Tuesday Tales 032: Police escort

The thirty-second prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-sixth story for them) was a photograph of the trunk and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 619-worder, at Jean’s request, a follow-up to last week’s story Ocean drive.

Police escort

Watching the policeman in her rear view mirror, Rosie clicked the button to release the central locking and got out the car.

“Surprised you got here at all,” he said softly, kicking her flat tyre.

Rosie had watched enough TV to know his American accent to be Californian. “Me too,” she said, not meaning the car.

“But we’ll have away in no time.”

“No hurry,” she said and hoped he’d take all day. With the choice of views being him or the sea she could think of nowhere else she’d rather be.

“Do you have a spare?”

“No,” she said, knowing that her model of car didn’t come with one. “I thought they had to, by law, but apparently…”

“No problem,” he said. “You’re travelling a bit back-heavy? Got a body in there?” He laughed, exposing brilliant white teeth.

 Rosie had never been good at spontaneous laughter and didn’t think now was the time to try so just smiled and shook her head. “Moving house.”

“Oh, all your worldly possessions.”

“Yes,” she said quietly, picturing the heavy old chest that took up most of the boot.

The man stopped smiling. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK, really it is. New life, new start.”

“New man.”

Rosie didn’t reply.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, “just here to fix your wheel. I’m new… I’ll shut up now and…”

“It’s OK, really it… I’ve said that already.”

“Don’t be nervous. It’s the uniform, I know, even makes me nervous.”

She laughed then, a natural laugh, and enjoyed it.

“That’s better,” the man said and held out his hand. “Bryan… Josh Bryan.”

As Rosie looked at him, she imagined him not in his uniform but in a dinner suit, sipping a cocktail that had been shaken not stirred, with a gun tucked discreetly under his jacket.

“I have some stuff in my trunk that’ll fix your car… what is it you Brits say? In a jiffy?

Rosie laughed again. “We’ve not said that since Jeeves and Wooster.”

“PG Wodehouse! You read?”

“I do… try to, when I have time.”

“I love the old ones. Really funny. Not as far back as Jane Austen, the romance, but…”

“You don’t like romance?” Rosie surprised them both with that question. “I mean, the classics.”

“20th Century is as old as I get. Still living there so my wife says.”

Rosie’s shoulders slumped.

“Ex wife, I should say. She’s still in the States. Couldn’t see why I would want to live here, but just look… the sea, the beach, the sun…”

“But don’t you have all that in California?”

“How did you know? Oh, the accent. Giveaway isn’t it. We do but it’s a different kind of sun. It’s… anyway, you’ll be wanting to go and we do need to fix your car.”

“We do.”

She watched him go the back of his patrol car, return with a yellow and black can, connect the tube to the air valve then reinflate the tyre. “Is that it?” she asked when he screwed the caps back on both the tyre and can.

“Not permanent. Should get you to the gas station.”

“Oh.”

“Of course, you won’t know one, will you? I’m finishing in a minute anyway, you can follow me.”

“Really?”

“Sure. There’s one just down from the PD… I mean police station, just down the road from the garage not gas station. I said I was new.”

Rosie smiled. “Thank you for everything. You’re very kind.”

Josh nodded and they returned to their cars.

Rosie followed him at just below the speed limit, without the sirens she’d hoped for but knew wouldn’t be warranted. It’s not every day you get a police escort and Rosie hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 031: Ocean Drive

The thirty-first prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-fifth story for them) was ‘ocean’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 319-worder.

Ocean Drive

As Rosie drove over the hill and caught her first sight of the sea, The Lighthouse Family’s ‘Ocean Drive’ was playing on the radio. ‘It’s a sign,” she said to Bertie, her tabby, now meowing from his carrier on the passenger seat of her Suzuki Swift.

Escaping Trevor had taken seven years and nothing was going to spoil this moment. Looking in her rear view mirror at a clear road, she pulled into a layby and onto uneven gravel.

She sat for a few minutes, just thinking, staring at the cloudless sky and blue sea, a postcard in the making. Fishing around in her handbag, she found her camera. She’d come up here, she decided, whenever she could, at… she looked at the dashboard clock… midday, and take a photograph regardless of the weather. They’d remind her that however gloomy the photographs or things got, this had been the perfect start to the rest of her life.

Looking through the lens she was about to take the shot when there was a tap at the window. She flinched and dropped the camera into the footwell. She knew she had to turn round, had to look through the window, had to see the face.

“Be strong,” she whispered then flinched again as a second tap came.

Checking the central locking, which she knew to be secure, she slowly turned to her right and looked at the face. Heart thumping, Rosie recognised the uniform. “Oh no!” she said. Bertie whined in unison.

The man pointed down at the ground and said something inaudible.

Rosie pressed the button for the window, moved it down a couple of inches, but said nothing.

“Madam,” the man said, “you have a flat tyre. Want me to change it for you?”

Rosie looked at the stranger’s dark skin, pale green eyes and broad white smile, and knew she was going to like living by the sea.

***

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 030: Root of all evil

The thirtieth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-fourth story for them) was ‘money’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 387-worder which brings back Thelma and Eddie from Eddie’s fault and is written in second-person point of view.

Root of all evil

Thelma was your root of all evil, not money, although being poor most of the time didn’t help.

She’d wanted a new car and blamed you for not being able to afford one.

You’d wanted a dog but she’d only allowed you a cat, which you adore, but which she now hates even more, given that it was Tommy that made her swerve and hit her mother – you’re the easier one to blame.

It doesn’t take much for her to remind you that you had a good job – as if you’d ever forget – Manager then Director then lost the lot. She blamed you for not knowing what your Finance equivalent was doing when you were just selling the things.

You soon learned that no-one wants a 50-something salesman, however good you used to be. Thelma never appreciated that either.

You’d hidden it, like many do, same routine, only off to the library instead of PFT Engineering. When they came to collect your car just as you were going off to ‘work’ you could hide it no longer. After the initial eruption of Mount Thelma, she lay dormant, simmering like a slow cooker. Then she checked the savings account only to find less noughts than she’d expected. Lava flowed that day.

So you kept out of her way, doing up the garden, digging a hole for a lovely big pond.

Your trips to the library hadn’t been wasted though, the hours you’d spent researching methods.

She’d threatened you once too often and you’d finally flipped, although part of you had meant it. It had been quick, silent and she’d slumped to the floor, your petite wife losing her power in an instant.

With the neighbours of the only house to overlook your garden away in the Algarve you knew you could take your time burying her body, in the whole dug deeper than any pond, the lining material set in place just to be sure.

And now you have the house to yourself. When your neighbours return you’ll have filled the pond, be admiring your new fish when they pop in to thank Thelma for watering their plants. You’ll turn on the waterworks, tell them she’s left you and say you looked after the plants, then offer to look after their dog the next time they go away.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 029: Sentimental keepsake

The twenty-ninth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-third story for them) was ‘red’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 536-worder.

Sentimental keepsake

It was the little girl in the red jacket that Eileen remembered the most from Schindler’s List.

She’d imagined it was her mother, she’d have been about the right age. She didn’t speak German, never had an interest in going there, and certainly wouldn’t watch any war movies, favouring comedies and the lightest of family dramas.

“Life is hard enough than to be reminded of it,” she’d say and Eileen knew she’d had her ups and downs but couldn’t imagine anything would have been as bad as that but understood living that era had been close enough, so didn’t press the matter.

It was too late to ask her now. Eileen wished she could turn the clock back a few months, to when they had their long conversations every other month when Eileen visited from her Scottish home. She should have persevered with the idea of Hilda writing her autobiography, recall those missing years hushed into the corners of her mind. Like an old house, the dust was swept aside, different memories uncovered during each visit. It was only in the last few months of her mother’s life that Eileen started to write things down, the last few weeks recorded on her dictaphone. She would recount previous conversations, to check her facts, only to be met by blank stares as if the events had happened to someone else. Even mention of Frank, who Eileen had been too young to remember, would merit a tilt of the head and the offer of another cup of tea.

Then a few weeks later Eileen had received the call she’d been dreading, travelled the journey long enough to dictate earlier conversations and the jobs ahead.

There followed the paperwork, the funeral, distant relatives giving their condolences to a woman they barely knew. Eileen had put her mother’s house on the market and set to the task of dividing her possessions between charity shop, skip and sentimental keepsakes.

In one of the drawers in the bedroom’s dresser, Eileen found an envelope containing a small silver key, with it a note of the bank and box number. Having lived frugal lives it was the last thing Eileen had expected so drove straight there and asked to see the box. She’d taken her mother’s death certificate and probate documentation and after a phone call and hushed conversation, the bank manager had introduced Eileen to his colleague who would show her the vault.

The man shut the door behind him, leaving Eileen alone surrounded by what felt like her school’s changing room, only the lockers would have held much poorer contents.

Eileen stared at the metal box and turned over the key in her hand. Like the room, it felt alien. Her box was one of the biggest and yet, she guessed, one of the lightest; not light enough to be empty but not containing weighty jewels, bonds or cash that she suspected the others housed.

The key glided into its hole and turned easily. Lifting the lid slowly, it made no noise but as Eileen let it fall backwards she leapt back as it clanked onto the hard counter top and exposed the contents within. Just one item: a child’s red woollen jacket.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 028: A lot to learn

The twenty-eighth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-second story for them) was ‘city’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 933-worder.

A lot to learn

There was something about being a city vet that always appealed to Mark, something about the delight on the children’s faces when they saw a live animal, bigger than the stick insects, gerbils or cats they lived with.

Nothing, however, had prepared him for Brady ‘What’s that?’ Smith.

***

“No-one will take you seriously if you wear an Eyeore tie,” Emily, Mark’s girlfriend, had said that morning.

“I don’t want them to take me seriously, they’re children.”

“What about their teachers? Aren’t you supposed to be setting a good example?”

“AA Milne, Emily. There’s nothing more wholesome than Winnie the Pooh.”

“Eyeore.”

“Exactly.”

With that she’d kissed him goodbye and gone off to her first day with Clampett, Taylor and Browne.

Mark rinsed his cereal bowl, grabbed his black bag, dropped the flat’s Yale latch, then locked above and below it, something they’d never had to do at Broughton Heath.

As newlyweds they had little to steal but if the place didn’t look secure it was an open invitation – or so said Nick and Rachel who’d moved to London a couple of years before, and whose neighbours had both been burgled.

So after checks bordering on OCD, Mark took the no.27 bus making a mental note of the route so he could walk it home.

Entering the surgery immediately felt like home and Mark knew he’d made the right decision.

“Morning, Mark,” his new boss, Tom Sanderson, said before sipping a cup of steaming black coffee. “Want one?”

“Please.”

“If you’re quick, Josie will get it for you… kitchen on the left, from then on you make your own. We all do.”

“Sure. Thanks, Tom.”

“Good to have you on board. We’ve got Roehill Juniors today.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Tell me that again later and I’ll buy you a pint.”

“Deal,” Mark said, and disappeared into the kitchen.

***

Mug in hand, Mark was given a guided tour of the complex then shown to his office and given his itinerary for the day, with 10am ’til noon blocked out for the school visit. This left four early slots for patients; Muffin, a sock-swallowing Beagle; Roger, a sneezing rabbit (who it turns out was allergic to carrots); Daisy the Jack Russell for her first inoculations; and Henry the fat hamster who turned out to Henrietta and fat for a very specific reason.

Mark was writing up Henrietta’s notes when he heard loud voices coming from the car park. Pulling up his blind, he saw a congregation of royal blue-uniformed children running in circles, waving their hands and a couple playing patty cake. There were two teachers with them, a tall blonde lady and a shorter black woman who stopped suddenly, making a couple of the children bump into her, then blew a whistle, the children immediately standing to attention. With a click of her fingers the children formed an orderly line and followed her and her colleague round the corner, towards the building’s front door. Knowing he had a minute or two at most, he finished his notes, screen-locked the computer, and headed out into reception to meet them.

The children were standing gazing up their teachers, the blonde woman talking to one of the receptionists, Sylvie, who was pointing in Mark’s direction.

“Thanks Sylvie,” Mark said, and with a swoop of his arms, said, “Do follow me, ladies and gentlemen,” and the teachers escorted the children, one adult at either end.

Mark walked past his office and the consulting rooms, and through a back door. Some of the children gasped and looked around at the array of animals; the pigs, cows and chickens being the nearest enclosures. Mark turned to the two teachers. “Good morning, I’m Mark Sullivan. I’ll be your guide for today. Any questions at all just let me know.”

“By raising your hand,” the blonde teacher said to the group, then turned to Mark. “Erin Talbot, Mrs, and this is Mrs Jackson.”

“Pleased to meet you Mrs Talbot, Mrs Jackson.”

Mrs Jackson smiled briefly then clicked her fingers at a young boy who had started to wander off. “Keep in the group, Brady.”

The boy duly returned but looked around him rather than at her.

Unsure as to what the children wanted to know, Mark showed them the first pen, of a variety of chickens, and explained the different species, ensuring he didn’t get too technical.

The pigs followed next and while some of the children stayed with Mark, the rest went on to the cows with their two teachers.

Brady stood closest to the pigs, in front of Mark, and started emulating their noises.

“Very good… Brady, is it?”

The boy nodded.

“You like pigs?” Mark asked.

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

“You don’t know?”

Brady shook his head.

“I like pigs,” Mark said.

The boy said nothing but looked up at Mark.

“Do you eat bacon?”

The boy nodded eagerly.

“Ham sandwiches.”

He nodded again.

“Then you like pigs,” Mark said, trying to be helpful.

The boy frowned.

“Bacon… ham… come from pigs and…” Mark stopped talking when the boy screwed up his face and started bawling. Mark went to crouch down to him, to console him, but Brady ran towards Mrs Talbot and buried his face in her skirt.

Mrs Jackson stormed over to Mark. “What have you done?”

“I’m sorry, Mrs Jackson but he didn’t seem to know what a pig was.”

“And you told him?”

“I am a vet.”

“And he’s just a boy.”

As Mark looked at Brady, he realised he had a lot to learn about children before he and Emily started a family.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 027: Half-human

The twenty-seventh prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twenty-first story for them) was a photograph of a limousine and a plane (with a 300-word limit) and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 292-worder.

Half-human

Winning a luxury weekend for two to Paris, all expenses paid, should have been the thrill of a lifetime for Nicky until she realised she’d have to choose someone to go with her. Boyfriend, girlfriend, or mother.

Mother could be discounted quite easily, she would have assumed she’d be last choice, and wouldn’t even have to know.

Nicky’s girlfriends would be too engrossed in their own love lives to notice that she was away.

So that left boyfriend, but which boyfriend should she take? Graham who she’d known since school and was now more boring than watching a slug climb uphill; Terry her boss who would say “yes” but cancel at the last minute because his wife picked that weekend to drag him round Ikea; or Pierre, the sickly-smooth eye candy who came from the city of love and would jump at the chance to show her round his old stomping ground, probably bumping into a few of his amours in the process.

Nicky’s heart told her Pierre – he’d have to ask for time off from the restaurant but she’d met his boss and thought that was feasible, he’d seemed fairly human.

But her head told her Graham – put some romance back into their relationship, see if there were still embers glowing or whether they were as soggy as his fishing gear.

“Graham,” she said when she arrived home from work.

“Yep,” he’d replied, half-listening, hovering over a tub of maggots.

“Busy next weekend?”

“Nope.”

“Great,” she said, smiling. “Going away on business, so you’ll look after the house, yes?”

“Er, OK,” he’d said just as the front door slammed.

On the way to Chez Bernard’s, Nicky figured that even if Pierre’s boss was only half-human she could do a lot worse.

***

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 024: They try to with the food

A couple of weeks ago, the 24th prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales was ‘pie’. I was on holiday so didn’t get it done in time but wanted to do it anyway.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 670-worder, inspired by Roald Dahl’s Fat Chance (and I’ve given my characters the actors’ names).

They try to with the food

“Cherry Pie, John?”

“Yes, Miriam.”

“No stones?”

“No, Miriam.”

“Thank you, John.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh yes… it’s still warm. Well done you.”

“Shall I put the kettle on?”

“That would be lovely.”

“Right you are.”

Miriam knew the pie would taste even better with the tea but didn’t want it to get cold so took a bite and savoured it until she heard the kettle boil.

“Are you not having any tea, John?”

“I have to go back to work.”

“This late?”

“We’re a doctor down so I’ve been seeing more patients, more paperwork. Don’t wait up.”

***

Had Miriam looked out the window or waved her husband goodbye from the front door, she would have seen him turn left instead of right as he should have done to go to the surgery. Of course John knew she’d still be sitting on the sofa as she did every Monday and Thursday evening when he brought her cherry pie.

***

“Oh, John!”

“Oh, Sheila!”

“That was wonderful.”

“It was.”

“When are you going to leave Miriam?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Soon, my darling.

“You know I have a business trip next week.”

“I do and I shall miss you dreadfully.”

“You will?”

“Of course. You know I only want to be with you.”

“Then leave her.”

“I shall.”

“While I’m away. If you’ve not left her when I come back then we’re over.”

“Sheila!”

“I mean it.”

“OK.”

“OK?”

“Yes, my darling.”

“You will?”

“I will.”

“While I’m away.”

“Yes.”

“Oh, John!”

“Oh, Sheila!”

***

“Hello, McNeill.”

“Hello, Doctor Castle.”

“Do you have…?”

“I do, sir. You did want this strength, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“They’re quite lethal in the wrong hands.”

“Just as well they’re in mine.”

“Fair point. There we are then.”

“Thank you, McNeill.”

“Good day, sir.”

***

“I’m home!”

“Goodie. Do you have it?”

“I have, Miriam, still warm.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Work again, tonight?”

“Not tonight, no. I thought I might go to the club though.”

“You do work so hard.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. There’s a really good program about dung beetles just about to start.”

“That’s nice dear. I’ll make you a cup of tea first though, yes?”

“Not tonight, John, not thirsty.”

“Alright then.”

“…Not hungry either,” she said when she heard the front door slam.

***

The program it turns out was less interesting than Miriam had hoped and she’d swiftly fallen asleep only to be disturbed by a visitor who hadn’t stayed long.

***

“It’s last orders, Doctor Castle, would you like another?”

“Better not, Derek.”

“Will we be seeing you tomorrow for the bridge match?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll know better when I get home.”

“Not a problem, Doctor Castle. Have a good night, sir.”

“Thank you, Derek.”

***

John Castle quietly let himself into his house and crept into the lounge. He smiled when he saw his wife sprawled across the sofa, eyes firmly shut. He looked at the coffee table and saw no pie.

He was leaning over her when her eyes sprang open and she screamed. He backed away just as violently.

“John! What were you doing?”

“Oh God! Er… sorry Miriam. I thought I saw…”

“What?”

“I don’t know, something moving, I’m not sure.”

“Where?”

“I think it’s gone.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Was your pie, nice?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh? You’ve not eaten it yet?”

“I wasn’t hungry.”

“Never mind. You could have it now. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“No need.”

“For lunch tomorrow then.”

“If you buy me another.”

“Sorry?”

“I wasn’t hungry so I gave it away.”

“Gave it.. away? There was someone here?”

“Only for a few minutes. Was in a hurry. Had to catch a plane.”

“Really?”

“A business trip, she said.”

John swallowed hard. “She?”

“Oh, yes. Sheila, one of your receptionists. Said she wanted an update on something…”

“And you gave her the pie?”

“I didn’t think you’d mind. I wasn’t hungry and you know what aeroplane food is like. If they don’t kill you with the turbulence, they try to with the food.”

***

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 026: Hold On

The twenty-sixth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my twentieth story for them) was ‘trees’ and below is the result. You read the other writers’ stories for this prompt here.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 725-worder. If you’ve been reading my Story a Day May stories you’ll recognise this from 12th May but the prompt was too perfect not to re-post this.

Hold On

No-one’s told him how he should be feeling but it’s nice… a kind of tingling.

