Dead heat this week – apologies

… and 'dead heat' perhaps an appropriate description of the orange-skied frost seen from my window.

Two very different pieces, each appealing to different parts of wherever it is appreciation for such things resonate – NOT in all honesty, a problem – but try as I might I cannot place one above another so am this week declaring a dead heat between Patricia for the clever and tight-writ 'Winging it', and Perry for his blissful version of 'The Auld Triangle', and can assure you that the rest of you were very close behind. 

New words for the coming week are:  barrel provoke Scot 

Entries by midnight Thursday 4th March, new words posted Friday 5th 

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all 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.

No-one mentioned a rose garden

 Another week sped past, enlivened and embellished with dogs and gods and other horrors inbetween (and no-one mentioning a rose garden), which David's "pedigree Egyptian Pharaoh Hound" very neatly encapsulates, thus earning him this week's top spot. Thank you one and all for posts and much enjoyed comments. 

New words for the coming week are:  husk initial issue 

Entries by midnight Thursday 25th February, new words posted Friday 26th 

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all 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.

Blue shadows through a hawthorn hedge

The hedge being dun-coloured, the colours beyond unexpected, I took this as a not-bad metaphor for how three dun-coloured words are, week after week, brought to unexpected light by the skills of your several keyboards. And thank you all, both for the week-on-week pleasure and for you companionship.

 And on the subject of metaphors, I'm awarding Antonia an honourable mention for her " I believe the truth has shifted a little, like shingle walked on". Top spot goes to Terrie for her beautifully-told untitled album in the attic tale.  

New words for the coming week are: Egypt  mongrel pardon

Entries by midnight Thursday 11th February, new words posted Friday 12th

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all 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.

Not for the money!!

Writing that is. On the way to writing this I wandered onto my Blurb site and checked profits on sales of my books over the past several years. An astounding £9.60. Just as well it's more important to me that I keep my brain ticking over.

And ticking brains a-plenty this week contributing here, but not so difficult a choice, because the pleasure received from each episode of Holly's current has been considerable so it's only right that episode number five earns top place.

New words for the coming week are:  album  shingle undiscovered

Entries by midnight Thursday 11th February, new words posted Friday 12th

Usual rules: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all 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.