The Last Siren

This is my entry in June 2020's Furious Fiction competition, the challenge being: Your story’s first and last words must begin with J, your story must include a game being played and your story must include the phrase MISS/MISSED THE BOAT. Word limit: 500 (Note: My more avid readers will recognise this story as re-purposed …

Bats in the belfry

The first to go down was Facebook. Not that most people cared. ‘Suck it up, Suckerberg’ was the standard sneer. When Twitter went, the chattering classes, journos, politicians and OCD commenters on anything and everything went mental but the average punter couldn’t really give a toss. One by one, the social media trees were felled …

Nights in the castle – Episode 2

After I posted my original 'Nights in the castle' story (which I suggest you read first), I received warm encouragement from many sources to keep the story going. After some delay I have decided to take that advice and see if I can sneak up on a novel approximately 1000 words at a time.   …

Who?

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields who provides us with a photo prompt each week, with a challenge to write a 100-word story inspired by the photo. (Apologies to the late Spike Miligan for stealing his witch-doctor joke but he was a big fan of recycling.) © Roger Bultot   ‘Do you think that’s …

The Giraffter Life

They sat, in their re-purposed dust-sheet-covered armchairs, on the back verandah, as dusk descended on ‘The Farm’. The name came from his Asian colleagues, curious about his regular Facebook posts from his veggie patch. When he told them he had a modest half acre, they told him that made him a farmer. Of course he …

The Fisherman and the Bucket

As you fly in to Broome in the dry season, there is a distinct line between the red pindan desert and the violent green of the tropical vegetation and then another one between the green and the cobalt blue of the sea. It never fails to draw gasps from tourist passengers and then again as …

The Tree of Secrets

This my entry to this month's 500 word Flash Fiction challenge that had to include a countdown, the sharing of a secret and the word 'serendipity'. Frankie’s house was the last on the roughly graded road. Along the road were the sawmill, a couple of holiday shacks, some timber workers houses like Frankie‘s and the …

The contract

(This story just turned up in my head the other day and wouldn't go away until I wrote it down.) He was up early and well gone to his work on the farm, as always. She found the envelope on the kitchen table, propped up against the tomato sauce bottle that was already attracting flies …

Jack and Jill and Brian

This piece was written for this month’s Blog Battle challenge of producing a piece from the prompt ‘harp’.   “We’re having a baby. It’s time you moved in.” Jack luxuriated in the warmth of Jill’s body and the completeness of her declaration. Jack was a positivist on a mission to complete a generative set. Jill …

Bush Rescue

This  story has been entered into the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story competition. It is an extended version of an earlier piece for the Blog Battle site.   As his headlights cut a hole in the blackness of the remote road he knew well, Jack saw another source of light exposing the crowns of the gumtrees …