Friday: Good and wet

Well, who’d have thought such innocuous words as fledgling, prick and transfer would have brought forth such a rich diversity of entrants and a wealth of reading?

I should be used to it, but once again I found myself struggling to pick a winner this week. Eventually, I settled for two runners-up: John for ‘Where’s the Body?’, its use of menace and, as Jim said, such wonderfully-chosen verbs, and Joe’s ‘Bad Luck’ for effective dialogue and the magnificent kick of its ending. The winner , who excelled herself this week, is Zaiure, for ‘Combust' – rich and delicious.

And thank you all for so assiduously commenting each week – bringing the essential life blood to this blog.

Words for next week: grunt jettison Saturn

Entries by midnight Thursday 5th April winners and words posted Friday 6th

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. Serialised 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 you prefer.

Horror comes in many forms

From a group of 15 other attendees and a tutor I was the only one who’d neither read not seen ’Silence of the Lambs.’ So I bought an omnibus which also contained ‘Red Dragon’ which my son said I should read first. I have tried, but ...

So it was a pleasure to return to this week’s offerings here, and instead judge these for their nightmare qualities. It doesn’t need to be blood and gore: Jim Deegan’s  ‘Sweet Revenge’, in which my namesake (not that that was relevant!) ‘raggedly pieced herself together’, truly held the quality of nightmare.

Words for next week: fledgling prick transfer

Entries by midnight Thursday 29th March winners and words posted Friday 30th

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. Serialised 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 you prefer.

In the event of ...

Another tricky choice! Many thanks for such a varied and imaginative response to last week’s words, and for your care in commenting on others’ posts. This week’s winner, after the usual see-sawing between possibilities, is Patricia’s ‘False Sense Of Security’, which sounds as if it had been inspired by her dizziness from the previous week (although there was no lack of pain in other entries!).

Words for next week: commission  pelvis  yesterday

Entries by midnight Thursday 22nd March winners and words posted Friday 23rd

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. Serialised 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 you prefer.

Anvil no longer required

I’m at a Crimewriting weekend near Gretna this weekend. Four of my favourite writers running workshops and twenty-nine fellow would-be crime writers participating. As a consequence I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to properly judge and pick a winner – maybe not until Monday. In the meantime, however, you need words to spin and weave into something so ...

Words for next week: obdurate pound waffle

Entries by midnight Thursday 15th March winners and words posted Friday 16th

and I'm awake early, as per usual, with time to say I pick Jim Deegan's 'Invitation' as this week's winner and Joe's 'Man for Hire' as runner up. Thank you all for another entertaining week.

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. Serialised 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 you prefer.

If symptoms persist ...

At the risk of repeating myself, it has been another week of hard choices, of reading and re-reading, seeking a minuscule reason to move a post down from first place. Needless to say, it didn’t happen. Five went to four to three and the final two were agonising to tell apart. In the end, I chose John for his ‘Daughters of Anguish’ but have to confess David was so close behind as to be treading on their heels.

Words for next week: affair orifice pedestal

Entries by midnight Thursday 8th March winners* and words posted Friday 9^th

*I shall be at a writing retreat way from Thursday to Sunday next week. Words will definitely be scheduled, and if I don’t find time before, winners by Monday.

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. Serialised 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 you prefer.