“Did you see that?”
The man before me was a horror. It’s pale face was twisted in anguish like a Halloween mask held to the fire. It scratched at it’s scalp, at the visible, glistening wounds that ran like muddy rivulets between tuffs of matted hair. It’s eyes, milky and dull, were set deep into it’s skull. It’s jaw hung slack. Teeth haphazardly stacked like a tombstone lying abandoned upon a vandalised grave. A monster. Always watching. I hated it.
What was it’s intentions?
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HOMEWORK for deadline Thursday 10pm, 24.07.25.
TASK: ‘The Mirror’. Write 500 words or fewer about ‘The Mirror’. Your story title isn’t included in the 500 words.
Homework to be in by 10 pm at the latest, Thursday 24th July 2025. (This time deadline will be helpful to both Martyn and Pat).
Meeting at 1.30pm, Sunday 27.07.25, Waterstones Bookshop, top floor [via stairs or lift], Oxford Street. Finish about 3.00pm.
Send all homework to Pat.
The robin is perched on the railing of the balcony outside. I can tell without even looking out there. I’d know its song anywhere, though I wouldn’t have expected to see one here, at this time of year, and in this idyllic holiday cottage where I’m staying. I smile to myself and finish making my morning coffee. I picked up these coffee beans in the local market yesterday, and their chocolate-rich aroma fills my nostrils as I stir in the milk, the spoon jangling pleasingly against the china cup.
A robin used to arrive in our garden every year on the anniversary of Grandma’s death when I was a child. Mum would ask me to help write a newsletter for the bird to take to her, wherever she was, updating her on all that we had been up to that year. I used to love sticking in photos and drawing pictures of all the activities we had done and all the holidays we had been on.
Continue readingThey say the Chancellor made the sacrifice no one else dared make, for many of the emperor’s subjects had longed to end their master’s life but to do that deed would be to forfeit their own.
The emperor was descended, or so it was claimed, from almighty Jupiter himself and thus his word was law. If he demanded for you to leap into the sea you would do so. If he desired to bed your wife or daughter, you’d smile and stand aside.
When the emperor spent the summer solstice by the mediterranean sea, a local fisherman collected a huge haul of fish and neglected to share this bounty with his lord. The emperor upon learning of this, had the fish rubbed against the man’s body until he bled to death.
Continue reading‘Morning, my lovely, I’m campaigning on behalf of the Resettlement party. You’ve heard of us? But of course. Who hasn’t? We’re setting the pace, aren’t we? We’re on all the front pages. Can Resettlement rely on your vote?’
‘Well I don’t rightly… I mean who are you going to…?’
‘If you’re born here, you’re OK. You’re in, you’re one of us.’
‘And if you’re not…?’
‘You’re looking at a package to help you return from whence you came. A tidy sum.’
Continue readingOpening the curtains Anna looked out on a kaleidoscope of colour: the perfect day, the birds awakening, a flurry of sleepy tweets, trees rustling .
Climbing back into bed she sighed in relief. Six in the morning and since her mother’s death there was no hurry now to start her day. Turning on her clock-radio a distant memory wrapped around her, a favourite song of her and Joe. She cried, recalling all the hurt of her choices.
In Sydney, Australia Joe Harvey sat looking through the family album. Jan, his wife, had passed away some time ago. Living on his own was hard, he missed the companionship. Out of nowhere a shaft of misery drove deep into him. A name popped into his mind, consoling, one that he had buried long ago.
Continue readingIt was an international group of UFO watchers that first sighted the visitors to Earth. Scepticism had surrounded their beliefs about life beyond planet Earth, but when the knowledge of unfamiliar life forms became widespread several countries put their national guard on shoot-to-kill alert.
Some of the UFO scanners expressed pleasure at their discovery. From Greenland :
‘We saw a group of eight visitors who seemed to have blown to Earth. No vehicle visible. These little guys are about the size of a child’s space hopper – round, with skin like a very old mouse, sort of patchy grey hairs. Hands seem to work like a chameleon’s. Don’t know what world they came from or how they travel.’
Continue readingMy stepfather, Sid, often talked about his sacrifices. He said it was about the three of us, carefully including Myles. But it wasn’t. It was about Eleanor and me. We were his entry passes to our mother’s orbit. She came as a package: long legs, blonde hair, and two kids, which was ideal for an insurance salesman. It gave him a ready-made family, including a trophy wife and two kids—the perfect image. But he resented us.
We rented a two-bedroom terrace, where the mice skittered across the pans when someone turned on the kitchen light, and a broken window remained unaddressed for the entire time we lived there. Five doors down was a house where men visited at irregular hours. I had an idea of what went on behind those shuttered windows, and I’m pretty sure Sid did too.
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HOMEWORK for deadline Thursday 10pm, 26.06.25.
TASK: ‘Sacrifice’. Write 500 words or fewer about ‘Sacrifice’. Your story title isn’t included in the 500 words.
Homework to be in by 10 pm at the latest, Thursday 26th June 2025. (This time deadline will be helpful to both Martyn and Pat).
Meeting at 1.30pm, Sunday 29.06.25, Waterstones Bookshop, top floor, Oxford Street. Finish about 3.00pm.
Honeysuckle Kumar wanted More. More of what, she was not quite sure. Perhaps more space to figure it all out.
Theoretically Honey (as she was known as to friends and family) had Enough and should have Nothing to Complain About. A high earning husband, a software developer who took his role of provider seriously. Twins, Hari and Jasmin, who recently took up places at good universities. The mortgage on their detached three bedroom house in a middle class (albeit boring) area was paid off.
