Welcome to the forty-fifth 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 with the following mixed bag: a married couple, retirement villa, lemon, cockerel, talkative, surprise… so here is my 112-worder.
Just desserts
Lemon curd tart had always been Ernie’s favourite. “Can’t beat a tart,” he’d say whenever Nora made it – which, over the years, was less and less thanks to his incessant remarks.
A hundred times she’d had to listen to that, chapter and verse, said as if new, lemons grown in the garden of their retirement villa.
As he opened his mouth to say it for the 101st time, Nora crept up behind him and squeezed the dog’s toy cockerel at full volume.
Ernie clutched his chest, gasped for breath and slumped to the floor.
He’s now buried in the garden, right by the lemon tree, and my, they’ve never tasted so sour.
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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 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.
