Mezzanine in Cardiff Bay

I’m spending a long, leisurely weekend with my daughter and although 6.30 is a slightly unsociable time to be putting the light on in an apartment whose sleeping areas are on a mezzanine floor, I've done so. 
In a week of a surprisingly high political content, I declare Chris this week's winner, but, as a crossword fan, can't resist mentioning Bill's intricate, enjoyable piece. 

Words for the coming week are: barrel,  plural, scant

Entries by midnight Thursday October 1st , new words and winners posted on Friday 2nd

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialized fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and use of the words and stems are fine. Feel free to post links to your stories on Twitter or Facebook or whichever social media best pleases you and, if you like, remind your friends that we are open to new and returning writers.

Clouds pink and blue this morning

Yet another week rich in high quality entries, but for once I had less of a problem selecting a winner: Kai’s eighth episode of The Immortal, with Death’s snapping fingers, was so instantly knock-out. Which isn’t to say I didn’t appreciate (among many others) Antonia’s fuse-woven beard. ‘Hirsute’, as well as an ugly word, was extraordinarily difficult to  use with any finesse, wasn’t it? (But I now need to check the definition of 'moribund')

btw - if you post an entry in the ‘wrong’ place - so easy to do! - and want to repost, I can easily tidy up by deleting the  misplaced one, so long as it doesn’t have comments.

  

Words for the coming week are: accent, elect, moribund

Entries by midnight Thursday September 24th , new words and winners posted on Friday 25th

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialized fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and use of the words and stems are fine. Feel free to post links to your stories on Twitter or Facebook or whichever social media best pleases you and, if you like, remind your friends that we are open to new and returning writers.

Hours a little flexible

Dark mornings (and lacking the urgency of novel words to leap me out of bed) delays this weekly announcement by an hour or two, and I’m happy to grant a little leeway to those on other time zones, so long as they’re in when I come to judge. (Regulars will have noted I don’t formally close the gates since I’m almost always sound asleep by midnight.)

I’m happier still to welcome returnees Patricia, Tim and Bill and newcomer Kerry, I've added Michael Brown's link to the sidebar and will gladly do so for others, should you wish; also, I thank you for an unanticipated definition of ‘tilt’.

There were several sorts of horror this week;  for me the most awful to contemplate was the mounting awareness of abandonment, so I’m declaring Bill's entry the winner, with Patricia’s elegant ‘The Grand Illusion’ as runner-up.

Next week’s words are: hirsute, punch and wheel

Entries by midnight Thursday September 17th , new words and winners posted on Friday 18th

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialized fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and use of the words and stems are fine. Feel free to post links to your stories on Twitter or Facebook or whichever social media best pleases you and, if you like, remind your friends that we are open to new and returning writers.

Starlings: Pointillist skywriting

And Orkney – indeed Scotland – seems to have more than its fair share of such invigorating aerobatics, sufficient to get me up in the middle of the night to jot down words which might otherwise be lost. Hence the lateness of this.

And invigorating were the entries this week, each and every one giving me a buzz of pleasure and excitement. So, hard as ever to choose one above the rest, but because I’ve known Michael aka MDJB’s writing for many years, and can see the ‘Prediction effect’ on the piece he submitted here this week, I’m selecting him.

Next week’s words are: evergreen, redundant and tilt

Entries by midnight Thursday September 10th, new words and winners posted on Friday 11th

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialized fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and use of the words and stems are fine. Feel free to post links to your stories on Twitter or Facebook or whichever social media best pleases you and, if you like, remind your friends that we are open to new and returning writers.