He stares at his new neighbour. He wants to curl his mouth, if he had one, like he’s seen those pink stick things do. He thinks they’re called ‘peeple’. He’s heard one of them say “sum peeple!” but he can’t be sure. He has to call them something and they’re small, like beetles, so they’re the beetle peeple.

He doesn’t understand their language, still feels like he doesn’t belong, even after all these years.

He did once, he thought, hear familiar words, his mother tongue, but it came from a little black box. He was listening hard until one of the peeple prodded the box and it crackled, like it was in pain, then the voice was replaced by music… loud, unpleasant, not like the birds. He knows music from the birds but that doesn’t help because he can’t speak their language either.

The new neighbour’s really quiet. He’s sure he should be picking up something… maybe she’s still too young. He can’t remember how old he was when he first started sensing things… not feeling, he doesn’t feel as such, but he’s old, wise and knows how life goes – in his part of it anyway.

He’s seen thousands of peeple coming and going, using him as shade, shelter, protection… a climbing frame, until one got very high then screamed as it… ‘he’ went down very quickly. A moving white box with coloured lights came and put him, and a screaming bigger ‘she’, inside and went away making lots of noise.

He prefers it when it’s quiet, and dark, it’s cooler when it’s dark. Sometimes it gets too hot. He thinks where he’s from, originally, is colder, except he can’t really remember. He remembers a journey, going over some water but most of it was land, green like here. He thinks he was young, like his neighbour, when he arrived. It was a long time ago. When she’s old enough he’ll ask her if she remembers. There won’t be so far back for her to think.

After the white box went, some more peeple came and put a barrier around him, and big yellow squares with black squiggles he couldn’t understand but he knew what it meant; that no-one could touch him anymore, couldn’t climb, couldn’t hug.

He liked it when peeple touched him, even when they cut squiggles into him. It didn’t hurt, just tickled a little, felt nice, like they were making him their own, like he belonged.

But now he has a different kind of company, his own kind and he can’t wait for her to grow, to have someone to ‘feel’ with.

There’s that tingling again. It’s like… no, it can’t be. He tells himself not to be so silly. He knows ‘silly’ from the little peeple. They’d do funny things with their faces then tell each other not to be silly, but silly looks like a lot of fun.

It is! It… no, it can’t be… It is! A new bud!

He’d felt sick for ages, not like the little ‘he’ who’d fallen from him because ‘he’ hadn’t moved… but tired, old. It’s not like that now. It feels like when little ‘he’ started climbing, to explore, reach out… grow.

They’re taking the barrier away! He must be better. He can have peeple touch him again. He feels like being very silly today!

There’s a big ‘he’ with a large shiny stick. What’s he doing? He’s pulling a bit of… something out of it and it’s making a roaring noise, like he’d seen one of the little ‘he’s do which made a little ‘she’ scream. All the other peeple laughed but he didn’t find it funny. The little ‘she’ had looked scared. He remembered scared from when the sky grew dark, and the rain came, and there were loud noises way above them and the peeple screamed and ran to him, and he made them feel safe.

Hey! He’s cutting squiggles into him, making him his own. It’s not unpleasant but it’s not stopping, he must really like him.

He feels all wobbly, wants to put his branches out to balance himself. He felt like this when he got sick, but he doesn’t feel sick now, he feels… free. He feels… aliv…

“Timber!”

“Hold on!”

***

A couple of weeks ago the prompt was ‘pie’ and I missed it as I was on holiday. I’ve written the story and it follows later today.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 025: The photo that no-one else can get

The twenty-fifth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my nineteenth story for them) was ‘chase’ and below is the result. I owe TT the prompt for pie and was going to post it last Sunday except I was on holiday and had written it but left it at home. It’ll post it sometime soon.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it.

Below is my 356-worder in second person. In case you think you’ve read this before, you may well have. I posted it mid-April not realising that the prompt had been postponed so sorry if this is a repeat but sometimes it’s better the second read as you’re not concentrating on the story…

The photo that no-one else can get

You’ve been chasing her for days, to get the photo that no-one else can get. She knows you’re there. There’s always someone there.

It’s a lifestyle she’s had to become accustomed to, only you don’t think she ever will. It’s not one you’d want, except she’s become your job, your life.

When she emerges out of the building, you reach over to your camera, on its dashboard tripod, and set it to continuous.

You follow her car through narrow streets, wide streets – her executive to your jalopy, the only thing you could get at short notice. You’re used to this place, she’s been here a lot.

Most of the shots are of the back of her head but you know she could look round. She has before.

As her car gathers speed so does yours. It complains but it’s not yours so you’re not bothered.

As she heads into the tunnel, she edges forward and you floor the accelerator, a little too close for comfort but you decide to go alongside, get level, no other cars in sight, so you swivel round your camera in anticipation, a momentary lapse in concentration.

You scream as your car clips hers, a white graze on a black beast, but you keep driving, then slow… watching in the rear view mirror as the Mercedes’ offside hits the pillar, then spins, making contact with the front, ricocheting into the nearside, only the boot intact.

Then you see the other cars, lights on, stop at the scene and you speed away, heart pounding, sweat rising in your armpits and head back to your room, taking the smallest streets you know of, hearing but not seeing the sirens that wake up a sleeping city.

***

As you look at the screen, you study the dozens of photographs that you know no-one else but you will see. You’ll delete them, never printing them, burn the memory stick to be sure, buy a new computer, but not yet. You put them in a folder and know that whatever you do with them you’ll never forget – the world will never forget – the day you killed a princess.

Apart from being inspired by true events, some months ago I read Alexis Sayle’s ‘Barcelona Plates’ and that story’s always stayed with me.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers. So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit.

Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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.

 

Tuesday Tales 023: A Bad Feeling

Armed with a 300-word maximum and the picture prompt (right), the twenty-third prompt by online writing group Tuesday Tales, I headed out for a dog walk and below (after a little tweaking) is the result, my seventeenth story for TT.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 300-worder (excl. title).

A Bad Feeling

He had a bad feeling about this one. ‘Body under bridge’ never brought about a good one but tonight…

Tonight followed afternoon, the afternoon’s argument with his daughter, Charlotte, and a back-and-forth over the length of her skirt. Every parent / daughter does it and neither side wins; resentment, looks of hurt, mistrust, regardless of which side gets their way.

He’d phoned her mobile later, left a message, said he was sorry, that he had to go into work, for her to be careful. He knew she’d shake her head, feel stifled, like a child.

Elizabeth often told him he was too soft, that Charlotte took advantage, that she was a Daddy’s girl, and she was usually right. He’d known Elizabeth half his life and it had taken half of that to have their daughter, their only child, so it was his job, like it was his job to go and see dead bodies under bridges. No other detail than that; no age, no gender, but he didn’t want to know. Know too much and you start thinking, give them a family, a life.

If he was lucky tonight it would still be clothed, intact, simple. A mugging gone wrong, gunshot wound, knife through the heart. He was nearing retirement and that didn’t suit complicated.

Slipping down the wet steps he growled and went to put his hands out but steadied. He hated that; lack of balance, of control.

Those already there, his colleagues, looked particularly grim. “Crap. It’s a bad one,” he said to himself.

No-one spoke as he walked to the bridge, to the body.

He felt the tears come and he didn’t care who saw them, then felt his phone vibrate, looked at the name on the screen. He pressed the green button hesitantly. “Charlotte. Your mother.”

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers and you can read the other stories from this picture prompt here.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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.

 

Story A Day May 2012: May 9th – The photographer that no-one else can get

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.

And here we are a year later doing it all over again. Today’s prompt was to write a story with an unreliable narrator, so here is my 594-worder following on from my Tuesday Tales story, The photo that no-one else can get.

The photographer that no-one else can get

“She told me she loved me.”

“Diana?”

The old man nodded.

The journalism student noted it down. “When was that?”

“August 19th 1997, my birthday.”

“But that’s…”

“I know. A couple of weeks before…”

“Where were you?”

“Paris. She came here a lot.”

“With Dodi?”

The old man nodded again. “She said she was going to leave him but…”

“Go on.”

“She couldn’t.”

“Why couldn’t she?”

“I can’t tell you, I promised.”

“It won’t do anyone any harm now, not after all these years.”

“She has family. Grand children… great grand children soon. No, it’ll never come out.”

“But you’re telling me now.”

“You won’t believe me and you won’t say anything, or print it. It’s too big a risk from an old fool.”

“I do believe you, Mr…”

“James. Call me, James.”

“But I… oh. I’m Naomi. I do believe you, Mr James, that’s why I’m here.”

“Not Mr, just James. Then you’ll know about the photographs, and the car.”

“Car?”

“My old white Fiat. Long gone. A square cube of metal used as someone’s coffee table no doubt.”

“So there was…”

“I read about it in the papers of course, so someone must have seen me but nothing ever happened. I waited, hid the car in a deserted barn until I knew the coast was clear then gave it to a scrap dealer on the condition he’d strip it for parts then crush it. He was a friend of a friend so I believed him. Never heard anything so…”

“And you have photographs?”

“Of course. Loads. Not printed, couldn’t have evidence lying around so I left them on the stick. I didn’t need to print them anyway, or ever look at them again. I have them all… up here,” he said, tapping his forehead.

“Where is it now, the stick?”

“In the car.”

Staring out to the car park, Naomi asked, “You still drive?”

The old man laughed. “No! Don’t be silly, dear. I’m knocking on 100. In the Fiat. The stick never came to light either so it’s probably underneath someone’s News of the World or remote control.”

“They don’t make the News of…” She looked up when the Manager, a tall plump woman with a red face, blocked the light from the window.

“Sorry folks, but it’s meal time.”

Naomi was about to ask another question, expecting to have a few minutes’ grace, when the Manager coughed overdramatically.

Closing her notebook, Naomi tucked it, along with her royal blue fountain pen, into her messenger bag. “Thank you, James. Do you mind if I come back another time?”

“Certainly dear, but don’t leave it too long. As I said I’m knocking…”

“I’ll see you out,” the Manager butted in and the two women walked towards the building’s exit.

“Get everything you wanted?”

“Almost.”

“Which name did he give you?”

