Distractions

There’s nothing like a weekend away, discussing the crafting of crime novels to ensure a mind gone off  in several non-routine directions. Plus I had the shock of a publisher actually asking me to send her the first four novels in my ‘Love triangles with murder’ series. (It came to nothing, as I suspected it would, my writing style quite different to their in-house style.) And then to return to a double helping of prompted pieces  – thank you Jim for your excellent words – and a wealth of 'dillo tales, for which, notwithstanding the enjoyment of reading the others,  I have to thank Terrie for.  

 Words for the coming week: forge mourn waver

Entries by midnight Thursday March 9th, new words  Friday 10th.

 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.

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.

Squirreling elsewhere?

I've been head-down editing this past few weeks, little head space for much else. 'Snap is not a children's game' version 4 almost done, then it'll need 'resting' before I re-read. Re-reading this week's entries it's hard to decide which of Perry's or Jim's is the nastiest, so I declare a well-deserved draw and thank you, Antonia and Patricia for your posting and comment participation. 

words for the coming week:  allege  rash  seven 

Entries by midnight Thursday 23rd September,  new words posted Friday 24th 

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.

A bit of shameless self-promotion

Another week of inspired usage of prompt words to craft sentences and which both entertained and, as usual, tested my ability to rank them. In the end it was John's crumbling of cheap cake in 'Home hospice' that propelled it to the fore. 

As I was for a short spell this week, with my first-ever independent review and interview, which can be read on https://carolmckay.blogspot.com/2021/03/sandra-davies-drink-with-dead-man.html 

 Words for the coming week are: float Michelangelo wild 

 Entries by midnight Thursday 8th April, new words posted Friday 9th 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.

Back to self-indulgent

Having finally got launched on the sixth in my 'Love triangles with murder' series I'll again be hijacking the occasional set of prompts in an attempt to kickstart a scene or build a character's back story. Titled 'Mercy' there'll be little in the way of continuation but I will try and obey the rules and write a stand-alone entertainment.

Entertainment certainly to be found this week, even though Paris was a pain to use; I thank you all for your several impressive efforts which invariably made picking a 'winner' as difficult as ever. In the end, I chose Jim's 'déju vu' because of its near-silent but relentless and nigh-on invisible brand of horror. 

New words for the coming week are: early  mate  squalid 

Entries by midnight Thursday 21st January, new words posted Friday 22nd 

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.

And the earth moved

Well, in fact the house sort of shifted a bit. I thought ‘if I was alone in the house I’d be worried’ but, 6 a.m. and no-one in sight, I wasn’t. Twelve hours later I learned it had been an earthquake, epicentre six miles away. 

Much more vigorous and upheaving were the stories here this week, and it’s taken several re-reads and a glass of wine to decide Patricia gets first place for the clever ‘Back to square one’, and John a somewhat crud-encrusted one-off, new-depths-of-depravity  medal for ‘One-off’.

 As mentioned as a comment, I am trying to develop new characters and often find prompt words kick-start a trait or a plot line, so intend to pursue them here. Anything prefaced with ‘Snap:’ is part of that process, There’ll be little in the way of continuation, but I’ll aim to make them entertaining. Thanks for your indulgence.

Words for next week: decipher hare water

Entries by midnight (GMT) Thursday 30th January, words and winners posted Friday 31st

 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.