Back until the next time

 Four votes, three different choices, so congratulations are due to David, Terrie and Jim – which nicely illustrates my weekly dilemma, but sincere thanks to those of you who made that small extra effort. Apologies for my absence but it was impossible to find the necessary mental space. Nigh on as impossible as it was to pick a winner this week, but eventually I settled on Perry's 'House of Cars.

Words for the coming week:  effluent pearl support 

Entries by midnight Thursday 29th July,  new words posted Friday 30th 

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.

In case of the unforeseen

  From somewhere in the west of Scotland

Please, please nominate your favourite entry from last week: comment and acknowledgement are a vital part of what keeps this site alive, more important than ever when so many others are falling by the wayside.

Words for the coming week:  nebulous  privilege  spade

Entries by midnight Thursday 22nd July  new words posted Friday 23rd

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 The Stones this time

 Last week's inclusion of 'anemone' was inspired by the postcard I was using as a bookmark, depicting Margaret Mellis' 1957 painting 'Dead anemones  https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dead-anemones-166972  You did her proud, each entry gently steering the reader to a pit of particular horror. So proud I really, really  struggled to rate one above the rest. When the time came to choose it could have been any one of you, but Perry's nigh-literal stomach-turning 'Perspective' won the day.

A word of thanks also for your very welcome comments on my pieces - as ever the need to match quality with quality ups my efforts. 

From Sunday, for a week I shall be away from home, and very possibly in places where internet is intermittent – and so I ask each of you to name your favourite entry of the week on Friday. New prompt words have been scheduled to appear on the 16th. 

Words for the coming week:  cherry  magnet  worse 

Entries by midnight Thursday 15th July  new words posted Friday 16th 

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 breaking so much as loosely applying

Rules, that is, but it truly has been a tricky decision, and one which I'm a little wary of making lest you all think a triple submission might guarantee you maximum accolades.  Nevertheless, I'm citing Terrie as top performer this week for her three  episodes of what is the eagerly-awaited  'Secret Armadillo Soldier (SAS) Diaries '  but also Jim for the poetic 'On the beach.' 

Thank you all for the week's scintillating entertainment. 

Words for the coming week:  anemone gentle pit 

Entries by midnight Thursday 8th July 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.

What it says on the tin

Except not literally, but for so perfectly encapsulating the implied necessity of skin-crawling in her 'A Thing Of Shreds And Patches' (delicious title in itself!) Patricia sits atop the podium this week, but thank you all for a similarly fitting and entertaining set of tales this week. (With one of my writing sites bidding farewell this week, and another spelling out the date for its demise should activity not pick up, I am more grateful than ever for the regularity with which you visit, bearing gifts.) 

Words for the coming week:  calculate  muscle  still 

Entries by midnight Thursday 1st July  new words posted Friday 2nd 

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

Books galore!

Another week of rich entertainment, for which I thank you all. Last weekend I gained a pile of books, some  bought, some and borrowed; stacked-up their titles provide a pile of prompts. This week's top-spot goes to Perry for the wonderfully vivid,  "The brood swirled like an underwater eddy" 

Words for the coming week:  consolation  plain  traveller

 Entries by midnight Thursday 17th June  new words posted Friday 18th

 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. 

Joined-up writing …

 ... and. it seemed, of exceptional quality this week, each post requiring several readings before I could be sure (sure-ish) which merited the number one slot. In the end, I decided on John, for his double offering of  'The Lobsterman' which brought much needed sunshine to the greyness of the past few days. As ever, though, I thank you all for posts and for comments, which brings even more cohesion to the site.

Words for the coming week:  bloat  pocket  wonder

Entries by midnight Thursday 3rd June  

new words posted Friday 4th;  winners later in the day

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.

Scuppered

Early start no longer necessary since bad weather necessitated the postponement of my husband's treat to himself of a flight in a Tiger Moth. Suffolk to visit family, not seen since October 2019, is still on. As very much was the entertainment from the set of posts from last week's prompts! Deciding who to place in top spot difficult as ever but after reading and re-reading, and attempting to calculate the most apt criteria, I plumped for Terrie's SAS Diaries entry 143, but everyone else very close behind.

 Words for the coming week:  cocktail  fast  tarnish

Entries by midnight Thursday 27th May, new words posted Friday 28th

 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.

Painting with words

A brilliantly vivid set of landscapes this weeks, from  the bleakness of David's apt-named 'Doggerland' to the crab-clawed moonlit illuminating  Terrie's 'contraption' and Perry's exhausting tunnel, but undoubted winner is Jim with his FINAL WORDS, in which the raised platform on which the executioner stands is implicit in his words. 

Words for the coming week:  cutting  hawk  tea

Sorry - just remembered I'll be away from home from early Friday morning, so am re-setting deadline to eight pm Thursday

Entries by midnight Thursday 20th May, new words posted Friday 21st 

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.

