5PM Fiction 019: Scratch at the door

Welcome to the nineteenth in the series: 5pm Fiction.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story including five keywords; soft, scratch, stammer, steep, swallow… and here is my 67-worder, that may ring a bell (pardon the pun).

Scratch at the door

A soft scratch at the door was all it took to wake the old lady.

“Who’s… there?” she stammered, and swallowed, making her ears pop.

No reply, just another scratch.

Climbing out of bed, the steep curve of her back making her wince, she hobbled to the door. “Hello?”

Again, the night was mute.

Opening the door a fraction, she recognised the red hooded cloak and smiled.

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Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

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