“James…”

“Ah, it’s 007 is it today? Ms Windsor, we’ve had a stream of people here to see him over the years. Since he started saying… well, everything he’s just told you. Don’t believe a word of it. We let them in, let you in, to keep him amused so I’m sorry that you’ve wasted your time but he just loves to make things up, bordering on cruel if you ask me, trying to make people believe his lies.”

But of course the man wasn’t lying. He just had a bad memory. He’d been going by different names all his life. Never knew what his real one was, having been left in a handbag in a cloakroom in Victoria Railway Station.

If you like working from prompts you might be interested in my 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook (Vol 1).

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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.

 

Story A Day May 2012: May 7th – The Dancing Stopped in 1983

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.

And here we are a year later doing it all over again. Today’s prompt was to write a story inspired by a song title and I spotted ‘Anniversary Waltz’ by Englebert Humperdink from a list. Seeing as Englebert is our Eurovision Song Contest singer I thought it was perfect timing, so here is my 349-worder which brings brought back Eddie and Thelma from Tuesday Tales story Eddie’s fault.

The Dancing Stopped in 1983

Eddie stares at his wedding photo. He knows what people say, that they remember something like it was yesterday, but that’s why he remembers… because everything’s so different.

He remembers how happy they were, like any other newly-married couple – or at least the ones genuinely in love.

May 26th. Every May 26th Eddie would take Thelma dancing; a posh restaurant with an intimate dance floor, an old converted cinema in front of a hundred strangers (much like his wedding day), a beach.

Wherever they were in the world (usually Britain, Thelma doesn’t like flying), they’d find somewhere to dance. Thelma was convinced the romance of it would help them have a baby. Eddie just loved to dance and, of course, loved to try for a baby. Back then it was all fun but as the months went on, the fun stopped and the crying started, then in 1983 the crying stopped with the shake of a doctor’s head. So did the dancing.

The doctor was sorry that Eddie would never have children. Eddie. Not her, just Eddie.

Thelma stayed with him convinced the doctors were wrong (they saw another three, just to be sure) and by then it was too late anyway. Thelma’s biological clock had run out of baby-making batteries.

“We can adopt,” Eddie had said cheerfully but knew that was a no-go when he’d ducked the flying mug. His favourite. She’d bought it for him for his birthday.

“I don’t want someone else’s!” she’d growled, “I want yours!” but the light he’d remembered from all those anniversaries, all those dances, had gone, and now their lives were like a dance; but with unfamiliar partners, trying not to tread on each others’ toes, a polite smile every now and then, one-sided, but at least it was a dance.

The waltzes may have stopped in 1983 but for Eddie she’s still Thelma, the raven-haired beauty that would throw her head back as he spun her round, the woman who would have made a wonderful mother but now couldn’t even mother his cat. The cat that had started the end.

May 26th, by the way, is Eurovision Song Contest Day this year.

If you like working from prompts you might be interested in my 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook (Vol 1).

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 (including my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011) and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, 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.

 

Tuesday Tales 022: Finger

Armed with the prompt ‘finger’, my sixteenth short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales, I went to a writer’s retreat (run by Helen M Hunt) and below is the result. I’d already written a story when walking round the park a few days before but it’s dark. And I mean really dark. Too dark (about a pervert) to put on this family-friendly blog but I wrote three at the retreat so you have treble trouble this week (including five dice prompts from the retreat: gate, moon, trees, lock and bubble).

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here are my 166-worder ‘Full Moon’, 294-worder ‘Elimination’ and 29-worder ‘Lock-jaw’.

Full Moon
Swinging the gate open, Jody winced as it complained. Looking up at her parents’ bedroom she waited for a light. Above the house, the moon was bright and whole, splintered by next door’s laylandia. She smiled as she thought of the scene from Bruce Almighty where Jim Carrey enlarges the moon and pulls it closer.

With the house still in darkness, she put her key in the lock, slowly, silently, and held the handle as she pushed the door away from its frame, closing it again just as quietly. Climbing the stairs she avoided the step that creaked and was grateful that she’d left her bedroom door open when she went earlier that evening.

In the bubble of her room, she leant against the windowsill staring out into the night. She could hear her father snoring next door and she smiled as she imagined her mother’s efforts getting to sleep.

Jody was making shapes out of the stars when she felt a finger jab her back.

Elimination
Using the height of the moon as a guide, Tom headed in its direction, the only other company the bare trees of the Australian outback.

Blowing out his last stick of bubble gum he let it pop and cover his nose and for a moment he felt like a child again. A safe child whose mother would smother him in a warm blanket and tell him everything was going to be all right.

His eyes locked onto a light on the horizon, a gated track leading to it. As Tom walked nearer he saw movement behind the light, one corner of a small single-storey house.

He reached the gate and read the sign. ‘Private Property – Trespassers will be eliminated’.

“Eliminated?” Tom said out loud. “That’s ridiculous. It should be prosecuted. Who eliminates people? He looked around him, turning in a slow meticulous circle. Having spent the last three hours trying to find signs of life, someone to take him to the nearest town, someone to return to fix his rental car, he decided he’d risk being ‘eliminated’.

Signs didn’t mean what they said. They were just there to scare. It would work with most people but when faced with no other option, it didn’t scare Tom. So he opened the gate then closed it behind him, reverently as if it would help his case. He started walking the two or three hundred yards to the house, slowly in case of confrontation at any moment. He was about half-way when he heard a click, his right foot hitting something hard. He froze to the spot and looked down, but saw nothing but earth. Heart thumping, he crouched down, careful not to move his feet then screamed as he brushed away the dirt with his fingers.

Lock-jaw
As he swung the gate until it hit the tree, Johnny chewed his bubble gum and stared at the mooning student, finger in the air, until his jaw locked.

###

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers. This week’s are here.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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.

 

Story A Day May 2012: May 3rd – What He Saw

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.

And here we are a year later doing it all over again. Today’s prompt was to take inspiration from Wikipedia’s home page. I only reached the second item and immediately had my story… and below, in first person viewpoint, is my 574-worder…

What He Saw

Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight,
Red sky in morning, fisherman’s warning.

I had a dream. That’s what Martin Luther King said, wasn’t it. Oh no, present tense, “have a dream”.

I had one too, the other night, only it wasn’t half as nice as his. I was stuck in traffic… on a motorway, I think it was. Stationary, in the fast lane, silver barriers dented and bruised. I remember there was a lorry in the lane to my left. Never liked lorries much… big, cumbersome things, but we have to have food, don’t we. So there I was, waiting for some kind of life from the cars in front, when it got dark. I looked out my side window expecting to see rain but the sky was cloudless. Bluer, than I’d seen in a while too, or maybe it was only because I was paying attention for once. No, I do pay attention. I’m a painter so I take note. Up here, the old brain cells.

Anyway, with nothing happening in that direction I looked back ahead and that’s when I saw it, the lorry… tipping over… to its right, with me in its middle. Of course I couldn’t go forwards, car blocking my way, so I swung round to look over my left shoulder, through my car, to see if I could reverse. Stupid. Of course I couldn’t, I was in a traffic jam. What I should have done was to get out, run like hell, but in dreams you don’t think of things like that, do you. You have no control. You could be screaming at yourself but it would make no difference, you do what your sub-sub-conscious does, not your sub-conscious. Two layers of you like a sponge cake. I had to laugh when I thought of that, what with the red raspberry jam they usually use. No, I know, not tasteful. Sorry about that.

Anyway, it shook me up. Still had it in my brain when I left the house. Not sure why because I don’t even have a car.

Wasn’t really awake anyway, being that early, but had to catch the light. Tomas was a sport too but he said he didn’t mind, that he was often up at that time to go fishing.

I’d picked the perfect spot, just off the main road, by the fence over the river, beautiful even without the sky. I reckon he thinks I’m a bit mad, that it would be too ordinary when there are plenty of other things to paint. But I wanted to paint him, he’s quirky-looking, since he lost his hair.

And he was there already, in that long navy top he’s addicted to. His wife must be sick of washing it.

I settled on him standing near the end of the bridge so I could get the river in, a nice swirl of blue, trailing off behind him, the banks either side. I set up my easel and was about to start when I spotted a couple in the distance. At first I wasn’t best pleased but then I thought “hey, why not”.

Then I spotted Tom’s expression, wide-eyed like he was trying to stretch the sleep out of his eyes. The easel slipped a little, so I grabbed it, instinct, losing my focus on Tom. Sound without the vision. The sound of him calling my name, “Edvard! Edvard!”, before I could look up or turn round.

# # #

The choices when I looked (8.38am) were: The Invasion of Tulagi (where?), The Scream by Edvard Munch… and that’s all I needed.

Historically of course my story couldn’t have happened*, plus I had it set in the morning rather than the evening, but fun to write nonetheless.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

If you like working from prompts you might be interested in my 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook (Vol 1).

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. You read more of my flash fiction on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page.

I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, 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 writers (from just £50 / €60 / $75).

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 21: Eddie’s Fault

The twenty-first prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my fifteenth story for them) was ‘daffodils’ and below is the result. You can read the other writers’ stories for that prompt (please do) here.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 454-worder, and strangely this week isn’t second-person viewpoint.

Eddie’s Fault

“Daffodils, Eddie! Mum’s favourites are daffodils. What are these?”

“Gerberas, my love,” Eddie replied, deflated. “It’s all the shop had left.”

“I suppose it would make a change,” she conceded.

Eddie looked at the vases of daffodils filling the hospital bedside table and nodded. “How is she?”

My love, Thelma, burst into tears.

“She’ll be fine, my love,” Eddie said reaching out for his wife’s hand, which remained in her lap.

“She won’t! And stop calling me ‘my love’!”

“I’m sorry, my… People come out of comas all the time. I could bring the CD player and her favourite Andre Rieu… might cheer them up too.” Eddie looked at the only other bed in the room; at the other crying relatives, the other silent patient.

“It’s your fault she’s here!” Thelma snapped, bringing his attention back to her.

“My fault?”

“If you hadn’t… oh, there’s the doctor.” Thelma leapt to her feet. “Dr Chapada…”

“Chapadandraha, Mrs Boyle.”

