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 …

Maximum nebulosity

The is piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'nebulous'. “Stan, this campaign speech simply won’t do, with all these references to targets for economic growth, employment levels, CO2 reduction, home ownership rates, let alone how we are going to handle foreign relations.” “But, with respect, Prime Minister, these …

Max did something

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Story Challenge, with the prompt word of 'train'. Note: This piece departs from my usual humorous approach to these challenges. As Max watched his son-in-law, David, board the train and then boarded himself, he knew two things for certain; they would both be dead soon, because David …

It all adds up

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word of 'explore'. The pedagogic method that Professor of Mathematics at H. R. Umph University, Archer Roman, used to awaken young minds and explore the hitherto unplumbed depths of their intelligence was to occasionally posit a trick question (hence his nickname of Fibbin’ …

A gripping tale

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, using the prompt word of 'grip'. ‘Well, Lieutenant, do you think this is the work of Cornflakes Magee, the famous cereal killer, or does it have the telltale MO of the Handlebar Kid, or maybe even the shocking hallmarks of Electric Bill?’ ‘No, Sergeant. This has …

A tribute to careful planning

This piece was submitted to the Blog Battle challenge for August 2021, with the prompt word of 'tribute'. It was a fact that Phil had organised for Matthew to die. Phil took full responsibility but there would be no trial. He could have confessed but he chose not to. On principle. When the Reverend Matthew …

Not on my shift

This 99 word piece was written in response to the Carrot Ranch's weekly challenge with the prompt of ' write a story about an open door'. My immediate thoughts went to this experience. Earlier this week, my wife and I visited my 99-year-old Dad in a nursing home interstate because they’d advised us that his time …