The Mickelmouse Club

This piece was written for the Six Sentence story challenge with the prompt word of 'home'. The former country pile had been the home of the descendants of the robber baron, the Earl of Mickelmouse, but had fallen into disrepair after the last of the line accidentally wandered into the front line during the Battle …

Perpetual motion

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge with the prompt word of 'gear'. Albert A. Stone did not want to be just another cog in the wheel of life, meshing with others to make some soulless machine rotate endlessly, although he could imagine deriving some perverse pleasure, for a short time at least, …

Gotcha laundry

This piece of fluff was written for the D'Verse Poetics challenge to write a laundry poem. When the permanent press get a whiff and start to sniff the stained seats of power, they start to front-load the ‘news’ and then rinse and repeat until their designated target gets the heat of the hearsay tumble dryer …

Free birds

This piece was written for the Carrot Ranch 99-word challenge with the prompt of 'escape'. You could resign, storm out in high dudgeon and let the cards fall where they may. You could fantasise about finding another job where your skills are finally appreciated and imagine submitting your resignation with an air of smugness. You …

Customer Service Guarantee

This piece was written for the Six Sentence challenge, with the prompt word 'service. Here at (insert name of corporation, business, government agency, etc) we value our service to our customers extremely highly and we do all that we can to ensure complete customer satisfaction in all our interactions. From our highly professional call centre …

Unfiltered

This story was written for the Six Sentence story challenge with the prompt word of 'filter'. You know that filter that’s supposed to intervene between what you think and what you say, that filter that weighs up the consequences of honesty versus the need to be polite and to consider the future consequences for your …

Extract from an exclusive interview with Genghis Khan (re-visited)

This piece was submitted to the D'Verse Prosery Possibilities page, with the condition that the following quote in full had to be included in a 144 word story. “I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility that existence has its own reason for being.” Wisława Szymborska, “Possibilities” “Just one last question, Mr. Khan. We’ve covered …

The Theory of Irrelativity

This piece is a response to the Six Sentence challenge for this week, with the prompt of 'theory'. Einstein may well have cracked the code for the way that physical phenomena interact in both special and general ways and led to a new understanding of gravity, despite doubters who discounted his theories on the basis …

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 …