Sandra

Thanks for a wonderful prompt Clebs. I thoroughly enjoyed writing my piece and it feels as though it might develop a bit. Plus, you got a pretty wonderful bunch of other entries. Well done all.

Well done, Ath. Great voice (as always!) And thanks, Clebs, for prompting me to write something (anything!) even though I had no idea where I was going with it 🙂 (The only thing I was sure about was that whoever Amelia is, she’s no benevolent being).

Sandra, I’d like to see more of yours if you develop it and Alex, good job on taking the…[Read more]

After the Gathering

There was never an invitation. No surprise email in your inbox, no speculative phone call while your mouth was full of the last of the chocolate brownies, and no snatched conversation as you unloaded your shopping in the supermarket queue.

‘Have you heard? Amelia’s having another one of her get-togethers this weekend. It see…[Read more]

After the Gathering

I shan’t go next year.

I mean, Tom wasn’t there. Jackie spent the whole evening talking to Spence and nobody can get a word in with those two. And Pete. That was a shock. Pete’s joined the choir eternal. Playing three-card brag with St Peter more like.

‘So you don’t have to.’ That was his thing. I remember when he broke hi…[Read more]

On my third attempt. The previous two kept wanting to turn into short stories!

Well done @clebs. I said it’s excellent – and it is!

Burn

The day the power went off for the last time, Dad started on about the country again.

“When did this country change?” he growled. “Things never used to be like this. This is Britain, how did it get so the electric doesn’t work?”

Gemma didn’t understood when he talked like this. It was like he felt the whole island was somehow the same. G…[Read more]

Admittedly the last edit I had done was via someone I have known for a while. But still, you are commissioning a job so it is up to you to tell them/ask them what you think is necessary.

I’d write along the lines of

Hey, Editor. Sort out this pile of horror for me, there’s a good fellow.

OK, OK. More along the lines of

Dear Editor

I got your…[Read more]

Thank you both, @richardb and @katemachon; Kate, the info on your process, experience and end results was especially illuminating. Thanks so much! ✨

I was just reading up on Gresford following this and noticed one striking coincidence. The name of an MP who castigated the mine’s management during a debate in parliament following the inquiry’s mealy-mouthed conclusions:

David Grenfell…

Great blog, Richard. As always. 🙂

Apologies, Alex. 190 words. Unfinished, indulgent and undoubtedly DQ’d, but I wanted you to know I made an effort 😊

UNTITLED

If he, Thomas Hicks, aged 52 years, 5 months and 19 days, were to try to recollect a time in the stoicism of his existence, when he had laughed such a laugh, he could not.

It was, for want of better description, a swallow…[Read more]

You have a calm, authoratative voice that is perfect for these blogs, Richard. I start one of these and it’s like eating something delicious: I can’t stop until it’s finished.

On the topic itself: it’s reassuring to think that we’ve come a long way since those unreconstructed days of holy capital. Then I consider the unreported disaster that has…[Read more]