Shortlisted: Friday Flash Fiction

Delighted to find that I have been shortlisted for Friday Flash Fiction’s 100-word competition for the Edinburgh Festival. I had entered two stories for consideration: Interlude and Muddy Roots.

Muddy Roots has been selected for the shortlist of six stories. Frequent contributors to the website have been emailed and asked to vote for their favourite of the six, with each person restricted to one vote.

Exciting! It looks like I’m in good company as the other stories are all very different and well crafted. I will post an update when the result is announced.

Photo by Melchior Damu on Unsplash

Shortlisted for Globe Soup’s Microfiction Competition

Delighted to have been one of five shortlisted entries for Globe Soup’s microfiction competition, based on the theme ‘a discovery’. I missed out on being the overall winner, but the winning entry was far superior to mine and very much deserved the winning spot.

You can read my entry as well as the other finalists’ stories on Globe Soup’s website here.

Buxton Fringe Festival (Online) Reading

My short story Curtain Call, which I posted in a previous blog entry, was chosen by the Carrot Ranch writing group to be read on the online zoom call for Buxton Fringe Festival 2020.

Unfortunately, I had some internet issues and didn’t join the call until 10 minutes in – but I do read my story at around 15.18. I was also (quite aptly) having some ‘fringe’ issues of my own due to the lockdown hairdo!

Enjoy.

Epsilon #vss365

How fun language acquisition started out! One-syllable words of comfort: Mum, Dad, toy, car. Then, educational vocabulary (fun to say but hard to learn): onomatopoeia, Pythagoras, #epsilon. Later lexis is far less exciting: bills, debt, calories, anxiety. Make it stop! #vss365

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

Nectar #vss365

“Nectar of the gods,” he slurs. “Sweet and soothing and strong.” As he slurps, his own sweetness is extracted; he sways but isn’t soothed. Between snores and spews, he cannot locate his strength. “This #nectar acts a lot like poison” – a whisper, immediately dismissed. #vss365

Picture by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Galaxy #vss365

It is strange to think that you were once skin and bones and laughter. Now, you are more stars and dust and dark matter: a faraway #galaxy that I can never hope to visit, at least not in this life. #vss365

Photo by Raphael Nogueira on Unsplash

My American Boyfriend Dehydrates the Damned Mangoes

Something about the succulence of mangoes – or perhaps their promise to be wholesome, healthy snacks – causes my partner discomfort.

My tastebuds secrete saliva as the fruits are scrupulously sliced. But, instead of tossing delicious morsels of mango onto his tongue and tasting Indian summers, he feeds them – juicy, plump, nutritious – into a sterile white contraption, to wither for eight hours in vigorous dryness, dying.

On removal, their backs are bent; they are drained, parched, shrivelled. 

Original flavours are now unsalvageable – but at least they are a familiar shape! A pale, curved ‘potato chip’: far more palatable to the American constitution.

(Written for the above image prompt and longlisted for Retreat West’s monthly microfiction competition in July 2020.)

Dinosaur #vss365

“They’ve completely misrepresented me!” fumed the #dinosaur.

“You should’ve left feathers behind as clues. These smooth-skinned beings that replaced us have no imagination.” 

“I was a bit busy running from the fireball to plant clues!” 

“Oh they’ll understand that soon.” #vss365

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Struck Dumb

“You won’t feel a thing,” the surgeon assured him. “You’ll simply fall asleep and we’ll slice you open, remove the tumour, and stitch you back up. By the time you wake, the worry will be over.”

They were right: he didn’t feel a thing. But he did wake – prematurely – to sounds of clicks, cuts, clamps. A high voice asking for suction; a deep voice groaning in disappointment; a younger voice, incredulous, asking how they could have missed it.

Completely paralysed, he couldn’t cry out, couldn’t ask what they had found. But slowly, steadily, a scream grew inside his heart.

July 16, 2020, prompt from Carrot Ranch: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that expresses the phrase, “scream inside your heart.”

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Poem #vss365

He tried to forget, but she was like a #poem written across his heart or within the very structure of his DNA. Her voice danced continuously through his mind in a familiar, rhythmic pattern, always returning to the same word: ‘forever’. #vss365

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash