Shock and denial

This piece was written for the weekly Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word of 'treatment'. Rufus Hornblower, the ‘it’s only the flu’, ‘it’s your sovereign right not to wear a mask’, ‘vaccination’s a plot’ shock jock, was bewildered when he woke up on a hospital trolley in a warehouse, after he’d gone to ER …

Yeti couldn’t prove it

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'video'. Oscar (Monte) Video’s extended interview with The Abominable Snowman, establishing once and for all that not only did he exist but that he was not alone and part of a thriving community, should have been the media sensation of the …

The Delicious Electric Apocalypse

This piece is for the October 2021 Blog Battle, with the prompt word of 'scattered'. My ancestors came from Mexico, where people did not fear us but loved us. They would wait a whole year to eat our fruit. They would smell us coming. We did not stand on the shoulders of giants so much …

Sarah’s Fountain of Youth

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word of 'fountain'. When Sarah N. Dipity had a pond dug in her back garden by two strapping young lads, which her adult children accused her of using as eye-candy, she’d originally planned to fill it with fish and water plants and live …

The pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the handle.

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word of 'handle'. Extracts from Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ in italics. I'm on the pavement, thinking about the government, the secret government of alien reptile paedophiles that rules the world, except it’s not a secret any more because Q-anon told me on …

Trigger warning methodology 101

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word of 'method'. Note: Examples only - (may contain traces of nuts) Little Red Riding Hood – includes wild animal devouring old lady and an axe murder. Julius Caesar –main character stabbed repeatedly in the rotunda. Romeo and Juliet – includes under-age sex …

I-lands of the world

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'island'. List of I-lands of the World (including those that are phonetically similar) - Extract from Wackypedia I Land – Home to the Narcissus people. Principal economy: Social media and mirrors. National anthem: ‘Mi, mi, mi, look at me’. Ire Land …

The Devil is in the deal

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'deal'. Galatians 6:7 (modernised for gender equity)  ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a woman soweth, that shall she also reap.’ Harper, with her companion in tow, knocked confidently on the door that displayed a brass name plate …

Karen finds salvation

This piece was written for the Blog Battle Challenge, with the prompt word of 'precious'. Karen trawled the internet constantly, often feverishly, in search of evidence that the world was conspiring to bruise her soul at every turn. She was rarely disappointed and lived in a constant state of distress, a state she lamented to …

Ess-sense

This piece was written as a response to The Carrot Ranch 99-word challenge, with the prompt of “not everyone fits a prom dress”, from Ellis Delaney's song 'Not everyone fits a prom dress'. Not everyone fits a prom dressNot everyone fits a compressNot everyone spurns a temptressNot everyone earns their distressNot everyone wears a nightdressNot …