Welcome to the one hundred and thirty-fourth 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 starting ‘Fred pulled at the zip…’, so here is my 157-worder.
Valentine’s Day
Fred pulled at the zip but it was stuck fast. “Damn thing!”
“Do you need any help in there, sir?” the female shop assistant asked.
“Er, no, I’m fine, thank you.” Fred replied feebly.
“Well, if you need me, please shout.”
Shouting was the last thing he felt like doing. He looked in the mirror and his heart sank. How had he come to be in this position? He knew how much this outfit meant. If only he couldn’t get out of the damn thing.
He tried again at the zip but the end flew off and hit the mirror.
“No!” he wailed as he realised he’d have to spend the rest of the day in this red and black basque.
He pulled off the tag so the assistant could scan it at the till, then as he put his business suit back on over it, he vowed never to shop for underwear for his wife again.
***
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 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.
Yvonne Hertzberger
October 15, 2012 at 11:46 pm
That one caught me.
morgenbailey
October 16, 2012 at 6:12 am