My collection of flash fiction goes back many years. These little stories have been gathered together (there are more, of course) from the time I began having my work published.
Homeless had no title. As a75 word flash there was no room! In order to file it on my computer, I gave it the title of 'Rough Sleepers'. It was the first piece of 75 word flash I had published by Paragraph Planet. They gave me my first break. The piece has had a slight edit since, but is almost the same. After that I had many pieces published by Paragraph Planet.
And then I found Visual Verse, who sadly are no longer running, but the website is still there and I still have an author page there. Every month they would post up a picture and ask writers to respond to it in 50-500 words, either a poem or a piece of flash. I wrote both and had both flash and poetry published by them. I loved their prompts and still miss them.
With longer pieces, I found homes for in Aayo, Gold Dust and 121 words.
There were some pieces I couldn't include due to offering the piece to a magazine for several months etc after which I am free to publish again.
With the Visual Verse pieces, I had prompts which got my creative juices flowing. For the others it was down to me. Authenticity came from a writing conference workshop. The writer was explaining what he does to create authentic scenes, including being tied up in the boot of a car! North came to me after reading The Wall by John Lanchester about the future and climate change. Sea Sick is another climate piece.
Will You Take This Woman is a mad-cap flash about a proposal and the reaction of the girl's odd family. Strangely, I visualised this story in the back room of my mum and dad's house, though it has no bearing on the story, except my hubby did want to do the old fashioned thing of asking my dad for my hand in marriage! My parents were nothing like these two.
Rescue Remedy is a story I loved writing. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but readers have highlighted this one as a favourite. It's amusing and about an elderly woman who takes a fancy to the young man next door. She loves him popping over to help her, and she will go to great lengths to make that happen.
Bluebells went through a lot of re-writes. It started off as a longer piece and was often edited to fit word counts for submissions. It never quite made it, but I always liked it.
Marigolds is basically a true story I felt I had to write about the time after my mother died.
I realise that Sc-fi now turns up a lot in my writing. Clone was one that made it into here. I love this. There is something about robots that fascinate me. The Rules of the Game is also a robot story and involves dressing a Christmas Tree. And Grafting (one of my favourites) is another. A sort of cross species romance! I have a piece called The Companion which I'm still trying to find a home for. It's a short story and amusing. A 'what if' piece, and I love it.
I write a lot about religion or faith. Some of it is serious, others are amusing. Wilderness is a ponder on losing ones faith and what happens then.
There are many wacky stories - including a new take on Miss Muffet in the voice of the spider, and another story in the voices of scrimps (It's Never that Simple in the Food Chain). Another story takes place in prison - The Office, and another is about a condemned prisoner who realises his hanging it is not the end The Writing on the Wall. I know I got that idea from somewhere but I cannot remember where now.
Memory Foam came from something my son told me, and he was also helpful with his knowledge of guns (don't ask me!) in High Noon, where a burglary goes wrong.
Of the new stories, I like Electronic Curtains about a man and his love of birds. But he needs a carer to get him up in the morning, so he wishes he had electronic curtains so he could part them when he wakes. It's very light hearted.
My stories deal with war, love, refugees, climate and contrast with the fun side of life and the wacky. Another favourite of mine is Remote Viewing (published by Visual Verse) about loneliness and poverty.
This is just a quick look at some of the stories in my book and a little behind the scenes take on how I came to write them. Ideas can come as a bolt from the blue, or they nudge in slowly. The stories also span the years since being published by Paragraph Planet, and I will always be grateful to them as I pushed on with my writing. The last previously published story here is The Tomorrow Box from 2023 (Aayo), a ghostly searching for a past and future.
I hope that's whetted your appetite. You can read all the stories for yourself. The book is available through Amazon (eBook, paperback, Kindle Unlimited) and to order through all good bookshops. It is getting 5* reviews.
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