Madness of English May weather

Today, at seven a.m. the grass was frosty, the sky clear blue. By three this afternoon, sky bruised as an eight-round battered boxer, hailstones and thunder, the drama of it exhilarating.  As was,  of course the reading of this week's responses, begin swiftly and in fine fashion by John whose 'The Lobsterman' takes this week's top accolade. As ever, thank you all. 

Words for the coming week:  audience  crab  waste

Entries by midnight Thursday13th May, new words posted Friday 14th 

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.

All things nice?

I suspect that even if I offered a trio of sweet innocent words you will all manage to find a gruesome use for them. At least  two from last week were anything but, and given the parameters of this site, the nightmare-evoking  entries were only to be expected.

That said, Patricia's  cliché-heavy 'Mode Of Expression' was a joy, but this week's top place goes to Jim for the too-long-lasting horror of his 'Last Stand.' This week's words come from my credit card statement.

 Words for the coming week:  clear  drake  significant

Entries by midnight Thursday 6th May, new words posted Friday 7th

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.

Dedication and conversation ...

... is what each of you bring to Prediction, week after week, and as I watch other writing sites wither and die, for lack of attention, I am more than ever grateful for the regular posting of prompt-led pieces, the comments and, increasingly, extra asides … In addition I acknowledge that this weekly limbering, and the need to be concise, much aids my current editing. 

This week's top spot goes to David for 'The Assassin’s Apprentice' - the lack of awareness of the would-be assassin so very well caught. 

Words for the coming week: bolt feather mandible 

Entries by midnight Thursday 29th April, new words posted Friday 30th 

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 much movement in the meaning"

As Perry rightfully said of last week's words, so tonight I'm more carefully considering the flexibility of words  while staring at the spines of books in my To Be Read pile.

And while I know exactly what he meant, I detected little constraint in this week's offerings, and Perry's 'Omen' a superb demonstration of how to overcome.

Words for the coming week:  hammer  hide  liar 

Entries by midnight Thursday 22nd April, new words posted Friday 23rd 

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.

'The world's most trusted'

If there's one thing I've learnt over a decade of writing to prompts, it is that there is no single 'right' way of doing so, and that what I used to fear was my boringly predictable offering (because it was me that thought it) is not  – cannot be – any such thing. So, thank you, Terrie for your elegantly-expressed note as to why you didn't; well done all of you who picked up and ran with last week's words, and congratulations to  Jim whose extended finger in  'A glass of milk' reached the winning tape fractionally before the jostling rest. 

This week I've behaved myself and used volume 1 of  the Shorter OED, A-M, to choose:

Words for the coming week,  erudite  holly  meander 

Entries by midnight Thursday 15th April, new words posted Friday 16th 

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.

Smaller but no simpler

This month, an annual on-line short story challenge I take part in had half the number of entries it usually attracts. Choosing a top three should have been simpler, but it definitely was not. Similarly here: a shortlist, yes, but deciding on numero uno took an age. Eventually, however, it was Terrie's SAS Diaries episode 138 which nosed in front. Have to say it (again) but everyone just goes from strength to strength.

Words for the coming week are: cheap  powder  testosterone 

Entries by midnight Thursday 1st April, new words posted Friday 2nd 

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.

More than a little trepidation

Balancing the need for bookcases against the likelihood of getting back to printmaking, and wondering about disposing of it, I have looked out the manual for my etching press, and, since it's sitting there, used it to select next week's prompt words. Fewer posts don't mean an easier choice for top place. In the end I chose John's 'The summit', for his insistence on the correct use of trilogy (and apologise for the lazy misuse in mine). 

Words for the coming week are:  key lubricate unwanted 

Entries by midnight Thursday 25th March, 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.

 

A week of extra-vivid, dreams

Plus Scrivener going rogue on me and my very excellent beta-reader pointing out (quite rightly) where novel #5 has lost the plot and gone soggy, has made this place an even more welcome diversion. As ever, I had no idea where a word such as 'hotel' might take you but was hugely entertained by all the variations, and after re-reading several times, eventually decided Jim's 'The Hotel Harrow' best hit the spot. 

This week's words are taken from the spines of the dozen books acquired in the past seven days.   

Words for the coming week are: curate pretend trilogy 

Entries by midnight Thursday 18th March, new words posted Friday 19th 

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.

Oh, Patricia!

 Woken to the news of your broken right arm!

Sending grapes and gin and good wishes, and hoping for your speedy recovery (while the writerly part of me wonders  which bone and how does it feel, because Luke breaks his arm in book 5  –- felicitously entitled 'Snap is not a children's game'!) But seriously, I do hope you are not in too much pain.

So, it was the reminder of John Wyndham which dictated this week's winner, although his 'Kraken Wakes' not one of my favourites. 'The Chrysalids', re-read last year, blew my pre-teen mind. Thank you David for  'Wiskey Galore'. 

Words for the coming week are: hotel  limit  quarter 

Entries by midnight Thursday 11th March, 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.

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.