Finn McCool, the first Gaelic vegan

This piece was written for the D'Verse Prosery Challenge, with the prompt to write a story that includes: ‘I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head’. I went out to the hazel wood because a fire was in my head. I sat at the feet of Finneces, who awaited …

War and pizza

Written for the 42 word poetry challenge . with the prompt ward of War. The world is simply divided, armistice we are unlikely to see. There’s no-one who is undecided White flags there never will be. Pineapple is an abomination Say the denizens of the purist army, whereas pineapple proponents say pizza without it is …

Blog Battle – Bush Rescue

The good folk at Blog Battle have now increased their upper word limit to 2,000, so I am shamelessly re-posting this piece with some slight amendment. In the waning evening light, Jack saw the highlighted crowns of the gumtrees first. He slowed his tray-back to a crawl until he spotted the crumpled vehicle half-way down …

Life fluttering by.

Written for the Jan 7 99-word Flash Fiction challenge with the prompt words of 'butterfly' and 'stone'. When you were small, you used to call butterflies ‘flutterbys’ and you’d chase them through my veg patch and I’d pretend to be angry but you’d just laugh and keep running. When you got older, you’d stone the …

Paradise on Earth

This piece was written for the 6 sentence story challenge with the prompt word of 'Distance' For Gerald, the plague represented a blessing from on high, rather than a sign of God’s punishment of a sinful, unrepentant world, as posited by some parishioners at his local church (at least the ones who weren’t positing that …

Spike’s final resting place

Back in May, I submitted a story called The Smiling Roses to the Carrot Ranch's regular 100 word weekly challenge, which concludes with a man's ashes being scattered under some roses. I have since discovered that this would have made the roses very ill indeed, which would have defeated the point of the insult. So …

Extracts from an exclusive interview

“Just one last question, Mr. Khan. We’ve covered the unification of the Mongol tribes, developing the Silk Road, controlling huge areas of the world as your conquering armies dominated parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and, of course, Asia. We’ve covered your revolutionary military tactics, your complete trust in your generals, and your enlightened …

Keep the change

This piece was written for the weekly 6 sentence story challenge with the the prompt word of 'change'. Jaxxon awoke with a start and surveyed, in panic, the windowless stone walls, the metal ceiling with its encaged fluorescent tubes and air vent, the metal toilet and basin, and the metal bed he lay on, with …

Mabilene’s Christmas Newsletter

One month ago, readers were challenged to write an a-musing Christmas newsletter poem. Humor and terrible poetry abounded, and woo-hoo, I was the winner. Mabilene’s Christmas newsletter Merry Christmas to all of you’s,time for our annual catch up and newsWe know you always look forward to thisso everyone here sends a big kiss. XXX Hubby …

Harold’s Dream

My response to this week's December 10: Flash Fiction Challenge « Carrot Ranch Literary Community to 'write a story about something a character never dreamed would happen.' Harold never dreamed he would one day build his own classic science fiction saucer, containing everything he needed. Kitchen, sitting room with a panoramic view through reinforced glass, …