Knicks

Thanks @Libby. It was fun to write.

@Sandra, thank you! I enjoyed this prompt.

@Ath, really enjoyable story with a subtle air of menace

@Knicks, I liked the idea of a librarian having such a double-life.

I’ll post the prompt for this month now.

Well done, Sandra. Another great competition. And well done to my co-competitors. Two top-notch entries. Congratulations, Alex. A nice twisty yarn!

Only three entries depicting Andrew’s possible future, but each of a quality and breadth of imagination that makes the judging, the choosing of a “winner” extremely difficult.
Knicks opening sentence an instant hook, her choice of verbs ¬– “breathing hitched”, corner of mouth “kicked up” – is inspirational, and Andrew initially appears to have co…[Read more]

My One and Only Love. That’s from the Cloud and all the way back to 2014/2015.

And congratulations to you too, Ath. Which story is yours? It did strike me that at least one of the titles had your ring to it, but I might have been completely off-beam so I ain’t sayin’.

Congratulations, Richard. It’s a powerful story that deserves recognition.

I see from the website that my entry has been longlisted, too, which feels rather good. I didn’t recognise any of the other titles.

Andrew, 1975

It’s February, and evening is upon us. Andrew goes unnoticed. Pedestrians streaming by the Palace Theatre barely even see a youth leaning against the wall. Some look towards him, but they are peering through the glass doors. Maybe they are wondering whether Jesus Christ Superstar is worth the ticket price. The traffic sweeping a…[Read more]

Yeah, I think recruiting people to a Discord group is much easier than to a website, tbh. I spend more time in my discord group than I do any online group, mainly because it’s an app & I can do it easily when I’m away from my laptop. Partly because it facilitates chat in a way websites, however well constructed, just don’t. And where I am now, I’m…[Read more]

There’s a lot to be said for Discord. There are a number of pages I visit regularly. I don’t imagine it would suit some of our members, but there may be no alternative in a year’s time.

Just wanted to extend my appreciation to Ath and Jules for starting & maintaining/updating/supporting this place. I’m afraid I have very much drifted off, largely just because of the other demands on my writing time. It’s nice to know this place is here & I look forward to the annual challenges, but I honestly don’t spend enough time here to be…[Read more]

A Sneeze with Open Eyes

Everything is a lie. Even the sky being blue is a lie. It’s violet. I read that on the Internet. The problem with lies is they’re easy to tell. Like yesterday, a man claimed he sneezed with open eyes.

The easiest five hundred dollars I’ll make. That was a lie.

“So, you want me to believe you didn’t know the contents of…[Read more]

I too fail to understand what ‘static’ is supposed to mean in this context, or why it should apply to present tense. I have no problem whatever with reading present tense stories: sometimes I think I even prefer them. With past tense you’re always at one remove, as if listening to someone tell a story. Present tense is immersive, immediate. After…[Read more]