Mikeyboy

Flaps are lifted, then let slam, blocks are shifted and knocked about. Science is fun my girlfriend says, as her 5 year old, not mine, rocket flies around in this hellish cavern. He sticks a finger where he shouldn’t. I distract my girlfriend, leave him to endure the pain a little longer. #WriteCBC

#WriteCBC task from @gabriellegriffiths.bsky.social: Start with your character opening the door to a stranger. Use specific details to introduce this stranger and to hint at how their relationship might unfold. Do they trust each other? Will they fall in love? Or is disaster in their future?

There's two of them.
"Hello, is your Mum in?"
She's got a beaky nose.
"Or Dad?"
He's short and stout. I keep schtum, use my go-away stare.
"A big brother or sister perhaps?"
They run out of options.
"Cat's got his tongue," she laughs to him.
"Nah," I say, slam the door but they'll be back. #WriteCBC

Imagine playing cricket here on a day like today

Ooh yes

“We’ll just pop in here” my wife innocently said. The artist had a picture ready. “Happy Birthday my love.”
I looked, I squirmed, “It’s you as a mermaid.”
“Isn’t it something?”
“Yes,” I grimaced.
At home she told me where to hang it.
I can’t look at it without thinking of leaving her.
#WriteCBC

The Bee includes this thebeemagazine.com/publishings-... by me! Asking what’s changed since the landmark publication of @kitdewaal.com’s Common People & highlighting some new @creativepec.bsky.social research too

#WriteCBC task from @lucyrosecreates.bsky.social: Let’s revisit a classic. You’ve gone to bed and turned off the light, and as you close your eyes, you feel a warm breath come upon your cheek. Your senses are fizzing. There is a new darkness swarming in the corner of your room. What happens next?

Like Stuck in the Mud I can't move while it watches. I want to shout What's the time Mr Wolf and run. In the darkness there's a hovering density. I half-hear a low breeze, myself breathing. My summer dress floats, a human sniffs and I remember the man who stood too close on the tube. #WriteCBC

Poster for info on Stinging Fly Summer School.

Next Thursday, 03 April, 5pm, is the deadline to apply for places in the Summer School from @stingingfly.bsky.social . I'll be running the ONLINE Creative Non-Fiction Workshop. Hope you can join me!

Did this last Summer... Highly recommend. Arnold is a fine tutor.

I bathed long, I had to generously apply body crème to rehydrate my dried skin. I feel heat from bathing but also the coldness of the crème. A noise takes me to the window. I watch the crows cawing, clinging to the branches as the wind whips up strength. A wild storm is coming, as is he. #WriteCBC

A firm shoulder shove, as per instructions, and she’s in. The hall is dark, narrow, and there’s a smell of damp. She flicks the light switch but no light comes on. Climbing the uncarpeted stairs, each step creaks, she pushes open what could be her bedroom door and shrieks. No, not this. #WriteCBC

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to submit to us. And also thanks to those supporters who have shared our call for submissions!
We are excited about the "Spring Warmer" and are looking forward to pulling it together.
#callforsubmissions #writingcommunity

Bristol Short Story Prize now open for stories of up to 4000 words, judged by prize-winning novelists and a literary agent. Also winning stories published.

Link below

Please share.

bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

They were incredible Simeon, as you were yourself.
I loved the diversity, commercial work alongside work of a more cutting edge. Something for everyone.
I think Spooky Bitch was the deserved winner but I'd read your novel as it just sounds so different from what is on the bookshop shelves.

Some work. A long run in the cold. Hot porridge. A bath and a nap. Then I’ll be raring to go. You seemed very calm when you did yours in London.

Thoroughly deserved win Kate, I loved your addition to the story. Yay!

Brilliant

Ella says, “I have a plan.” Dressed for artic conditions, together they shovel the snow and build a wall so high you can no longer see their bungalow. “But who is he, I have to know?”
“Ella, he’s your father.”
“But you always told me he died.” Ella stops digging, she needs to know.
#5ActFestiveStory

Thank you

Delighted and greatly humbled to see my novel The Cocklemen among these 8 finalists.
Good luck to the other 7 writers reading their work.
I’m so looking forward to the tension we will be put through as everyone watching votes for their favourite and the overall winner is named.
What a night ahead.

Act II - if anyone is interested in joining the 5 Act Festive Story, check out @cbcreative.bsky.social

Again congratulations, and on Thursday we have the JW First 500 competition. Will you be joining and voting on the evening? Promises to be another great night for the 8 finalists.

The tears dropped like icicles from young Heidi’s rosebud cheeks. She was sorry too and yearned to rush to her best friend, to hug and make up but the snow made traveling impossible. What could she do? Suddenly an idea illuminated in her head and hope appeared in her heart. #5ActFestiveStory

What a name! A cheery Victorian detective character's name perhaps?

What a name! A cheery Victorian detective character's name perhaps?