Welcome to the one hundredth in this daily series that is ‘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 from the prompt word of ‘fairy’, so here is my 237-worder.
Josie’s wings
Josie stared up at her mum. She felt like crying but seeing the smile on her mum’s face, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead she replicated the grin, a little too wide, she felt, but it seemed to do the trick as her mum straightened one of Josie’s wings then headed to the kitchen singing yet another carol.
All Josie wanted was to wear black. Pink really wasn’t her, and yet she couldn’t say anything to her mum, she seemed so happy and to her dad, Josie would always be his little princess.
Glued to the TV, Elliot, her teenage stepbrother, kept stabbing at the remote’s volume button until it was almost unbearable.
Josie looked towards the kitchen expecting her mum to appear but she didn’t. Josie coughed loudly and tapped her feet, making Elliot turn round.
“What?” he growled and turned back to the TV.
It was Josie’s turn to growl, her wings fluttering in sympathy. She looked at Elliot, studying his clothes; black t-shirt, black hoodie, black jeans and socks, worn she suspected to taunt her.
“Not fair,” she whispered. “You get to do what you want. Not fair, not fair, not fair…”
As she headed to the kitchen she caught a glimpse of her wings in the hall mirror; not innocent pink as they had been when her mother had straightened them, but both lined with a hint of her favourite colour.
***
Photography courtesy of morguefile.com.
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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.
