Pre-dawn on a midsummer morning, Tait Duncan, drove  south-east along an A1 empty of all but Highlands-bound supermarket wagons, conscience similarly uncluttered by the lie he’d last night told his wife as to the reason for his early morning departure. (In what had become th…[Read more]

Thanks for setting the comp, Sandra. Congratulations also to Ath and Terrie.

Looking forward  to  seeing the prompt  for June .

  Songs from the charts  31st  October   1998  – 

Aerosmith   ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’

Bachman Turner Overdrive – ‘You aint seen nothing yet.’

Contains one, bleeped, swear word.

True   story

This story involves my youngest daughter, who’s the sassy, won’t give an inch if she thinks she is in the right, type, and the anniversar…[Read more]

‘Got to get you into my life!’ sings Mum. She and Dad have brought me, newborn, from the hospital. She sits at the kitchen table, cradling me, delivering the loud lullaby.

Or so she tells me, when I’m seven. We’re at the table again. I say, ‘I was already in your life. In your tummy and then ou…[Read more]

I hope you’re able to enjoy…[Read more]

But there’s another option. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann is the German bestselling novel for adults which the film is…[Read more]

I’ve been on blood thinners (apixaban) since I was admitted to hospital. My problem is that the hospital doctors didn’t share any plan for dealing with the existing clots which have blocked two major veins to the liver. I strongly suspect that they were anticipating a worse outcome from the endoscopy and…[Read more]

Take care.

Today I had the endoscopy which I believe some of the doctors in my hospital thought would show cancer. the symptoms were all lined up. There was even consistent evidence from CAT scans and other X-rays. To be fair to them, they never said that, though they always…[Read more]

Stuart’s story

People call me Plug ‘cos they reckon I look like Plug from the Bash Street Kids I ain’t never seen him, so I don’t know. Stuart’s my real name, and I just done three months in nick for something I ain’t done. Possessio…[Read more]

1)  choose  a  significant anniversary in your life:  e.g.  birthday,  wedding, first child: graduation – then,

2 ) Google the UK Top 10 singles chart for that week.

3) select two, three or four  song titles  from that list and,

4) use them (loosely if necessary!) as a basis for  a short story, of…[Read more]

Thank you , Terrie, both for the challenge and your comments on both my entry and Jill’s excellently crafted, sensitive  story. I’ll aim to set something for June by the end of today.

Sandra, I loved…[Read more]

Crikey Moses, William, I’m heart-heartedly glad to hear you are home and hopefully on your way to some sort of recovery – what a torrid time you and your family must have gone through, and thank you for updating us so vividly.

Sendng love and the most healingest of good wishes

Sandra

So many people have asked, ‘What’s wrong with you’ and ‘Why are you still in hospital?’, (I’m out now) that I thought a small blog might help. Don’t get me wrong, there are many people, including on this site, who have had worse problems, often for longer. But I’ve never been this ill, so I’ll press on.

In the beginning, at the very tail end…[Read more]

‘Gobsmacked’ the inelegant word that came to mind when I read the letter. What else would you expect , being told your three year-old daughter’s poem had been awarded first prize ?  A prize  which earned her up to three sittings with well-renowned portrait artist Bernard Broom. Especially when I’d not an inkling she’d  written any…[Read more]

I  decided  not  to go with  the  traditional  kinds of  prompts  associated  with  April  and  simply   picked  four words  at random  that must be included  in  your comp  entry  about  anything  in any genre  that inspires  your  creative  preference in 450 words or less.

The four words are :-   Portrait  Ignite  Butterfly & Granite

&nbsp…[Read more]

The  April  comp   challenge   will be posted  shortly .

Thank you, Janette, for stepping in. Btw does Ath know he doesn’t have to worry about judging?

How about finding another judge?

Could anyone else reading this be willing to judge the comp? Five delightful entries. Then the winner can set the April comp.

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

499 words

My sister’s boyfriend dumped her so she booked a day at a willow-weaving workshop – in the countryside, calming and therapeutic. She’d make a sculpture of a hare though she’d never seen one in real life. Ironic, I thought, as she’d never seen herself either.

I admit the dumping had been nasty. Sis waiting to meet the…[Read more]

The necklace of tiny silver bells about her neck tinkled softly as she backed against the garden wall. ‘You’re all mad, you know,’ she muttered holding the sharp seed dibber, labelled ‘Mr Pointy’, like a knife at the advancing crowd.

At the front of the group,…[Read more]

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]