Friday 30 April 2010

While out walking

Can you write a 55 word story or poem? Then visit

 

I
sit here
without you
alone but for
the splash and gurgle
of our shiny river.
Above me the mountain waits
snow tipped, and bubbling clouds as when
we first met, thinking it was the love,
that sings as birds waken the morning sun.
But you only wanted rest, to gather strength for another’s song.

Random Word: River


Sticking to your principles

Language snob

 

Harold stood his ground.

‘You cannot say ‘ain’t’. It has no grammatical basis even for Americans.’

‘I as the gun, me can say what I like.’

Random Word: Grammatolatry

 


Thursday 29 April 2010

On a sunny day

Man Drinking

She sat smiling, waiting. Sitting in the shade just meant you roasted slower. The beer was cold in the glass, moist air gathering and dripping down its side. He picked it up and started to drink, slowly. She waited for him to share but like her marriage, it drained away.

 

Random Word: Don’t bogart


Letting go is never easy

Ghost[9]

 

 

‘This is very difficult. The protocol is that as you are dead, your son succeeds.’

‘We understand your difficulty but this is not our wish.’

 

Random Word:Royal we


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Wednesday 28 April 2010

A seasoned life

Child Mourning

Spring was when he cried.  When the leaves fell, making a golden floor, he would dance and kick. In Winter, he would laugh and keep giggles in ice to make drinks fizz. Summer was the time of quiet warmth. But Spring, he visited and sat on his grave to remember.
 

Random Word: Spring



The language of taking tea

Taking tea

 

Fiona asked as politely as she could, ‘Tea?’

Alice hesitated and then poured milk into the cup first. Fiona sniffed. His date was a floosie.

Random Word: Lingua Franca

 

 


Tuesday 27 April 2010

You can play nicely when its your rules

School Interview

‘We find our children loose their spark if they experience F.A.I.L.U.R.E.  In our Pass the Parcel, children individually swop and share so they can experience the importance of giving.’

‘It ain’t the real world.’

‘At St Oswald's, that's the world our parents pay for. Are you perhaps seeking a scholarship?’

 Random Word: Sportsmanship


A stitch in time…

Discipline

 

 

 

I believe in swift but sharp discipline. No belated lash of the cane but an instant reaction to offences makes for a child’s moral growth.

 

Random Word: Soupcon

 

 


Monday 26 April 2010

A bad day at work

Indian Prince

I wish to go amongst my subjects dressed as they dress so I can gather their true thoughts. Order me the orange turban and the yellow spotted silk suit and I will ride on the least of my elephants. Speak truly, will the disguise pass the eyes of the people?

Random Word: You’re a bindle stiff


Saturday 24 April 2010

I’d love a scrabble snack

Eating words

It had been a difficult day, the truffle had not tasted as it sounded - bitter rather then smooth. Why was he eating words that were visual, he was a word waffler not an image imbiber.  He longed to find Boeuf Bourguignon, which was as solid and satisfying as it sounded.

Random Word: Eating my words


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My Six Word Saturday # 6

Describing your life (or something)  on     at the moment of writing on a Saturday in a phrase using just six words.

Breast cancer survivor

Major surgery means wife is renewed.**

She had bilateral breast reduction, some 6-8 lbs removed, ( woman readers will know what that means for her!) as part of the steps needed to complete her breast cancer treatment as once healed she can start radiation therapy.


Friday 23 April 2010

Geoff Ryman – 253 ( 1998)

253[4]

 

An avant guarde story describing the 7 ½ minutes Tube journey of 253 characters. Each carriage section has an incident that ripples through the characters thoughts and behaviour revealing connections ended and built on by the crash.  Mock adverts and author red-herring comments are between sections reflecting the interactive version.

Click here for longer review.

 

Amazon_5_star: Exemplar - Its a keeper for reading again. Rush out and buy copies for friends.

 


Learning the art of politics

Boarding Girls

 

‘Val is nothing but a bully so I say let’s avoid her.’

Kate was prone to taking the moral high ground but the other girls put cake first.

Random Word: Realpolitik

 


Peggy Sue's out loving

Think you can write a 55 word story? Then visit
 

Woman climing outHer destination was a brown eyed handsome man, a man with class, a man who’d knew how to treat a lady right. Or that what’s mama wanted. Mama always wanted the best, her best and you leaned into the wind. It got you through the day. But at night, it weren’t eyes you looked for.

Random Word: Power


Thursday 22 April 2010

Scenes we’d like to see

ANGRY PASSENGER

‘What you mean you can’t push it back,’ Jack said, with a nostril tremble that spelt trouble.

‘Yes Sir, it’s a pre-reclined seat.’

‘Well young lady, you can pre-call the captain now,’ said Jack, as he got up, turned round and kicked the seat backwards. ‘I kinda like them post-inclined.’

Sir…Captain!

Random Word:Pre-reclined


Friendly Fire

Solider

 

He had killed for stripes, not regular killing but the “dropped gun” kind. After the promotion, the whisper was don’t mess with this guy.

