Distracted

 Having last month asked the excellent  Graham Bartlett – a retired ex-policeman who has successfully supported enough crime writers to be inspired to write his own – to look at my known-to-be-faulty novel #5, and subsequently spent time  mulling over his spot-on advice, I made the decision to turn the telling of it upside down and  completely re-write it. 

I began the process yesterday and got so deeply involved I forgot I needed to post both new words and a winner to this week’s Prediction. So, a quick re-read, and I came up with two deserving entries:  Terrie’s 'paperclipped to the moon’ in her SAS diaries entry 208 was both joyful and inspired,  and David’s ‘Artefact’ exceptionally poignant – thank you both, as well as to Jim and Antonia for their ever-reliable commenting.

Words for the coming week, eggcup, number, spectacle

Entries by midnight Thursday February 2nd Saturday December 31st, new words  Friday 3rd.

 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.

Another bountiful week

And, for the joy of it, Terrie’s ‘Love letter to Lear’ gets one of this week’s votes, while David, Jim and Antonia  dish up similarly worthy-of-mention pieces full of nastiness and dread. Thank you all – it has been a good week.

 Words for the coming week: paperclip, scarlet, specimen

 Entries by midnight  Thursday January 26th, new words and winners  Friday 27th January

  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.

Friday thirteenth, of course!

 And I’m once again struggling to choose between a quartet of high quality entries – hooray!   – and thank you.  Similarly I’m sure that if the choice was yours, you’d struggle, but after some deliberation, I’m picking David’s ‘Military operation, for the clarity of its description and the poor donkey.

Words for the coming week: appoint dust wheelbarrow

Entries by midnight  Thursday January 19th, new words and winners  Friday 20th January

 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

Twenty twenty-three

And the Prediction challenge goes on into a fresh new year, with thanks to Antonia, Jim and Terrie who put in an appearance on 2022’s final fling.

Words for the coming week: button extract mire

Entries by midnight  Thursday January 12th, new words and winners  Friday 23th January

 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 whchever.