Welcome to the thirty-second 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 starting ‘Hearing the bone snap as he fell…’. My writing friend Tony Tibbenham brilliantly took on (offered) the challenge of the weekend’s prompts (Light / Raven hair flying). I’m back, so here is my 141-worder, featuring a character called Tony. 
Getting off lightly
Hearing the bones snap as he fell, Graham cursed himself for being so stupid. He’d known they were fragile, being so old and yet he’d been this careless; not keeping a hand free to hold the stair rail.
“Mr Simmonds!” Tony, one of his students, yelled, then tried to help him to stand until Graham yelped.
“My leg!” he whimpered as Tony lowered him on to one of the bottom steps.
“Take it easy, Mr Simmonds.”
Graham rolled up his trouser leg and winced.
Tony tutted. “That looks nasty.”
“Deep cut, that’s all, but look at Henry.”
Tony stared over at the class’ skeleton lying in pieces on the newly-polished hallway floor and shrugged. “We’re here to learn how to mend people. Henry will probably be the only one that we won’t hear complaining… I’d say we’ll be getting off lightly.”
***
Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
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 weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, 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.