Random Word:  A sergeant's chevrons


Wednesday 21 April 2010

Size Matters

Rich Bint‘I like big cars, not these wannabes looking like you've brought it for your kiddie to play with. Its like your men, you want them with a bit of oomph, and not have to worry about explaining that size isn't everything. I know which I’d want on a dark night.’

Random Word: Dream Car


Two's company...three's a crowd

Old man of the sea


It was never the weight that mattered to him. This he had accepted over the years but losing his reputation as a ladies man had been hard.


Random Word: Old Man of the Sea


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Tuesday 20 April 2010

The Bridal Murder

Angry Bride

The murder was under the Hawthorn, its flower white as her bridal dress. She hung there until, in pity, buried. A pity, she spared her groom.


Random Word: Flowering Hawthorn


 


The loss of my Muse

I stare and sigh, is this a sonnet form?
It has some rhymes as does a sonnet form.
Yet dull you say, so different than the norm.
My poem has an iambic rhythm, right?
A sonnet is so regular like it, right?
Does silence tell me you think erudite shite?
I like to think it has emotion too.
A summer's day, it ain't but passion too
of sorts, within a line or two, I argue.
You see the form must grow to live and shock.
Shakespeare so loved, what Petrarch found a shock
and so must you, although you think it's a crock.
And yet I have my doubts, my dreams and fears,
of sonnets lacking love or even tears.

 

Random Word: The Goddess


Monday 19 April 2010

Dad’s Back

Crying man 

‘Stop it. I didn't like it as a kid, and I don’t like it now. You think, tousle my hair and air punch my shoulder and we'll be cool. Well we won't. I used to send you pictures asking to be remembered. Now I just burn yours. Just go, dad.’

Random Word: Tousled hair


Saturday 17 April 2010

My Six Word Saturday # 5

Describing your life (or something) at the moment of writing on a Saturday in a phrase using just six words. This is what others say on

Plane crash

Volcanic dust strands friends in Canaries**

**My wife should have been with them but has a major operation due to cancer treatment on Tuesday but the day before the flight out we discovered that as the flight is over 3 hours she is at risk of blood clots etc as the surgery is 4-5 hours long. So with a great deal of reluctance on her part( loves the sun and wanted the holiday to relax and keep calm) and a certain amount of fixed smiles on their part as they lose £700 pounds( well they don’t as we refunded them) and have to get a new carer for their son who has Autism ( my wife looks after him in return for a ‘holiday’, which they claim back through his care allowance-now keep up and pay attention!)


Friday 16 April 2010

Before Harry met Sally

rowing couple
 

‘I'll dance on your grave.’

'Great, it'll mean that you'll be too busy to give me earache.'

Counselling was more fun then they had expected.


Random Word:Mafficking


55-Friday Flash Fiction #4

Think you can write a 55 word story? Then visit
frog dog

 It wasn’t that he was dressed in green that stuck in yor gullet. We’d seen city folks before and their nose in the air ways. Why, one  came who’d only eat vegetables – raw and fresh out of the dirt. Not meat you’ve shot by hand. No, what stuck were his dog dressed to match.

Random Word: Cap-a-pie

Thursday 15 April 2010

One Spring Day

A pink burst of blossoms,
fluttered across a blue sky.
Breaking into the last silence,
a bird
thrilled and chattered
to a mate,
billowing its feathers.
Spring for them was fresh,
the nest unmade, the eggs unlaid.
Rocking here alone,
frighten,
angry,
life is now the scream
his hands left.

Random Word: Screams of Sighs


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Try listening

bored teen 

'I tell ya, the Whore of Rome, tainted ya Christmas with the worship of false idols...'

Jacob just nodded; pa was off on one of his rants.

 

Random Word: Babylon

 


Wednesday 14 April 2010

An inconvenient truth

child labourYou ask why this boy sews? Because without his pennies, the family hungers. You in the West  with your Empires, struggled over lifetimes to stop children working in the factory as they once did on the land. Why ask us to be better then you, with what you left us?

Random Word: Convenience


Why the H-Bomb ended war

Musket

 

‘I tell you, a sharp blade at the end of muskets, will end war.’

  Charge

 

 

The USA army sees a replacement for the Vietnam-era M7 bayonet, today.

 

Random Word: Bayonet


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Tuesday 13 April 2010

Are we the first?

Empty street

 

'So let's say, we dress up as frogs, and meet by the traffic lights to do the Thriller dance, you know, the zombie one. It'll be so cool.'

 

Random Word: Flash mob


D.O.A.

It started with the stockings, they say.barbie
Oh my god, what have I done, all I wanted was fun.
Off they came, scraping the feet naked.
Oh my god, what have I done, all I wanted was fun,
then from the cold, or something, she died.
Leaving her, a shoe-box parade.

Random Word:Shoe box parade


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Monday 12 April 2010

Give a girl a break

traddie

‘Er…what.’
‘Don’t worry love. Just jingle me your change, if you know how to jingle.’
‘I’m sorry but I’m waiting for a mate.’
‘Ooh, those lads meet down the Queen’s Soldier but I’ve the tackle for— Oy, mate come back.’