Continue readingOwen walked the dog down the lane and turned towards the Norman castle. It was very quiet there, befitting Christmas eve. The Teifi gorge around two sides of the ruin was invisible, making its threat of a blind descent into the underworld stronger than ever. The dog was nervous. Usually it loved the lane, its smells. In pitch black Owen was about to turn back when, atop one of the castle’s walls, he saw a figure, like a lonely guard defending his prince’s grounds centuries after his master’s death. He looked again and the solitary warrior had vanished. He and the dog both slunk home with their tails between their legs, unsettled.
Continue readingI can tell you this, it was the worst thing ever. One minute I’m whole and healthy and the next I’m draped over the pavement with a spine in two bits and no movement in my lower half. RTA they call it, huh, more like EOL, or end of life as it was.
Long story short, it could have been much worse – my top half works pretty well, but nothing from the waist down. It’s stunning what medics can do to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Family rallied round and helped where the wheelchair couldn’t go. I moved in with my parents (for a while) so they could share the work of looking after me. Carers cared, and a PA arranges things that need arranging: meals fetched, clothes washed, library books changed, shoes laced, soft voices, no rows (I miss the rows).
Continue reading“We’ve been infiltrated,” said Carol, scanning the assembled members of the W.I. “I saw our cake recipe on Val Clark’s shopping list in Tesco this morning.”
“But… it’s only a Victoria Sponge!” said Julie.
Carol flung her arms in the air. “How many times do I have to say it? Use the code name!”
It was fair to say that former Superintendent Carol was finding retirement a struggle. It had only been six weeks but already she was exasperated.
Continue readingWalking out of the town hall Aldo turned to me: ”Nan, isn’t Alan Parson wonderful. He can get this country back to the way it should be.”
Looking at him, I sighed. He had the look of the converted, his eyes shining at the thought of a wealthy life for all, poor boy. I should really keep my thoughts to myself but that man was dangerous, all his talk fantasy to lure the youngsters in.
”My Mam told me about a guy who broadcast during the war; his name was Lord Jaw Jaw . The broadcasts sound very similar to that man, only he was trying to get us to surrender promising he would make us all a wonderful life under Titler. ”
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Borstad McSingewad focuses. He feels uncomfortable talking to holographic jurors, despite it being years since the Jury Security Act passed, but out of habit, he walks to the jury display.
“Binaries and nonbinaries of the jury, Jonathan Blurt, is accused under the Third-Party Liability Act of responsibility for the actions of his putative grandfather, a murderer convicted in-absentia,” he says.
“The prosecution alleges he would not exist had his grandfather, Aloysius, been convicted of his crimes. They say Aloysius couldn’t have impregnated his wife, Berenice, because of his incarceration. The prosecution has tried to establish a Prima Facie case denying my client’s right to exist.”
Continue readingHOMEWORK for deadline Thursday 10pm, 22.05.25.
TASK: ‘The Party’. Write 500 words or fewer about ‘The Party’. Your story title isn’t included in the 500 words.
Homework to be in by 10pm at the latest, Thursday 22nd May 2025. (This time deadline will be helpful to both Martyn and Pat).
Meeting at 1.30pm, Sunday 25.05.25, Waterstones Bookshop,1st floor, Oxford Street. Finish about 3.00pm.
“ACCESS GRANTED.”
The door slid soundlessly aside.
“Christ, man,” Jessie whispered, awestruck. “How’d you manage to do that?”
I smiled in what I hoped was an enigmatic way. “Easy, I hacked the list.”
“But —”
“But what? It’s uncrackable? Nothing is if you try hard enough. Now get your arse in there before a security patrol notices.”
Continue readingHOUSEHOLD
?Rat Poison?
Tilly had forgotten her specs. She hadn’t transferred them from the pocket of her winter fleeced Danimac to her summer cotton jacket. Always the same with April weather in Swansea; an overnight rise of 8 degrees meant searching out the summer wardrobe with the risk of a disruption in “ the system.” House keys, shopping list, pouch containing store cards and bus pass were in the left pocket as usual, but no glasses.
“Mum your phone should be in a separate pocket from keys. The screen could get scratched” Moira’s words.
Having a “system” was as important as having a shopping list … and being able to see, Tilly’s thoughts reposted.
“Never get your phone out in public.” her daughter’s words again.
Well Tesco’s <Household> aisle is hardly The Kingsway,
Tilly acted. Needs must. The snufflings, rustlings and scratchings from the bedroom next door were getting too much; she had hardly slept for the past three nights. Every year when the weather changed, it happened. Squinting around she spied a blurry Dad and toddler at the far end searching amongst the plastic buckets. Not a risk. Tilly extracted the mobile from her right jacket pocket, stooped, chose panoramic mode and photographed the bottom 2 shelves, then cranking herself back up zoomed-in to examine in detail the latest pics in her Gallery app.
Continue readingThe policeman, I forget his name already – Masters? Marsden? – reclines in his seat and regards me with a gaze that is probably intended to be intimidating but can only be described as ‘cute.’ It’s true what they say about the police looking younger as you age.
“Tell me about your conversation with Gina Montrose on Monday,” he says. “You were overheard talking about Marco Conti.”
Continue readingThis was a row that had simmered for years but hadn’t yet been defused. It was an underground river of molten lava that threatened to erupt but, apart from the odd burps of hot magma, remained sluggishly subterranean and unacknowledged.
The accelerant was the proposed retirement, in five years’ time, of Joan and Hywel. Each had busy and fulfilling jobs – which had masked their need to discuss points of incompatibility and irritation. However, they were both keen to leave the worlds of work for the worlds of…..well this was the main problem.
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