Whitening as I watch

Perhaps it’s the unexpected sight from my window of freezing fog and fuzzy-damp trees that dictated my choice of winners this week: Jim’s decidedly chilling ‘Tonight’s prey’. My writing week went pear-shaped when I realised that, book 5 having reached 42K words, I'd started in the wrong place, the MC was not the man I thought he was and the plot needs a total overhaul. Luckily, my beta reader returned notes and comment on book 4 which was far easier to pay attention to.

Words for next week:  share  shelf  turpid

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 26th March, words and winners posted Friday 27th

 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 uses 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.

Black birds against spring sky

Another week of writing and reading richness and difficulty for me in choosing a winner from the many candidates, but while it was relatively easy to decide Terrie pipped the rest of you to the post, I was unable to decide which of hers – I was hovering between three – merited the topmost spot. So this is as much an award for  consistency as superb story-telling. Thank you all for so tirelessly posting and commenting each week; your participation propels this site to excellence.

Words for next week:  affect dregs journey

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 26th March, words and winners posted Friday 27th

 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 uses 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.

Batter mix

The cookery book my mother bought me before I married is still referred to every pancake day, its ‘beat until the bubbles rise, then allow to rest’ followed slavishly. Judging this week’s entries here had similarities, except that so many of them rose to the surface only to be succeeded by the next and it was hard to pick a single one as ‘best’. But having allowed myself a couple of winners for at least the last two weeks I thought I ought to be more definite, and eventually, Jim’s ‘The Dark Side’ created a the longest-lasting bubble.

Words for next week: carillon  mail  petulant

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 19th March, words and winners posted Friday 20th

 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 uses 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.

A blossoming without a doubt!

Apart from the exceptionally  rich landscape of entries this week, I was interested in John's picturing Terrie’s army of SAS armadillos in a meadow. I’d not previously put it into words, but I see their landscape as an ancient, sometimes jungly woodland, hillocky, and rocky and covering an area of several miles.  I suspect we’ll each have our own version which is part of the magic of reading stories (and, for me, one reason I fail to find film or tv adaptions satisfactory).

This week, the winners leapt out on first read, and stayed there despite many excellent contenders who halted me but didn’t change my mind. And as I cannot choose between them I declare Patricia’s ‘Siblings’ and John’s ‘Shot in the dark’ joint winners.

Words for next week: onus plumage vouch

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 12th March, words and winners posted Friday 13th

 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 uses 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.