The knotted circle will be unbroken

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'knot'. On his bad days, Alex would imagine slipping a noose with a hangman’s knot around the neck of the irredeemable moral reprobate in his town or on the news that had angered him today, imagine pulling the lever on the …

Single cell Nirvana

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'guard'. Initially, Lester thought it would be interesting to share a cell with Jake, an Australian, given that over the years he’d shared a toilet and washbasin with guys from almost all of the 50 States, but it wasn’t long before …

You learn to smell it

This piece has been adapted from a longer work about my days as a roadie for largely forgettable rock bands in the 1970's. It responds to the Six Sentence Challenge prompt word of 'band'. This was a new band I was ‘auditioning’ for as their full-time roadie, in a sticky-carpeted outer suburban hotel where,  as …

In every way, shape and form

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'form' He had shape, in the sense that a woman bearing twins has shape but he carried it much lower, folded over his belt that was cinched to his hips, which led to wags saying that he had a veranda over …

Angus finds his primary love

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'beat'. Angus Hardy’s heart beat only for the imported American teacher, Miss Anderson, with her green eyes, set in her lightly freckled face, mesmerising him to the point that he imagined they were looking deep into his and knew what he …

Let he who is not stoned cast the first sin

These pieces were written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'sin'. Sin - Disambiguation from Wackypedia Sin-22 – Catch-all for any sins we forgot first time around Sincerity – That which once you can fake, you’ve got it made ‘Sin – Cry sometimes heard from the putting green Syntax – Inexhaustible …

I think we need some space

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'space'. Bert and Gladys were folding up the tent on their camper trailer when Bert said “Gladys, you know how we were sleeping in the space inside the tent last night?” Gladys said ruefully “Well, you were doing most of the …

Pathways

These pieces were written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'path'. Path-ology (Acknowledgement – I am indebted to Perambulation T. Biped, Professor of Path-ology at Forkintheroad University, for providing the following definitions and clarifications for new students of this discipline.) Psycho-path – Walking trail to the Bates Motel - not to …

Martian towards Bach

These pieces have been re-worked from two of my previous longer stories to meet the strictures of the Six Sentence Challenge and the prompt word 'bookmark'. Mark Martian and Eddie Earthling discuss novels Mark Martian said to Eddie Earthling ‘Eddie, what are you doing?’ and Eddie replied ‘I’m writing a book, Mark, or a novel …

More bubbly

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'coffee' (which is a name misleadingly given by Starbucks to 497 varieties of brown dishwater served in buckets to entitled millennial wannabes who place orders longer and louder than the Gettysburg Address). Over coffee, Arabella was lamenting the loss of her …