“Dob.” “Cat.” “Dob!” “It a cat!” “Dob! Dob! Dob!” What had possessed her sister-in-law to give birth to children only twelve months apart? Vikki peered over two small shoulders to see the picture they were arguing about. “Actually, that’s a tiger. It’s a very big kind of cat, even bigger than a dog.” Three-year-old Briony …
Caleb was eight and loved the stars. He could point you to Venus, then tell you how it was possible to know it wasn’t Mars. He could spot the Big Dipper, and then show you how it turned into the tail and hindquarters of the Great Bear At Christmas, his older sister, Petra, the best …
She circled the room, peering and tweaking at the machines she passed, trying to make sense of them, trying to see what they did, and why, and how, and failing at every turn. “It’s not fair. There has to be a way of making use of these and making the village better.” Cadan watched her …
“Deep breaths people, Georgia’s calling an emergency brainstorming session.” The office stilled, heads turning to where Jackson stood in the doorway, he gave them his best I-know-it’s-ridiculous-please-don’t-shoot-the-messenger look and got the team’s various signs of exasperation in response. Milla leaned back in her chair, and asked the inevitable question. “When, where, and what the hell …
Pippa got off the bus and followed the crowd of teenagers, all dressed in jeans, white sneakers and some jacket or hoodie with a brand screaming across it, so much for ‘no uniform’. They streamed through the wide doors open of an old stone building, and flowed into the corridors, or up the stairs as …
“You never visit. You never bring my grandchildren to see me. I didn’t raise you to be so uncaring.” Josh had put the phone on speaker, but muted their end, thankfully. Although it might have been fun to hear their mother’s reaction to Stephen’s snorted. “She didn’t raise us at all.” Josh made a shushing …
Myra Jenkins, who makes candles and soaps for local fairs and farm shops, dropped by this morning with an idea that needed talking through. She sat at my kitchen table and drank tea while I dipped my own batch of beeswax candles. As always, she was full of suggestions for scents and colours to infuse …
They made it to the hidden door without being spotted. And, saints be praised, there was a loud kerfuffle on the dance floor precisely at the right moment. It distracted everyone, including Lord Tristram, just long enough for Anya and Charlotte to open it and slip into the dimly lit corridor behind. Anya paused to …
There's a book called The 3am Epiphany, which sounds like some dodgy enlightenment book but is actually a bunch of writing exercises, this is exercise 151. Prince Kristoff from the neighbouring kingdom of Gavernia was visiting, accompanying his sister on what was ostensibly a marriage discussion but was doubtless an information-gathering exercise, to see how …
Welcome to the Advent Calendar Story Train, where you can read through 24 stories under this year's theme, Lost. The woods were quiet, just the gentle rustle of branches in the night breeze above, and the quiver of small creatures in the undergrowth. There was plenty of light, this wasn’t a dense forest, especially with …
The DNA of Stories 