Show Menu

That Was The Week That Was.

 What’s the nicest thing your significant other has ever done for you? This last week, my truly excellent missus, took the kids to see relatives, leaving me home alone. What did I do with all this free time away from the demands of a 6 year old and a toddler. I wrote. And wrote. Then planned some writing. The wrote some more. If you take a look down the column on the right you’ll see the results in my fiction in progess bars.  I managed to finish and post off my entry to the Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Competition. Those of you who read this blog regularly might…

Read more

#fridayflash report

 Another great turnout for #fridayflash: Delayed by Ryan Bradford – You can follow @arebradford and the other writers on Twitter.Fear of Flute by Jeff Posey – @AnasaziStoriesForbidden Dreams by Laura Eno – @lauraenoHunting The Crimbleworm by anniegirl1138 – @anniegirl1138Lost and Found, by Kevin J. Mackey – @kevinjmackeyNew Recruit by Chris Chartrand – @ChrisChartrandPlayed Like a Fiddle by E. D. Johnson – @edgedyrksecThe Humanity Engine by Jen Tropy – @jentropyThe Merits of Diving, by skrblr – @skrblrAshtrays by Dan Powell – @danpowfictionSoul Catcher by J. M. Strother – @jmstroTruffles by Pippa Hennessy @battypipYellow Line by Craig Daniels – @washthebowl Amazing to think this has been running 9 weeks already. For those…

Read more

Ashtrays

 The ashtray brims with fag ends. Each of the cigarettes has been smoked to its absolute limit, leaving just a filter, the end scorched slightly. They sit in the brown glass of the ashtray like a cairn. Adam stares at the mound of butts. His brow is scrunched and every now and then he rotates the ashtray, taking in the contents from another side of its square tray. He stopped smoking five days ago. Quit dead. Just stopped buying cigarettes. No patches. No whining. No rushing out to buy a pack of ten from the all night garage. He simply decided to stop. Three days in, the ashtrays started appearing.…

Read more

Fourth Fiction Lit. Crit.

 Five dares in and I am already making literary judgements about the Fourth Fiction contestants based on their tweeted responses to the Host’s literary challenges. Some have made me smile, some have irritated me with their style, some have impressed me with their clever use of language or ideas. In fact, it has been interesting to see just how much you can glean about a writer based on a handful of 140 character tweets. Tuck has stayed true to form, producing work you might expect from someone who describes himself as a ‘proud working American not afraid to fight the bad fight……My writing may piss you off but it won’t…

Read more

Fourth Fiction – Dare 3, 4 & 5

 As I was away over the weekend with no time to post updates for the dares, I figured I would do a list (in no particular order) of my favourite responses to the dares of the last few days: Dare 3: Write something from the perspective of a sperm. RHAE: They all opposed birth control but only he favoured abstinence. The mere sight of the urethra scared him. He just wasn’t ready yet. NORA: He squiggled shyly outside her chambers, unsure if he should knock or barge in. He never really thought this part through. TESS: The sperm gazed in despair upon his unresponsive flaccid tail. He turned to the…

Read more

Friday Flash – Fastest Fiction Alive!

 Fourteen excellent slices of flash fiction on #fridayflash this week. Be sure to click through to read and comment on the offerings listed below. Cluster, by Dan Powell. Follow @danpowfiction and the rest on Twitter. Desert Island Records, by Ryan Bradford, @arebradford Dinner Party, by Pippa Hennessy, @battypip Errant, by Laura Eno, @laruaeno Grace Note, by Jen Tropy, @jentropy Infused Purple, by Craig Daniels, @washthebowl Isolde, by anniegirl1138, @anniegirl1138 Less Than Nothing, by Jeff Posey, @AnasaziStories Lucy, by J.M Strother, @jmstro On Reflection, by Kevin J. Mackey, @kevinjmackey Picture Perfect, by Stephen Book, @StephenBook The Crazy Mixed Up Day of Bob and Tony, by Chris Chartrand, @ChrisChartrand The Eaters, by…

Read more

Fourth Fiction – Dare 2 Round-Up

 Here’s a quick round-up of the responses to the Fourth Fiction Dare 2. Contestant responses come at the top the list, then those of the followers of the literary reality show. Dare 2: Tweet a story that involves an act of cannibalism NORA: The black widow stared bleakly at the mangled remains of her husband. It was not the trial separation she had envisioned. FIDO: the louse ate the cat, the mouse ate the louse, the cat ate the mouse, so the cat ate the cat COCO: Vadim had a job. He sent pretty girls to Europe. Thats how he got so fat. RHAE: The white senators surrounding Sotomayor tucked…

Read more

Cluster

 The shopping list of symptoms arrive one by one, the drooping eyelid (ptosis), the redness of the covering of the eyeball (conjunctival injection), the runny nose (rhinorrhea), the abnormal tearing (lacrimation). Pacing is the only way to deal with it or rocking in a foetal curl, grabbing knees and shins and squeezing hard as the cluster reaches in through your eye socket, makes you pummel your own head with a fist clenched in agony not anger. Imagine this can happen at any time, can wake you when you sleep, sweep you up in its metronomic pulses, punishing at the same time every day or every week, making you a slave…

Read more

Anti-Plagiarism Day : Importance of Acknowledging Sources

 Cluster, my effort for this week’s #fridayflash, was written in response to a writing task set by Chuck Palahniuk in his Writer’s Group essay ‘Using “On-the-Body” Physical Sensation’ over on chuckpalahniuk.net. The task read ‘create a character’s headache without using any words such as ‘headache, pain, migraine….” research into headaches was encouraged in detailed instructions. While I think I probably failed the task, especially regarding the use of the word pain, as the research for the piece was undertaken in the week building up to Anti-Plagiarism Day, I thought I would make a point of acknowledging my sources. Google (a writer’s best frenemy) led me to: a Wiki on Cluster…

Read more

Anti-Plagiarism Day – 17th July

 How Publishing Really Works has declared tomorrow Anti-Plagiarism Day. Jane Smith, blogger at HPRW, is going to blog about plagiarism and wants to encourage others to do the same, be it on twitter, blogs, message boards, Facebook or anywhere else folks chat about writing on the interweb.  For my part, I plan to post my newest #fridayflash piece of flashfiction, along with links to the sites and web pages I used to research the subject of my piece, in order to illustrate the idea that the main difference between plagiarised work and work inspired by other writing is in the acknowledgement of sources. (Take note, Chris Anderson).