“Yes, quite.” Thelma looked at Eddie, who was still seated, and glared at him.

He duly stood and waited for Thelma to continue, not an expert on hospitals but an expert on Thelma.

“Any news, Doctor?”

“The tests have come back negative…”

Thelma yelped and grabbed Eddie’s hand who yelped as she crushed it.

“I’m sorry…” the doctor started.

Thelma whimpered.

“No, I mean…”

“Will she be OK?” Eddie chipped in.

“Should be fine, Mr Boyle.”

“Should be?” Thelma eased up on her grip of Eddie’s hand.

“She’s under an induced coma, Mrs Boyle, but her brain activity is normal so in usual circumstances, patients even with her level of crush injuries do go on to make a recovery.”

“Full recovery?” Thelma pressed.

“We’ll know more when she wakes.”

“Thank you,” Thelma said, a little more cheerful.

The doctor nodded and went to the other bed, where an elderly man had had complications after heart surgery.

Thelma returned to her chair and sank slowly, staring at her mother as she lay unconscious, every now and then eyelids twitching.

Eddie watched his wife sit down then joined her. He replayed the events of the previous day in his head; of Thelma driving him back from the supermarket, of her mother coming out of the house to greet them, of the cat dashing across the driveway from under a bush, of Thelma’s confusion between foot pedals and the screaming.

“Thelma,” Eddie started gently. “Thelma,” he repeated, knowing she’d heard but not responded. “What did you mean when you said it was my fault?”

Thelma turned to him, the glare returned. “He’s your cat!”

There was one thing Eddie knew; he was only ever right when Thelma was wrong and he wasn’t going to hold his breath on that one.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be. You can read some of mine (free and otherwise) at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo, and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, 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. Finally, I also now have a new blog creation service especially for writers: http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com.

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.

 

Author interview no.354 with fantasy and religious fiction writer Christopher Starr

Welcome to the three hundred and fifty-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with fantasy and religious fiction author and 30-day challengee Christopher C Starr. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Chris. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Chris: Hey everybody! So happy to be here. Something about myself…hmmm.  Well, I’m shorter than I sound on paper, my favorite color is blue, I’m an Aquarius (and, ladies, I like candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach). My favourite food is lasagne (and I married an Italian), I frequently change the words to popular songs to suit my mood (or embarrass my kids) and I honestly, sincerely hate pandas.

Everyone says they’ve been writing as long as they can remember. I believe that to a certain extent: I think the combination of your perspective and experiences shape how and what you write. For example, I spent the first 5 years of my life in New Jersey where I learned, among other things, just how tough my head is. I sustained 5 concussions before I was six years old—highlights include running headlong into a brick wall, falling headfirst off a slide, and my younger sister hitting me in back of the head with an iron-cast frying pan. It was bad enough the insurance company advised my parents to make me wear a helmet. You gain a unique perspective on the world from experiences like that. I think it has definitely shaped my sense of humor. I live in Seattle now, where I have plenty of rain and far fewer head injuries.

Morgen: Ah, poor pandas… but then I’ve never met one so what do I know? What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Chris: My first novel is a combination of fantasy and religious fiction, along the lines of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. My blog, though, is definitely humorous and seeks to understand how and why I see the world like I do. I’d love to write in every genre. I think it stretches you as a writer and I love a challenge.

Morgen: Me too. I can’t seem to settle on one, although I say I write dark and light so that probably covers pretty much everything. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Chris: My debut novel is The Road to Hell, and it’s the story of the war in Heaven, the fall of Lucifer and the dawn of humanity, all told from the perspective of the angels. I use my own name—I think Christopher C. Starr is an awesome author name.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Chris: When it comes to my writing, I’m a control freak. When I first started writing, I pursued an agent but got rejected a few times. The first one hurt: who would not want this story? It’s amazing, right? But I started writing around the time the self-publishing boom was taking hold and decided to circumvent the submission / rejection process by publishing it myself.

Morgen: Me too. I didn’t try many (a dozen or so) but I love having the choices self-publishing (eBooks) gives you (me). You said you tried to get an agent, do you think they are vital to an author’s success?

Chris: I do think they absolutely have a role to play, even with the dynamics in the publishing world. Yes we have more access to tell our stories but agents to help grease the skids and provide access and expertise to markets the new author isn’t aware of. I’m a fan of anyone I can learn from.

Morgen: Me too… that’s why I keep going on courses, to conferences etc., but then I just being immersed in writing. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Chris: My books are available as eBooks and paper. I’m a hands-on type of guy so I learned InDesign to do the layout of my book for print. I did get professional help on the cover and the conversion from print to eBook. I like a challenge but I recognize my limitations.

As far as what I like to read, I do both. I’m impatient so when I find a book online, I love that I can download it and have it right NOW. However, bookstores are my guilty pleasure and I LOVE the feel of paper between my fingertips. There is something very special about holding, touching a book and still gives me goosebumps.

Morgen: I love paper books too but am nerdy about damaging the spines so like hardbacks where I can (although they take up more space) but you don’t get either with a Kindle (and I’ve just treated myself to the new Touch). How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Chris: I’m trying to do it all, learning as I go along. I’m learning the power of social networking, taking each bit step by step. I get the blog thing—that much is fun and particularly therapeutic for me. I’ve also learned a lot from my writing through it—just by following stats, I can see which posts resonate with people and which ones fall flat. I’m up to my ankles in Twitter—I kinda get it but it’s tough for me. I also have a full-time job, a wife, 2 kids and a dog and an insane desire to keep writing. Branding is tough. I recently made a food-for-work deal with a Marketing student. We’ll see what she comes up with.

Morgen: I try and keep up with my stats but with nearly 900 postings it’s hard. I just think you need to have a mixture of content and so many of the older posts are still being read that I think it’s good to have variety. Do you have a favourite of your characters? If your book were made into a film, whom would you have as the leading actor/s?

Chris: My favorite character is definitely Lucifer. He’s the most complex character I can imagine: he experiences the full gamut of emotions in his relationship with God and his emotional arc takes him literally from the heights of Heaven to the depths of Hell. It’s quite a journey but he gets to be so deliciously mean along the way and he enjoys every minute of it. Lucifer is incredibly fun to write. If it were to made into a movie, I’d have Terence Howard or Bradley Cooper as Lucifer (who actually was cast as Lucifer in the upcoming Paradise Lost movie) and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Idris Elba as Michael.

Morgen: “deliciously mean”, I love that. I’m a big fan of Bradley Cooper (‘Limitless’ was brilliant) but Idris Elba is a great choice. I missed the first series of Luther but had heard the hype and so saw the second. I rarely watch TV (too busy) but let’s just say I’m selective (Dexter is another ‘won’t miss’). Did you have any say in the covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Chris: My wife is a graphic / web designer. I had plenty of say in the covers. She won. Even in this electronic age a cover is vital. A raggedy cover looks cheap and unprofessional and readers will expect the writing is equally bad. Invest in your cover. Do it professionally.

Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?

Chris: I have three things in front of my right now: Come Hell or Highwater, which is the sequel to The Road to Hell; a screenplay, which will serve as the outline for my next novel, Rabid (yes, I outline in screenplay form—I see all my writings as movies); and a Celebration of Wickedness—30 days of blog posting about some of my favorite villains in literature and cinema.

Morgen: Rather you than me on the screenplay. I wrote 102 pages for Script Frenzy and found it far too bitty (but I liked the story so have it as part of a novel). Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Chris: I don’t write every day. I know: I suck. I want to. Between work and family and my trash tv fetish, I skip it. I never have writer’s block, though. For me, writer’s block doesn’t exist: in my experience it’s usually the writer fighting against what the story wants that causes the writer’s block. The story wants to go one way but the writer doesn’t. Stories have lives of their own. They go where they need to and once you write them into existence, they do and say what they want. And no writer escapes unscathed. Writing is about honesty; writer’s block occurs when the writer is not honest about what needs to be written. My cure for writer’s block: stop trying to write it and just write it. Once you get out of your own way, it gets easier.

Morgen: You don’t suck at all. I keep saying that 300 words a day is 100,000 words a year but I do about that (the 300 not the 100,000!) a week for Tuesday Tales and if I didn’t have that… Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Chris: I get an idea and usually mull it over for a few days, twisting and turning it so I can get a better feel for the scenario or the characters. Until I can see a scene—see how they move and react and get a feel for the story. Once I can see it, once I can hear it, I can write it. I kind of outline: I do use Viki King’s How to Write A Movie in 21 Days method. I break everything down into a movie script, mainly because dialogue is the toughest for me and screenplays rely on dialogue. I also like the pacing movies have. Once the screenplay is written, I write a draft from there.

Morgen: You mentioned a couple of your characters earlier, do you have a method for creating then, their names… what do you think makes them believable?

Chris: Characters are always a part of you so I incorporate things that I see from real people—little traits or phrasing they use. Things that make them come alive. I say every line of dialogue out loud (often in public) and hold entire conversations with myself. If I can’t make those conversations sound believable, it’s back to the drawing board.

Last summer, I took my daughter to the movies and she saw the trailer for the Green Lantern. In the trailer, they say that only one man can save the Earth. She looks at me and says, “Why is it always a man? Why can’t a girl save the world?” Valid point. It wasn’t until then that I realized how few female characters, especially females of color, there are in popular fiction. I’m going to be writing heroines for a while. For her.

Morgen: It’s amazing the difference saying something in your head to out loud – it’s so much easier to spot flaws out loud. I’m planning to see the new Marvel Avengers movie on Tuesday (my treat after my Red Cross stint) and Scarlett Johansson plays a strong woman in that… but yes, heavily male-dominated. Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?

Chris: Only non-fiction is on my blog. I can’t do poetry—I don’t get it—although I used to write rap lyrics in college. I have one short story so far. I’m too long-winded.

Morgen: It’s so funny you should say that about poetry, it’s exactly what I say (about not getting it, not writing rap lyrics ) but short stories are my first love so I have over 100 of those (probably over 200 but I haven’t been counting recently). Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Chris: I don’t think you ever stop editing. I never want to. I look at everything I’ve written and, though I think it’s done after the first pass, I always find stuff I would change or do over. Finding that happy spot between it being done and that one more thing is tough.

