Xander Michael

Alex – I know exactly what it’s like to have life throw a spanner in the works, so no apologies necessary.

Ath – Oh wow! Stalking Leviathan seems so long ago… *dashes off to recharge the Kindle so I can check which story you mean*

Apologies for being late back to this and thanks to everyone who entered (as well as those who didn’t enter but found the prompt useful). I’ll get onto the business of judging later today and post results by this evening ☺️

Hope this meets the challenge. It is approaching the end of my book Saving Grace, and has spoilers (in the event this thing gets published!). Pervious feedback said this scene felt too easy/convenient. Now, she panics and resists. I show her conflicts as she starts to make comparisons.

Untitled

While he drove, Michael told me about how he worked…[Read more]

I’m now almost halfway through Salter’s ‘Collected Stories’ and can understand how the short, sharp sentences make an impact, but I find most of his characters, male and female, seem a bit self-obsessed, and, for me, there is over-much description (as is often the case with American literature.) At least they are readable! Some time since I read…[Read more]

@ Daeds and Libby,

re James Salter, 2/3 years ago II read and was impressed by a short story featured in a newspaper. Eagerly borrowed ‘A sport and a pastime’ from the library and found it  heavy-going. Couple of months ago I bought his ‘Collected Stories, but have yet to begin it, but hope to do so with an eye to his style..

I’m not at all sure I’ve fully adhered to the brief, but this scraping of possibilities from my current wip is  the best I can do, before I leave the country 😉

Scene:

Need for a wee had Lucy check the time. Half ten. She’d been lying in her bed for more than two hours. Not moved since she’d taken refuge. Since hearing the click of the stre…[Read more]

Oh, EXCELLENT idea Sea – 0nly problem now, which do I choose??

Yes, I’ve got ??? : -)

Anyone else getting question marks instead of the smiley face?

Oh, crikey! This has caught me on the hop. Such a great catch of entries!

Squidge – thanks for the prompts. I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to do them justice.

Libby, Sandra, Janette and Alex – there wasn’t a single story I wouldn’t have picked to be a winner ????

Congratulations @ Seagreen, and thank you Squidge for prompt words, comments  and competition – a lot of fascinating uses of the three words.

UNTITLED (300 words)

Betty Hoskins – aged 95 years – and probably a pipe smoker for the last 85 of them. She’s at the allotments, perched on a ragged, weather-beaten wicker armchair beneath an arch of bamboo rods and green netting, enveloped in a haze of what she calls her ‘medicinal’ blend.

It’s late evening, the sun is bedding down behi…[Read more]

Strange tastes

Oh, I did miss my Bert. Watching him through the window, wheelbarrow-in-hand, shaping our garden into all sorts of strangeness: gaudy, modern art in bloom.

Me, I preferred order. Neatness. A little chintz perhaps; a Capo Di Monte on the sideboard. ‘Let go, Pammy! Unstiffen your lip,’ Bert would say while waltzing me roun…[Read more]

Yes, thank you, Sandra, for a prompt which took me on a tangent I quite enjoyed!

And congratulations, Squidge. Well deserved!

Congratulations to Squidge for winning and to the rest of us simply for being amazing ????

Also thanks to Sandra for shooing me in an unexpected direction ☺️