Read more

Fourth Fiction Dare One

 Here’s my response to the caption competition that is Dare One. I’ve kept my response within the 140 character limit that the actual contestants are restricted by. God is unable to accept your application for retrial at this time. Church records show, as a distinct spiritual entity, you no longer exist.

Read more

Fourth Fiction Dares

 Ten days into the Fourth Fiction literary reality show and those of us watching the drama unfold in the twitterverse have had time to get to know the contestants. In fact, it’s remarkable how much of a person’s character is revealed in four lots of 140 characters a day. If you have missed the opening salvos then a great place to catch up is over on Jodie Cleghorn’s blog, Writing in Black and White, where she has posted an excellent account of Fourth Fiction’s First Ten Days. You can also check out the contestant biographies over at FourthFiction. All caught up? Good. Well last night, everything changed. As of midnight…

Read more

A Terrible Thing To Do.

 How often do you really look at how you write? The last few months I have been fixated on increasing the word count of my short fiction. Land of Nod, completed in time for entry to this year’s Bridport Prize (I know, delusional perhaps but at least you can’t criticise me for aiming to low) was just under 4,000 words. I was good there and trimmed about a 1,000 words of unnecessary stuff. Looking at the submission guidelines of various online and print publications highlighted to me that less might mean more, certainly in terms of more chance of publication. Most are looking for work around the 2,000 word mark.…

Read more

In Vino Veritas

 Spent some of this morning entering the ‘In Vino Veritas’ Short Story Contest over at The Clarity of Night. The contest closes on July 15th so there is still plenty of time to enter a 250 word piece of flash fiction based on the photo stimulus. Entries will be judged by blog host Jason Evans and guest co-host Jaye Wells, author of Red Headed Stepchild.  Be sure to check out the entries posted so far, and best of luck to all who enter.

Read more

#fridayflash report

 This weeks #fridayflash saw a great variety of contributions from micro-fiction to tales of cultures past via teasy suspense and beyond. I’ll be round later to comment on those I have left to read, promise. My apologies if I have missed anyone’s piece, put a link in the comments below and I’ll add you to this list. The Dance by Chris Chartrand His blog – The Dark Eagle Follow @ChrisChartrand on Twitter Disappointment by Pippa Hennessy Her blog – The Old Bat Follow @battypip on Twitter Earned Pleasure by jentropy Her blog – jentropy Follow @jentropy on Twitter Over by Judy B. Onze Blog – Onze/11 Follow @jbonze Payment Due…

Read more

Coming Home

 The poor light and the thick net curtains in the sitting room’s bay window submerge the house in a gloom that, even though I have not set foot here for almost fifteen years, threatens to drown me. The tiles on the fireplace are faded and in the corners the wallpaper is peeling. There is a damp smell coming from the old sofa against the back wall and for a moment I almost catch a whiff of my father’s pipe coming in from the kitchen. For a minute I imagine he is there, newspaper in hand, kettle on the boil, but he departed this house long before I did. If he…

Read more

Hint Fiction

 hint fiction: a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story  Hint Fiction is a forthcoming anthology of fiction that satisfies the above definition. Tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2010, W.W. Norton will publish an anthology of Hint Fiction. What is Hint Fiction? It’s a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story. The thesis of the anthology is to prove that a story 25 words or less can have as much impact as a story 2,500 words or longer. The anthology will include between 100 and 150 stories. We want your best work.  It’s possible to write a…

Read more

Three Simple Questions.

 I read two excellent posts a couple of days ago concerning questions posed by literary agent Donald Maass in his book Writing the Break Out Novel. Jodi Cleghorn, contributor to the excellent Write Anything site, and Holly West, blogger and writer at Adventures in Bedlam, both discussed an exercise from Maass’s book that can help a writer develop greater awareness of their own writing through the asking of three simple questions.  The three questions from Maass’s book they discuss are: What are your top three novels? What do they have in common? What do you bring into your novel from your top three favourites?  Reading their posts it is clear…

Read more

WAG #17 Linklist

 The theme for the Writing Adventure Group 17 was The One That Got Away” From your own point of view (or the point of view of a stranger you observe) write a short scene about someone from the past who comes back into the picture suddenly. Check out the links below for this week’s posts: Gail Stekler Christine Kirchoff Dan Powell Sue O’Shields WAG is taking a summer break and will be back some time in the autumn.

Read more

Fourth Fiction launches

 Came across a really interesting idea this week, the launch of the first ever blog based literary reality show. As the fireworks for this years 4th July celebrations came to an end over in the States, organiser Constantine Markides introduced the 12 contestants (who will work anonymously under four letter psuedonyms for the duration of the event). They have been given access to the @fourthfiction twitter account and are free to post four tweets a day until the event proper gets underway on the 4th August.  Markides explains the details: The premise is simple. As in elimination-style reality television, there is a host (me), there are contestants (twelve writers), and…

Read more