Morgen: I agree but I suppose a second opinion helps with that. Do you have to do much research?

Chris: I’m a lazy writer. I make stuff up. As I switch genres, I’m sure I’ll have to do more research but, right now, it’s all the fruit of my imagination, baby.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Chris: I used to be wholly a third-person type of writer. And then I heard Lucifer’s voice, clear as day, and I wrote it just like I heard it. Haven’t been able to go back. Since I tend to write in the gray (I don’t think anyone is wholly good or wholly evil), I like being able to describe, from their point of view, that descent from good to evil. I like that transition and I like the inner monologue that accompanies such a fall.

I’ve never tried writing in second-person and I think the only time I’ve ever read it was those Choose Your Own Adventure books that came out when I was a kid.

Morgen: I love second person – and most of the shorts on my Tuesday Tales page are second person but I do remember the Choose Your Own from my (sort of) childhood… Will Sutton mentioned those only yesterday. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Chris: All of my writing is utterly fantastic. At least it is in my mind. The first full thing I remember writing was a screenplay sequel to the 1986 Transformers movie. I remember creating something called Dragatrons. Not my finest hour.

Morgen: But you’re oh so much wiser now so you can fix it. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Chris: My favorite aspect of my writing life is that it exists at all. There are so many frustrated writers who want to see their words in print but they can only see one way to do it. They’re silenced but, in many ways they’ve silenced themselves. And they miss out on this fantastic writers’ community. It’s like a special club only a few people get to be a part of.

The least favorite aspect is the business end of it all. Praying for someone to actually purchase my book. Hoping someone reads my blog. Finding ways to be heard over the cacophony of people talking all at the same time. Trying to find time to manage that part of the writing life with the part of life that isn’t writing.

The thing that surprised me at all is that people actually read and like what I write. Writing is such a solitary endeavor and you’re writing for this enigmatic “reader” that you never get to see. It’s cool when they finally start to have names, faces, opinions. That makes it fun.

Morgen: I’ve had a lot of writers say the same thing (about the surprise and least favourite). It’s great speaking to your readers but there’s no doubt that marketing takes away precious time from the actual deed of writing (so I may be mad but I’m starting up a service to create blogs for other writers – details on my writer for hire page – we shall see how popular that is (or not). What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Chris: Do it. Don’t aspire. Don’t reconsider and mull it over and plot and plan ad infinitum. Do it. Commit. Put words on the page. Tell your story and forget about trying to sell it. Tell the story you’re meant to tell, not the one you think we’ll buy. That’s the story I want to read,

Morgen: Because the passion will be behind it. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Chris: Paul Robeson (the 20th century Renaissance man), Leonardo da Vinci (the real Renaissance man), and Stevie Wonder. We’d have pizza.

Morgen: Can we make that four people and I’ll join you (Stevie Wonder’s ‘Lately’ is one of my favourite songs). Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Chris: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Morgen: In other words, the old 300 words a day is a 100,000 novel in a year. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Chris: Nah. I work for a talent management software company as a training manager.

Morgen: ‘talent management software’ wow… the geek in me is intrigued by that. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Chris: When I’m not writing, I’m fantasizing about not doing P90X, watching movies, laughing at people fall, and hanging out with my husky, Rocky the WonderDog.

Morgen: Cute. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?

Chris: I’m passionate about the Indie Book Collective and the Creative Penn. I mentioned Viki King’s How to Write a Movie in 21 Days.

Morgen: Joanna Penn (aka The Creative Penn) was here earlier this month… Easter Sunday in fact. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Chris: I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Edgy Christian Fiction. They are valuable and I’ve met some fantastic writers and bloggers. Keeping up with it is tough—at least it is for me. I think I’d get more out of it with a more cohesive strategy. Still working on that.

Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Chris: I think the future is richer than ever. The gate is being crushed. I think we have a lot of work as indies to bring up the quality of our work, to act as our own gatekeepers, so to speak. But I think the opportunity to take your story directly to the reader, directly to the world is phenomenal. I think it only gets better from here.

Morgen: I hope so… it’s exciting. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Chris: You can find me at my blog (www.christophercstarr.net), on Goodreads, Facebook or Twitter (@SuperStarr73). My book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Chris: Thank you so much for having me! I think what you’re doing is fantastic for writers like me and I can’t thank you enough.

Morgen: Oh, you’re very welcome. It has rather consumed me over the past year (and 29 days, but who’s counting ) but it’s very rewarding (if not in book sales, definitive trickle), in visits to the blog (53,000 in that time) and of course getting to meet so many writers. I live and breathe it so it’s wonderful. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Chris: When are you coming to the States? I owe you a drink.

Morgen: Planes and I don’t get on so whoever invents time travel or computer-to-computer transmission of liquids first gets my business. Thank you, Chris. Good luck with the rest of your 30-day challenge, last day tomorrow… then I start Story a Day.

Christopher C. Starr is the author of The Road to Hell: The Book of Lucifer, the first novel in the Heaven Falls series. These stories examine the God’s relationship with Heaven and Earth, told through the eyes of the angels. The next book in the series, Come Hell or Highwater, is scheduled for late 2012 / early 2013.

Chris makes it a point to look at the dark side of his characters, both heroes and villains, and his work explores the “grey”—that place where good and evil come together in all of us.

When he’s not being chased out of churches, Chris enjoys comic books and movies, staying away from cemeteries, and poorly participating in P90X. He lives in Seattle with his wife, two kids (The Boy and the Honey Badger), and his husky, Rocky the WonderDog.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Tuesday Tales 020: Appearances can be deceptive

The twentieth prompt from online writing group Tuesday Tales (my fourteenth story for them) was ‘car’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 473-worder (second person, as I so often do).

Appearances can be deceptive

Sitting outside the bank isn’t your idea of fun. They said they wouldn’t be long but whenever Ernie’s involved you know his clock works differently to everyone else’s. You should have brought a book but he wants you to be on your guard, be bored while he’s chatting up some ‘skirt’ as he calls them. You’re more of a ‘know what you want, go in and get it’ person, although this isn’t exactly shopping.

“It’s not life or death,” Jack says, which you find funny as you know it could be. Not funny ha-ha, of course, it’s never ha-ha.

“Got to keep your mind on the job, professional at all times,” Jack says every now and then, within earshot of Ernie, despite knowing it won’t even go in one ear let alone out the other.

You expect violence and sometimes you get it, or Ernie or Jack do, but it’s part of the risks you take, doing what you do. Your heart’s thumping – you want to know what’s happening on the inside, be part of the ‘action’.

Each time you see them go in you wish you weren’t the driver, the “getaway” as Ernie calls you, only without the ‘t’.

Your trousers are too tight and wish you’d not had an extra slice of toast at breakfast but the adrenalin will burn it off soon enough, it’s only the first job of the day.

The clock on the dashboard is fast, Jack’s idea to try and keep Ernie in check, but you both know that’s pointless.

A brand new Mercedes pulls up on the double-yellow lines in front of you and you tense. The door opens slowly and you reach for a gun you know isn’t there. White hair is the first thing you see and when the man turns round to shut the door, you realise he must be at least 90. He hobbles between your van and his car and reaches inside his jacket. You lean forward to get a better look and see him pull out a wallet and continue his slow journey to the cashpoint. A simple transaction and he returns, carefully putting what looks like a single note into his wallet and placing that with equal reverence into his pocket. He smiles at you as he passes, lowers himself stiffly into his car and drives away.

Relaxing a little, you look at the bank as your colleagues come out laughing, Ernie patting Jack on the back, Ernie wiping his mouth. They’re both holding cases you know are stuffed with money and you start the engine.

With the cases stowed, Jack gets in beside you, Ernie in the back and you speed away.

This is only your first month but you know you’ll fit in – three being the magic number, one for each red dot on your Securitas logo.

The link to the other stories for this prompt is here.

The links to the earlier prompts can be found on the Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 19 part 2: ‘Where’s the fun in that?’

It turns out I hadn’t been paying attention in class (and I used to be so good)… or rather, with the Tuesday Tales prompt for this week. I thought it was ‘chase’ (the story for which, The photo that no-one else can get, I posted on this blog yesterday) but that had been postponed in place of a picture… the handsome one below. So with less than 24 hours to spare I got cracking… actually I didn’t straight away, I started this afternoon… 3pm, two hours ago, but shorts are my forte (or so I’ve been told) so 300 words in two hours. No problem.

Online writing group Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 300-worder (finished with 10 minutes to spare ).

Where’s the fun in that?

This wasn’t Nadine’s idea of fun.

Knowing she wanted to be an actress, her flatmate Tim had sold it to her as an opportunity to get in front of the camera, but neglected to tell her the camera wouldn’t be shooting at the time.

“Come on, it’ll be a laugh,” he’d said. “Get you away from those infernal study books. You’ll meet people. You know, real people who earn money for a living and you’ll earn a bit in the process.”

But this wasn’t what she classed as a ‘living’, strutting around semi-nude – the men of course, not her – and it was their silly too-big-for-their-heads cowboys hats that made her laugh, which didn’t impress them or the photographer… although Tim thought it was hilarious. Then there were the rips in their jeans her mother would have insisted on sewing up.

The models reminded her of the Chippendales except this was more tasteful… a campaign for a top jeans designer. She couldn’t remember which one, Tim had told her when they’d booked his dad’s farm, and had seemed suitably excited, but it had meant nothing to her, still didn’t. Actors and actresses, that was a different matter but fashion… modelling… had never appealed to her.

And the models could tell.

She knew they weren’t renowned for their brains – deciding that was probably why their hats were too big – or stimulating conversations, which was just as well as they were too busy preening for the camera.

“Now!” the photographer shouted, and although he was looking at the models, Nadine knew he meant her.

She sighed, picked up the bottle, shook it and headed towards the men. She wanted to be helping the photographer, adjusting lighting, whatever needed doing. Not this…

…squirting baby oil all over them

…where was the fun in that?

The links to the earlier prompts can be found on the Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 019: The photo that no-one else can get

The nineteenth prompt from online writing group ‘Tuesday Tales’ (my thirteenth story for them) was ‘chase’ and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it.

