Unknown Pleasures

writer of flash fiction, drinker of black coffee

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The Last Migration

This story, one of my early attempts at fiction, was published back in 2013 by With Painted Words. The photo below was the original prompt for the tale. photo by Ravikumar, Bangalore The wooden bench felt as chilled as the air seeping through his blanket. Shivering he watched the darkness retreating from the emerging band of red on the horizon. On cue, the trees surrounding his home erupted with…

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Echo

“Don’t feel bad. I’m pretty hard to kill.” The familiarity of the boyish face that stared back stopped Sebastian’s heart. He turned away, eyes flickering to the illusory temptations of the fruit machine. His pension investment, he would joke to those that would listen, on rare days when his pockets were laden down with gold coloured shrapnel. Coins that were consumed voraciously as lemons and…

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Where The Timid Things Dwell

Where The Timid Things Dwell

A recent entry to Flash! Friday in which you had to intersect the theme of “man vs nature” and the photo prompt (featured below). For some reason, as the title attests a staunch family favourite in the IR household filtered into the mix.

  Shipwreck of the United Malika in Cap Blanc, Mauritania. CC photo by Jbdodane.

    “And it was still hot.”

Wren closed the relic bound by tape and adoration.…

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Recently I’ve been struggling to find time to write, life/work/sport and the odd glass of…

Recently I’ve been struggling to find time to write, life/work/sport and the odd glass of wine have sadly impacted on the writer resentful of the other facets of my existence. Still I’ve managed to carve out a little time each week for the various flash sites offering enticing prompts to stir my imagination. The tale below was submitted to Flash! Friday, with the need to include the moon as a…

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The Burden of Repetition

Kinderspiel. CC2.0 photo by Hartwig HKD.

Sadly life got in the way of entering Flash! Friday on time and but I wanted to put the tale that the photo prompt and theme of Man V. Man inspired. Hope you find it at least a distraction. I should also take this opportunity to promote the first ever Flashdogs Anthology– a fine collection of writing by some of the finest writers of flash fiction (and…

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Absence (2)

Ah,

So summer has been encroaching on life, mainly the reality that nights spent hovering at 30c turns my laptop into a machine of intolerable heat and the kids are off of school. So things on the blog this time around have been quiet, but thanks for sticking with me.

A quick mention to the fine creative realm that is Flash! Friday, your humble scribe is one of the judges in residence for this…

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Surely Not?

So, there I was, slumbering mildly at 5am, the humidity barely dented by the lazy whirl of our asthmatic fan, and my phone silently blinked into life.

YES

A twitter message from the notable scribe that is @theshakes72. Yes to what I pondered. The answer left me with a grin as broad as any Cheshire cat and bounding off to indulge in a celebratory espresso.

So what was it, you might be wondering …

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Absence

Sorry folks for the period of absence, some major life changes led to this aspect of reality getting neglected. But hey I’m back bursting with news, tales and even a flash to round things off.

First a plug released into the wilds today is an anthology that I’m incredibly proud to be associated with Flashdogs: An Anthology that is currently available from all good Amazon outlets and not only…

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The Return

Chef at the Trans-Siberian rail wall, between Moscow and Khabarovsk. CC 2.0 photo by Leidolv Magelssen.

This week’s Flash! Friday prompt was the above photo with the theme of treasure. The resultant tale below was given a runner up position (woo hoo) and, for the sake of my fragile ego, I’ve included the feedback below.

Hope you enjoy.

Ir

The Return

The compartment was empty apart from Astrid,…

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The Saviour

The tale below was inspired by the weekly competition held by Micro Bookends, in which they supply the first and last word of the tale, a photo prompt and the word count of between 90-110.

The rest of course is down to the writer.

This week’s words were EARTH and COLONY, inspiring a sci-fi mini epic about a scientist, a world facing disaster and his attempts to find a solution.

Hope you enjoy

Ir

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The Fabulous Butcher Boy

The Fabulous Butcher Boy

Photo Credit: Forsaken Fotos via CC

  So this weekend I found myself entering the flash fiction competition held at Micro Bookends.The premise of the challenge is the usual photo prompt (as above) and a word limit of between 90 – 110. What makes it different is that you are supplied the first and last words of the tale.

This week the words were MEAT and FREE. The tale that I entered, which sadly…

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Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans

The Angry Hourglass was again forced to endure one of my flash fiction tales, based on their photo prompt below. Surprisingly, mainly due to the standard of the other writing this week, I found myself taking first place and getting a lovely badge for my blog!

Anyway hope you enjoy.

Ir

    Clash of the Titans

The reality of being a superhero was beyond most people. Steve understood this, for he…

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Tears of a Clown

I have a general distrust of clowns, not because of any personal slight or confrontation with those bearers of red noses and wide grins, mainly because of:

(a) The Joker

(b) Pennywise from Stephen King’s It (whose demonic presence plagued most of my teenage nightmares_

So it was with some trepidation that I approached this week’s Flash! Friday competition with the photo beneath as a prompt.

Circu…

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The Inept Poet

So I have a confession, lurking deep inside of my creative side lingers a rather inept poet. This guy is quite incredible, likes black clothing, smokes french cigarettes, despises pastel and is convinced he is a talent yet undiscovered.

A buffoon in other words.

Yet sometimes I have to let him out to play, and recently I wandered into the new poetry weekly competition Three Line Thursday. The…

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#3lineThursday Week Two

#3lineThursday Week Two.

If you have three lines of poetry/prose in you … just three, then visit the fine folk at Three Line Thursday and submit your work …

Ir

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Limelight Dreams

  Children bustled past Albert, scarlet balloons bobbing excitedly in their wake. Albert however was focused once more on his battered pocket watch. He had only an hour or he could bid farewell to the city of angels.

Albert was having one of those days, weeks in fact, existences if truth were told. Yet this morning things had taken an upturn when the phone of Albert’s Menagerie of Marvelous…

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The One that Got Away

The One that Got Away

Oh Flash! Friday, an arena of writerly support and creative blood, sweat and tears. Each week I find myself wrestling with the prompt, struggling to forge something that will improve me as a writer, and each week I learn something new. Normally how I detest the bitter taste of failure! This week however the Flash Dogs, a collective of internet based flash writers that I have somehow wheedled my…

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