"Brought to you by courtesy of …"

Words for next week, that is. I brought up a blank page to begin to write this, decided another chore needed attending to first and, in the process, gleaned words which accompanied action. Plenty action in this week’s entries, but the darkness – and the potential – of Jim’s ‘Go figure’ propelled it to top place.

As ever, I thank you for your  continuation – this site healthier by far than others I visit, a true indication we are first and foremost writers, more interested in doing so than images of  … kittens …

Words for next week: clatter, fingernail, pure  

Entries by midnight Thursday 2nd July , words and winners posted Friday 26th

 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.

Weather to be coloured in

A week of waking to pale grey skies which offer only the dreariness of dishcloths, and hinting at November, except it is not cold and the lush greenness of full-leaved trees is incongruous.  That not the reason, but despite a couple of days usefully drawing flow charts I’ve made no progress with ‘Snap’ and resorted again (and happily) to editing ‘Drink with a dead man’ – all but done and awaiting the attentions of one of my beta readers.

This weeks’ winners arrived at with a little less trauma too: David’s ‘The Generation Game’ takes top spot for providing a novel quantity of remarkable story in just 100 words, and very different but equally as entertaining, Terrie’s 'The Secret Armadillo Soldier (SAS) Diaries - entry 110' scampers up in second place.

Words for next week: interfere kitten profile

Entries by midnight Thursday 25th June , words and winners posted Friday 26th

 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.

running late today

so I’ll just post last week’s equally merit-earning winners, which were John’s ‘Utopia USA’ and Patricia’s  Cripplegate Junction episode 234 –– and come back to tidy up later.

I was glad to see the Shadow had other plans for Jim and totally agree with his comment about the wonderful verbs choice of Patricia’s – I read somewhere that’s possible the most important thing for vivid writing.

Words for next week:  distinguish pursue, sodden

Entries by midnight Thursday 18th June , words and winners posted Friday 19th

 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.

Inspiration: the act of breathing in

Adding up to ninety-seven words to the three provided, and crafting them to the standard most of us achieve here, on a regular basis, is no mean feat. For myself, there are occasions when an opening sentence arrives in an instant, and the rest follows, needing only a minimum amount of polish. Other times (on a ratio of approximately 7:1) it takes days for a story to emerge; another for the lumpiness to be beaten out, but as the standard of entries rises it becomes more imperative that I do so. In turn I thank those of you who do likewise. The prompt words themselves are mostly culled from cryptic crosswords, book or CD titles, and I do aim to include one verb and a couple of words that do not obviously combine. That you so frequently do precisely that is credit to your powers of inventiveness; no wonder they are occasionally capricious.

The winner this week, from a slightly smaller field, is Jim for what I very much hope is not the end of The Shadow Series.

Words for next week:  blanket lacerate Victorian

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 11th June , words and winners posted Friday 12th

 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.