Random Word: I’m not


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Saturday 10 April 2010

My Six Word Saturday # 4

Describing your life (or something) at the moment of writing on a Saturday in a phrase using just six words. This is what others say on

stressed out,stressed out

Submitted story a disaster but rescuable!


Friday 9 April 2010

Never say never

bottle
‘You’ll never be free; the ocean will keep you, and your kind trapped forever.’

Splash.

                                 *

‘Ooh, look at that divine bottle on the beach.’

 

Random Word: Waif property
 


55-Friday Flash Fiction #3

Think you can write a 55 word story? Go visit to see those who do.

Being a clown‘So when did you begin— ’
‘Whenever I were home early, I found him looking all hot and innocent. Well I thought fancy woman, you know, the make-up and things but he weren’t.’
‘Were he one of those tranvest…whatchamacallits.’
'I bloody wish, we’ll lose the house, he’s giving up decent work to become a…clown.'

Random Word: An Inkling


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Thursday 8 April 2010

Its a joke, right?

Face Montage[4]‘You see how I take the different face shapes and then assemble them into the ideal by a careful use of a montage technique, I invented.’
‘Oh, its too gross, like you use real body parts?’
‘Silly boy, I photograph them’
‘Duh!’
‘Yes, and then discard the body parts afterwards.’
Random Word: Art Project

Alternative History

Banker says sorry2006
‘So you borrow money to make ten loans and I borrow on them to make a hundred more. What could possibly go wrong?’
2009
Banks for sale



Random Word: A cabal of banks


Wednesday 7 April 2010

Let the fingers do the talking

womanHim!'
‘Yes, him.’
’The man whose conversation is barely above a grunt. Who summed up his mother at her funeral as being ‘you know, good, like.’

'I don’t get it.’
’He may not be good with words but I know he loves me.’
’How so?
’With his poetry of touch.’
Random Word: Eloquent



Some promises you forget

mandress

 

'You'll not do it, the dress don't leave much to the imagination - you're too many bulges like.'

'Yep, but it's for the wife's birthday.'

 

Random Word: Obdurate Fool

 

 


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Tuesday 6 April 2010

Lost in a Book

book[8]The book sat and waited - misery was worth a chapter or two or even a story whilst happiness merely a line, a metaphor, perhaps a picture. The reader took and unknowingly gave, for the book drank life when an idle hand or eye was caught. Today, it drains you.

Random Word: Tantalize  


Invasion from below

mole

The patch of grass was broken as a snout poking out to sniff said,' that's one small dig for a mole—'

'Shut it,' a chorus shouted from below.


Random Word: sward of grass

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Monday 5 April 2010

There is no good accord, where every man would be lord.

Welcome to Cliché Buster an occasional feature. Take one cliché, your senses and make five new phrases.

argueA family is like a good dinner-each flavour tells its own story.
A bad massage are fingers doing solos rather then harmonies.
When you arrange scent, as with colour think of balance, so you are taken to a single place rather then a world tour.
Let talk grow, not cut down by those with the sharpest blade.
A band who’s lost their conductor is all noise and no tune.


Bye-bye, baby Bunting, rabbit's good for hunting


Saturday 3 April 2010

Dance, Dance, Dance till they drop

fire[11]

dance

 

 

 

 

 

They are chandeliers, gold gilt stairs in great halls, clothes from the bloody fingers of seamstress blinded by candlelight. Living to a dead music that sways, rises and falls as they will.  We dance by the fire of the night, hips shaking and caressing for the flesh of the willing.

Random Word: Dancing at the revolution


My Six Word Saturday # 3

Describing your life (or something) this Saturday in a phrase using just six words. This is what others say on Show My Face.

FAIL

Son has hitched safely to Morocco **

** He’s hitching from London to Casablanca with friends to raise money to support school programs  in Africa. Naturally the wife had decided he’s going to become a missing person news item and will not relax until the homecoming. Ahem, I was only tracking him via the charity website for her sake.


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Friday 2 April 2010

The big lie

failures

Tommy let his passions go over the years knowing the next one would be a winner even when the house, the children, and now his wife was lost.


 Random word: Will-o'-the-wisp




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55-Friday Flash Fiction #2

limo[10]‘I’m not sure. It’s kinda tacky to do it like this.’
‘What’s wrong with a stretch limo, you can fit the band in.’
‘Well…do we have to have the topless driver, she’s a wobbler.’
‘Duh-ta-duh, it’s for Duke’.
‘But do you think that Duke would want his funeral this way?’
Hello. He was a biker!’

Think you can write a story in 55 words? Go visit the G-man to see those who did.


Thursday 1 April 2010

Letting it all hang out

THREELook what do we have to loose. It’s the holidays, after all. We leave the old fellas some booze money. Make sure all the kids are at college. Throw some clothes in the boot and hit highway 66.  It’ll be a girls weekend. I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Random Word: Listen


In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty

STRIPPING

 

‘You're a gobshaw.'
‘I'm not’.
‘I tell you, it's watching mice at the crosswords.’
‘But stripping?’
‘It's teasing to a tune.’
‘No fib?’

Random Word: Reprobate  

 


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