping trip. I bought a ready meal and a soft, fluffy scarf in shades of blue and grey. In the car home we talked about a chip shop tea and the possibility of potato fritters.
‘Your grandad used to make potato fritters,’ I said. ‘As a special treat. Mixed up the batter and did them in t…[Read more]

This only 269 words but says what I intended

Time to play

Clearing a 25 year-old to-be-replaced kitchen, and the resultant sense of temporary displacement, gave time and focus to a wider realisation of things no longer needed. Delays gave more time than anticipated to jettison stuff, then the lovely announcement of a visit from good friends from…[Read more]

Good job, Ath 🙂
And thanks, Squidge. I’ll never look at a paint colour quite the same way again!

Well done, Athelstone. And thank you, Squidge.

Nice work Ath 🙂

Thanks Libby and Sandra – and once again, thanks to Squidge!

October beckons.

Congratulations on the win Ath, and for what it’s worth I found it uncomfortably horrific in its pervasive cult brainwashing manipulation – the sort of thing I usually avoid reading and very definitely cannot write, so am as admiring as I am uncomfortble with it.

And thanks Squidge for the competition which I took as opportunity to try out a…[Read more]

I very much like your story, Ath, exactly because of the problems you comment on. The twist worked really well for me, and I often don’t really enjoy such stories because the twist feels tacked on. This one, though, feels integral to what’s gone before. I also enjoyed it as a horror story but that was secondary for me. I could be over analysing…[Read more]

I might be a bit over sensitive, but it’s the kind of trope that surfaces when feelings are being tested: stories about minorities and their secret evil ways. The classic cases would be all the tales of alien mind-control and body take over that were so popular during the anti-communist frenzy in the US during the late 40s and 50s, or the ‘Yellow…[Read more]

Well done Athers and everyone else. I do love these monthly competitions if only to keep the old grey cells rattling around but especially to see other interpretations of the prompts that always intrigue this reader. So, thanks to all for the pleasure and thanks, Squidge for a great idea.

Thanks for a fab competition, Squidge. You’ve brought a tear to my eye. I’ve been doing the monthly competition for nearly 10 years, although with fewer entries in the last few months, and this is my first win! There were some super entries this month; I’m really pleased.

I re-read my entry and worried that it might be steering too close to the…[Read more]