I did this but had been asleep in ‘class’ as it had previously been announced that ‘chase’ was postponed and a picture prompt had gone up – I’m a glutton for punishment (which is no hardship as I adore writing something new) so did this as well as it resulted in a 300-worder ‘Where’s the fun in that?‘, posted on this blog on Monday 16th April. Below is my 356-worder second-person viewpoint (as most of my Tuesday Tales have been) for the original prompt of ‘chase’…

The photo that no-one else can get

You’ve been chasing her for days, to get the photo that no-one else can get. She knows you’re there. There’s always someone there.

It’s a lifestyle she’s had to become accustomed to, only you don’t think she ever will. It’s not one you’d want, except she’s become your job, your life.

When she emerges out of the building, you reach over to your camera, on its dashboard tripod, and set it to continuous.

You follow her car through narrow streets, wide streets – her executive to your jalopy, the only thing you could get at short notice. You’re used to this place, she’s been here a lot.

Most of the shots are of the back of her head but you know she could look round. She has before.

As her car gathers speed so does yours. It complains but it’s not yours so you’re not bothered.

As she heads into the tunnel, she edges forward and you floor the accelerator, a little too close for comfort but you decide to go alongside, get level, no other cars in sight, so you swivel your camera round in anticipation, a momentary lapse in concentration.

You scream as your car clips hers, a white graze on the black beast, but you keep driving, then slow… watching in the rear view mirror as the Mercedes’ offside hits the pillar, then spins, making contact with the front, ricocheting into the nearside, only the boot intact.

Then you see the other cars, lights on, stop at the scene and you speed away, heart pounding, sweat rising in your armpits and head back to your room, taking the smallest streets you know of, hearing but not seeing the sirens that wake up a sleeping city.

As you look at the screen, you study the dozens of photographs that you know no-one else but you will see. You’ll delete them, never printing them, burn the memory stick to be sure, buy a new computer, but not yet. You put them in a folder and know that whatever you do with them you’ll never forget – the world will never forget – the day you killed a princess.

***

Apart from being inspired by true events, some months ago I read Alexis Sayle’s title story from his collection ‘Barcelona Plates’ and that story’s always stayed with me.

The links to the earlier prompts can be found on the Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 018: Cocoon

Online writing group ‘Tuesday Tales’ this week gave out the prompt ‘airport’ and below is the result, my twelfth for them. You can read everyone’s stories for this prompt here.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 200-worder second-person.

Cocoon

It’s the one place you dread. Psyche yourself up so much that you feel sick before you get on the plane. If you liked alcohol more you’d get drunk but then you know that would make things worse.

Looking around, you compare like-for-like; ‘suits’ on the red eye, but even the shades of grey differ. You’ve been often enough the past few weeks for some to become familiar but they look through you, used to seeing the same faces but not communicating, unless it’s mobile to ear.

You send a text to your brother, always waiting at the other end, say your flight’s on time and you’ll be there as usual.

The sign comes up and you switch off your phone, put it in your bag, no need for the formality of a reply.

The flight’s not too bad and you think you might actually start to enjoy it but you know you won’t have to do this much longer. That Dad won’t last much longer.

As you walk into arrivals, a stranger holds a placard containing your name and you feel your legs weaken. You switch on your phone and it beeps, clicking the ‘read’ button confirms the worst.

The links to the earlier prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 017: Siesta

Armed with online writing group Tuesday Tales’ seventeenth prompt ‘chest’, my eleventh short story for them, I got writing and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link, then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 316-word second-person story.

Siesta

You can’t help staring at his chest. Only a mammoth has more hair than Eddie. It’s the only thing you dislike about his body so you close your eyes and think of proverbial England… the country of your birth… the country you miss, despite everything you have here.

Eddie mistakes your closed eyes for ecstasy and gives one last thrust, groaning as he does so, then flops back to his side of the bed and promptly falls asleep, the effort clearly too much. He puts his constant lethargy down to advancing years but you tell him that fifty is the new thirty so he’s thirty-two. You put it down to his sedentary lifestyle, easily done where you are, except you go out and find things to do. Solo but not solo, enjoying other people’s company but wishing it was Eddie’s.

You look at the expanse of hair – more of it, it seems, due to his expanding girth – and you watch it rise and fall. The mouth above it whimpers and you catch your name. Soft, romantic, like you know Eddie to be… under all that hair. He’s grown his head hair long, dark like his chest, looks like a rock star only he doesn’t play the guitar so well.

Leaning in, you smell the still-evident aftershave, the last of the Duty Free. You rub his chest, determined to make friends with the mammoth, remind yourself that Eddie can be an animal in bed when he’s not so tired, then your hand stops… replays, just to be sure, and it is sure. You’re sure. You’ve felt this before… with Frank. Images flood your brain: beeping machines, shaking heads, forms to sign.

You feel a sensation in your nose, you always do before you cry, but you sniff away the tears as Eddie opens his eyes.

You smile, kiss his chest, then go downstairs to make the dinner.

This story is one of twelve to be found here.

The links to the first seven prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 016: Date Night

Armed with their sixteenth prompt ‘night’, my tenth short story for online writing group ’Tuesday Tales’ is below. Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us that link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 258-worder…

Date Night

Date night has become a weekly tradition you look forward to. Thursdays. When others go out with the lads… the girls… it’s just you and Evelyn. Your French Fancy. You think it’s corny but she still finds it funny – even after all these years.

She acts differently on a Thursday morning. More loving. Like a teenager, even. She becomes your Frisky French Fancy.

You’re a private couple and go somewhere different each time so no-one remembers you but always classy, expensive. You pay cash as if it’s going to impress but the only one who feels differently is you.

A young man with an ice bucket of individual red roses stands at the table and wishes you a Happy Valentine’s then asks if you’d like to buy a flower “for your lady”, which you gladly do, even though you’ve bought her an expensive bracelet.

You order steak, medium-well done, Evelyn has trout, and you talk about everything and nothing; work, the children – you still have plenty to say.

Sharing a caramel roulade takes you back to your first date and you mention it. She stops smiling and you see a tear forming.

“Je suis désolé,” you say, putting down your fork, and signalling for the bill.

You pay and leave the restaurant in silence, remaining so as you walk to the car park.

You kiss her cheek and she smiles briefly.

You open her door and she says a “merci”.

You watch her drive away, back to her family and you get in your car to return to yours.

***

PS. Evelyn / Evelyne means ‘little bird‘ or ‘hazelnut‘.

The links to the first seven prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 015: Consolation prize

Armed with the prompt ‘sky’, my ninth short story for online writing group ’Tuesday Tales’, I headed off to the park, and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 301-worder, back to second-person viewpoint.

Consolation prize

As you lie on your back, looking up at the cloudless sky, you wish that life could always be this easy.

The answer isn’t 42, as Douglas Adams would have had you believe… unless you could work out what the question really was. The age you’d like to be? The age when things get easier? You hope so.

“I don’t love you anymore.” You play Terry’s statement over in your head. It’s something you’d heard before – not from him, but in movies with Terry sat beside you, vowing to never say those words, to be that hollow. He’d squeezed your hand as if to seal the pact.

But he has, and you’re the one feeling empty because he now has someone who makes him anything but.

He has Jack.

You thought you’d misheard, that he’d meant Jackie, or non-gender like Chris or Sam, but then he’d shown you a photo; of the two of them smiling. He should have picked one of your opponent alone, looking miserable, like you are now.

But Terry said it. Deed done. Packed his bags, wedding ring on his bedside table, gone to live in sin.

You wonder if there’s such a thing as double-sin. Living with someone who isn’t your wife, living with your own sex. And you suppose that’s what it’s all about. That sex with Jack… you don’t really want to think about it, but it must be better than with you. Different at least… a novelty. But then you start wondering whether it’s not novel at all, that you were the novelty, one that turned out to be a consolation prize.

Your mind drifts as clouds gather and the sun disappears, until you realise the shadow’s not a cloud. You look at it, recognising the smile, then take the hand you’re offered.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 013: The Milkman’s

Armed with the keyword of ‘life’, the twelfth prompt but my sixth short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales, I headed off to the park (as seems to be the best place for writing these).

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 134-worder – they’re getting shorter, it’ll be a 100-worder next. And yes, it’s a cheery second-person viewpoint for a change.

The Milkman’s

Staring at the picture you wonder why Jeff had never queried the resemblance. He’d joked about Simon being the milkman’s but you knew he was never serious. Simon always laughed alongside him but gave you a quizzical look which you shrugged off, joining in the laughter just a split second too late.

It was never the right time to say anything – come clean to one or other of them. To both. But now is the right time, Jeff’s funeral a distant enough memory.

You wonder how much to tell him. Simon. Your only child. A teenager, born when you were a teenager. Old enough to know the truth, but you still worry about him handling it.

So you sit him down, start at the beginning; the moment when your uncle opened your bedroom door.

***

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales picture prompt 001: ‘Badge of Honour’

Armed with the picture prompt below, my first for online writing group Tuesday Tales, and a 300-word limit, I got writing and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales usually provides a new one-word prompt each week, but this was an extra and fun.

It follows the same format whereby the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim.

She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link **** WHICH IS HERE **** then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 259-worder ‘Badge of Honour’ (no surprises that it’s a second-person viewpoint)…

Badge of Honour

You know it could be anything, but you’re pretty certain it’s a body. You want to say something to Neville, but you know he’ll laugh at you, as he does. Never with you. So you leave him topping up his suntan lotion, escape before he asks you to rub factor 30 into his gorilla-like back. Again.

You head back to the long, narrow orange and white boat, to the cobalt-blue sacking, the human-shaped canvas that made your heart race when you walked past it yesterday, solo, during Neville’s siesta.

As you pull at the sacking, you scream and jolt backwards into a tall islander.

“Hello ma’am,” he says in his strong Jamaican accent.

All you can do is laugh nervously. You’re sure he’s the boat owner… sure he’ll overpower you if you try to make a run for it, that’s if you could get past.

