Not sure if you know, Ath, but positive feedback for specific nurses ‘Natalie did this, Esme supported me with that’ can be used for their revalidation. Just saying. ☺️

All words taken from Rod Judkins’ The Art of Creative Thinking.

DRIBBLES AND SPATTERS

Inner demons

chisel

creative confidence

Ideas so strange

wither.

Radiate defiance

Salvage mistakes with freedom

and

transform the message

Come alive!

The Book Thief

@Jill – Good to see you back, and thank you for diving back into the monthly comp with your tale of Lucia. I confess to knowing nothing about Vestal Virgins, but your entry has definitely piqued my curiosity and I’m sure there’s a much larger…[Read more]

I promise it’ll be done today…

‘There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.’  Washington Irving…[Read more]

So thanks, Ath, for the comp and for that WTH!? moment when I got home from work 😃 and thanks to everyone else for inspiring me to try in the first place. I’l…[Read more]

Contains an obscenity

Today is the last day I will beat myself up over this.

It’s the last day I’ll say sorry for hurting you, as if I haven’t said sorry a million times already.

It’s the last time I’ll try to make amends for something you will never forgive me for.

It’s the last time I’ll go to bed and wonder how di…[Read more]

Thanks to Libby for challenging my poor sluggish brain cells with an extraordinary prompt, and to Sandra for an excellent read.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.

Scrub the parsnips thoroughly, top and tail, then cut in half lengthways.

It’s Mum’s old recipe. I’ve never used it before, but George’s parents are coming for dinner and his dad is especially fond of roast parsnips, apparently. Or so George would have me believe. Honestly? I think i…[Read more]

Fantastic entries from everyone else! You motivated me to (try to!) do better.

for the screaming of a girl

and run out of your flat

to an empty landing”

you will turn your head this way and that and peer over the railing to the stairwell below,

seeing no-one, hearing nothing, not even an echo of the sound you followed in the first place. You will grasp the red-painted railing with both…[Read more]

Still time to access your inner burglar and be the next Frodo Baggins ????

To the ones who don’t run with the popular crowd,

the ones who get caught reading under their desks,

the ones who feel like they never get invited, included, or represented.

Get your leathers. We have dragons to ride.

400 words or less on if, and how, you or your MC would…[Read more]

Richard, thank you for the comp and for your kind words. I did try to steer clear of that particular subject matter but, ultimately, it was the only thing that remained front and centre when all the other ideas had scarpered.

Strong field this month and all so marvellously different!…[Read more]

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Lumpy pillows in torn, unidentifiable protective fabric, stuffed into too-small pillow cases. A saggy, foam mattress, plastic-coated and marinated in dilute bleach. A side-room with a window looking onto the whitewashed wall on the other side of the hospital and a door that opens d…[Read more]

Sandra and Ath, thanks for entering – and both with a hair-related topic! ???? Alex, no worries. I’ll catch you next time.

Sandra – your chosen article left me gobsmacked. Clearly, I have been a victim of this. Brainwashed into keeping my hair short because my good looks are a threat to other women. I’ll be on…[Read more]

Thanks also to Terrie, Libby and Alex. I would have been more than happy to say I’d written any one of yours ☺️

He wakes. Slowly. Reluctantly. To a feeling of being underground. Air heavy and thick with dust. Throat dry and aching. Eyes full of grit.

He is pinned, lying sideways on a surface, twisted and unforgiving, one arm beneath his hip and the other across his chest. He cannot feel his feet,…[Read more]

Thank you, Sandra, for the comp, and for allowing me to imagine another Piety/Freedom Jones episode.

And thanks to all the entrants for being amazing writers and keeping me inspired  🙂

‘Seriously, Dom, you’re going to want to know about this.’

Virgil’s words tumbled out with enough agitation to stir, not only my curiosity, but something in the darker recesses of my mind.

‘Piety’s back.’

***

Piety – Prototype 1: Experimental Transcendent Interface. An engineered being of such incredible power, I had…[Read more]

For a variety of reasons, I never studied Shakespeare at school and had to go off and read a sonnet (or two!) to gauge the appropriate level of thees, thines and thous.

Ath and Terrie – both delicious reads!

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Nay. Thrice nay, unless that day be cold and dreich.

Then shall I liken thee to the first rose of summer? Nay, again, save that bloom be not perfect and proud but…[Read more]

And congratulations to Libby for winning, and the rest of us for giving it a go ????

They closed the Winter Gardens. Lack of funding or resources or some other bullshit excuse. Redundancy notices for the gardeners who’d been there for years, and redeployment to grass-cutting duties for the young apprentices who still didn’t know their aquilegia from their allium. They stored the tools in the old stable buil…[Read more]

All the entries left me wishing I’d given you more words to play with since each of them teased with hidden depths.

Ath – so easy to read (as ever!) Engaging, apparently effortless writing, but so many questions! Who was this man? Where did he come from and where would he end up?  More importan…[Read more]