Cassandra? Never met ‘er.

This piece of nonsense was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'meter', which recalcitrant Americans persist in believing is a measure of distance, proving that if you give them an inch they'll take 1.6 kilometres. Cassandra, the Greek patron saint of meterology, was blessed with the ability to take the …

The Sun shines out of Geoffrey’s artichokes

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'verge'. Explanatory note: In Australia, a suburban garden verge is the strip of land between the footpath (sidewalk, pavement) and the street. Technically this land is owned by the relevant local government authority and some maintain them (e.g. mow the grass) …

’50 Give or take’ 2022 anthology

My 50-word story, Wild West Romance, made it into this annual anthology. 'The 50-Word Stories of 2022: Microfiction for Lovers of Quick Reads (50 Give or Take Book 2)' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFXD2P8X Just goes to show that you can tighten up when you want to. This began as a 99-word story for the Carrot Ranch Challenge. 🙂

The Eternality of Eternity

And now for something completely different this week; an historical anecdote. This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'eternal'. Arthur Malcolm Stace was born in 1885, brought up by alcoholic parents in poverty that led to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins, …

…. and the nominations include ..

Views on whether a Pushcart Prize nomination is anything to feel good about range from it being meaningless (after all, some 10,000 nominations are made by small publishers annually) to it being an important acknowledgement that at least one publisher has included your work in their best six for the year. It's no surprise that …

A Colonel of truth

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'play'. It's basically true, allowing for some poetic license and what time does to memories, and I only publish it as a very poor confession for a thoughtless act. In my callow and thoughtless youth, I was a budding and ambitious …

At the risk of repeating myself

One of the rarest of beasts in the litmag world is those precious sites that allow you to send material that has been published previously so that it might reach a broader audience than the weekly Retired Wheeltappers Annual Report. One such delight is Digging Through The Fat and I thank them for their kind …

Who the hell is Lou Ming?

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'energy'. With my eyesight rapidly fading, I’m forced to type using a dictation app (so please excuse any Type O’s and things I oughta correct) and I’m reduced to getting my news from the radio and podcasts, but I’m not sure …

I’d love to turn you off, Ken Oath

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Story Challenge, with the prompt word of 'branch'. I was halfway through reading out a news story about how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall when Ken Oath, as was his wont, interrupted to branch off into ‘That reminds me of the dreadful potholes …

3 stories on a literary billboard outside Luna County, New Mexico

Over the last 5 years, Jason Splichal and Jeff Sommerfeld have published over 700 writers from around the world in their Sky Island Journal, reaching over 115,000 readers in 145 countries. I am deeply honoured and grateful that they have published three of my flash fiction stories in their Fall 2022 edition. You can either …