He looks at the face. The woman’s. You think she’s a woman, you can’t really be sure, and he laughs. An indistiguishable laugh, but it makes you uneasy. You’re too far from Neville, from anyone, to make screaming again worth it, so you decide you’ll reason with the man, but before you can say anything, he speaks.

“You thought…?” and he laughs again, this time his green eyes sparkling, then he pulls away the sacking, revealing her body. Limp. Lifeless. Hollow eyes. Then you see her name badge, ‘Anne’, and you realise what she is. Beside her is a first aid kit and the man’s uniform featuring his badge, ‘Montego Bay Rescue Service – Trainer’.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 011: ‘Small Steps’

Armed with the prompt of ‘dress’, my fifth short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales, below is the result (a second-person short story for a change).

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it.

So, without further ado, here is my 162-worder which features with 22 other writers on the Tuesday Tales blog post dated 28 February 2012:

‘Small Steps’

It doesn’t bother you that you have to teach him to dress himself. All over again.
It doesn’t bother you that he doesn’t remember your name.
It bothers you that you’re the reason he’s like this.
A constant reminder that you didn’t take any notice when he asked you to slow down.
Begged, even.

Totally out of character, you chased the other car.
The driver.
The woman who’d cut you up.
The woman you recognised from the picture.
 
You were only supposed to be giving Andy a lift to football.
They weren’t supposed to be playing.
Didn’t usually in the rain but he’d had a text at the last minute, too late to walk or take his bike.
So he missed the game, and you missed the bend.
A lamppost slamming into the passenger door as the car spun.
The woman stopped then, ran back, helped you both, all the time crying.
“Jack loves you, Emma. We’ve only ever been friends.”

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 010: ‘Trust Me’

Armed with the prompt ‘cheat’ for my fourth short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales, I took the dog to the park and below is the result. Just for a change, it’s second person point of view… sorry about that.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 393-worder.

‘Trust me’

You’ve cheated your way here and you know you have to be careful. You suspect one or two of your colleagues know and it’s only a matter of time before someone asks you to do something simple. Something a junior doctor would know. Something a man of your standing could do in his sleep – a man who would worry in his sleep if he were you, but you don’t.

You’ve done this dozens of times. Not be a doctor – a first time is always thrilling – but pretend to be something you’re not… someone. It’s now second nature. You don’t have to remember lies anymore because the boundaries have blurred. You were a high court judge, a barrister, lawyer, until legal got boring so you switched to medicine, Googled your way through the basics – terminology for your fake CV, enough of those to paper your flat, more fake passports than MI5… or is MI6, you’ll Google that too for when you tire of medicine. Probably not long, you’ve never really been comfortable with hospitals but this one’s warm and spacious unlike your tiny flat – a hovel that only a legal or medical student would inhabit, but your scams get you by – make up for the pittance you earn when you’re ‘inside’. It’s been a while and you’re almost missing it. The familiar faces.

These faces have become familiar, especially the student nurses who hang on your every word so you make sure they’re good ones. Make some up, knowing that the girls would be too early on in their studies to know them, make sure they don’t write them down to look up later – keep their attention with every syllable. That’s how you get away with it: cover model looks, physique to match, thanks to Her Majesty’s gyms, and a photographic memory, thanks to Great Uncle Albert.

There’s one girl you’re concerned about; doesn’t write things down but doesn’t look at you in the same way; attentive but aloof. The first to put up her hand. The first to get the questions right. Sometimes the only one.

You’re looking at her now and realise she’s the prettiest. Behind the nerdy glasses the greenest of eyes, sexiest body beneath the too-baggy uniform and when you hear your boss’ voice, asking you to follow him to his office, you’re sure you catch her smiling.

Please do go and read the stories from the other authors from this week’s posting.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on this blog’s Tuesday Tales page. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales blog – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Latest ‘Tuesday Tales’ is out – 20 great stories for free!

‎20 tales from 20 great authors* and all free!

Just click on http://tuesdaytales1.blogspot.com/2012/02/tuesday-tales-free-reads-from-16.html and settle in with a cuppa.

*19 anyway as I’m too modest to call myself “great”.

 

Tuesday Tales 009: ‘Two Hearts’ (upbeat second person tale)

Sorry, couldn’t resist and yes, it’s another second-person story – anyone would think I can’t write anything else, it’s just that’s what’s coming out at the moment. It’s my favourite viewpoint so no hardship here.

Armed with the prompt ‘heart’, my third short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales, I headed off out with the dog to the park, and below is the result.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 504-worder offering. You can read the other 19 stories via http://tuesdaytales1.blogspot.com/2012/02/tuesday-tales-free-reads-from-16.html.

Two Hearts

The surgeon had told you that you shouldn’t feel any different after the operation. Uncomfortable, yes, but you’re not sure what you are feeling. Elated? Strong. Youthful. Not how you’d expected but then you’d spent years feeling sub-human, on enough pills to be a walking Tic-Tac packet, so anything else would have been better. And this, whatever it is, is beyond that.

Someone remarks on your lack of visitors, of family. Not loudly but just enough for you to catch it.

Norman, next door, has so many relatives that they have your allocation of chairs, and the almost-constant chatter is enough company when you need it. Norman’s had a bypass, just like you, but he’s not taking it so well. Or rather, it:him.

You’re due to be discharged today, soon in fact, you’re dressed, bag packed, just waiting for the all-clear but you’re in no hurry and you listen in on the conversations around you, from both sides; Norman on your right and Elvis on your left. You know that’s not his real name, you’ve not caught that yet as he’s a new recruit to the Thompson Ward but all he hums is The King so you’ve pretended it’s him; with your eyes shut, curtain closed.

As the doctor approaches your bed, you smile, sit up straight and shake his hand when he offers it. He asks you how you’re doing and you say you’ve never felt better. You mean every word and you’re glad you don’t have to lie any more. You want to start over, go back to your bedsit and look forward. Stop dwelling on things you can’t change. So you sign the discharge papers and leave.

It’s a 10-minute walk, past the park and normally that’s all you’d do, go past, but today you want to stop, go in, go to the lake, watch the dogs chasing the geese, the children feeding the ducks. Watch your old life but without regret.

You have pocket change so you head for the café to see it all from behind the warmth of the glass. You’ll buy some chips, hot, salted, unketchuped. They’ll be washed down with a large mug of tea, sweet and strong like Dawn said you were. In the early days.

Today feels like an early day and you don’t mind that it’s cold. Not really. The freshness feels inviting, crisp, but you’ve skipped breakfast so you’d rather eat here than at home.

As you approach the large panoramic window you see that the café’s packed, but figure you can probably squeeze in somewhere. You’re not as big as you used to be.

As you head for the door, you see a young woman struggling with a pushchair. You lunge forward, grabbing the door handle and pull it open, waving her in with a dramatic, sweeping gesture.

“Thanks,” she says in a broad, local accent. “You’re all heart.”

You smile and let the door close after her. You watch her take the last seat and you head for the lake.

The links to the earlier prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers and specifically the other 19 of this week’s stories via http://tuesdaytales1.blogspot.com/2012/02/tuesday-tales-free-reads-from-16.html.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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.

 

Tuesday Tales 008: Two Rows (second person pov)

Armed with the prompt ‘Love’ I headed to the park this morning (Sunday) to write my second short story for online writing group Tuesday Tales and below is the result. Last week I wrote a third-person story called Two Backwards One Forwards and in it was a small amount of second person. It’s my favourite point of view so I chose it for this week’s story. I hope you enjoy it… oh, and apologies in advance but a lot of my writing is quite morose and this is no exception.

Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday ), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 467-worder.

Two Rows

You wonder if she’s married. She talks in first person. Always I, never we. Singular. No ring. Like you. You’ve never spoken to her, of course, just heard snippets of conversation from two rows ahead.

You think you love her – you’ve seen her every morning for the past three years. Evenings too sometimes. Strokes of luck that have you both finishing at the same time. You don’t know where she works as she turns left as she gets off the bus, you right. You’ve thought about turning left, following her, but that would be creepy and you don’t want to do anything that would put her off. Not that you’ve done anything to encourage her.

She knows you exist but not how much of an existence it is: work, sleep, little ‘play’ in between.

She’s always smiling, chatting to fellow passengers… on the phone. Never to you. But then you don’t let her get that close. Closeness is something you struggle with. Have done since…

You don’t like to think of back then. You’d rather it be a blank canvas on which to paint happy thoughts, fondly-remembered places, warm embraces.

She’s late this morning. You only remember her being late twice before – other than being on holiday. But then she didn’t turn up at all. You’d known she was going away – Mrs Davis had told you. Because the two ladies talk. A lot. Just day-to-day stuff, nothing too personal, more mother : daughter conversations.

Then you notice Mrs Davis is crying. You’ve never seen her cry before and you’ve known her longer than Beth. Just the thought of her name makes you smile but then you see Mrs Davis look at you and she bursts into tears.

You leave your seat and sit in the empty one beside her – Beth’s seat. You’ll keep it warm until she arrives. There are still plenty of people getting on so she has time.

You want to put your arm around her. Mrs Davis. Tell her it can’t be that bad and you’re still debating when she takes your hands in hers and starts speaking, between sobs.

“Oh, Tim.”

You wonder if her tears are because of Mr Davis but you don’t think he’s ever done something to warrant something like this. She doesn’t say any more and you wonder if she’s waiting for you to speak but she lets go of your hand and picks up a paper from her lap. She unfolds it, revealing the front page. You recognise the photograph. The smile.

You feel sick as you read the text. ‘Local secretary, Beth Robinson, killed in freak accident.’

The bus lurches and starts its journey. To the town centre. To the bus stop where you’ll be getting off. Turning right, as you make your way to the bank.

Smoky Zeidel, (currently challenging everyone to write 100-word stories including grasshopper, jackhammer and peppermint!) challenged me to pare this story down to 100-words so, always being up for a writing challenge (too many ‘challenge’s, get the red pen out!) I did it and you can read it below, within the comments section.

The links to the first seven prompts, and resulting stories, and the forthcoming prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site – it’s a wonderful idea supported by talented writers and this story was listed, with 19 other writers, on the site on 7th February.

So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.

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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.