Theo wound up his enthusiastic description of his employer with the emphatic, “He is a veritable prince among men.” Silence. And not of the awed variety. Eventually, one of the older men at the table in the corner said. “You’re not from round here are ya.” Theo’s face – never good at hiding his thoughts …
For those who've read Sackcloth and Sky, a scene from Zain's point of view... The boy put the bowl on Zain's desk, yet another time-wasting exercise from the kitchen. He had more important business than eating unappetising little snacks. He breathed in, a memory rose. One of the gruel Lyra would bring him during those …
Myrah hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on her brother’s marriage proposal, she’d been snipping flowers for the vase in Mother’s sitting room and found some lovely late-blooming roses behind the bower. She was bent over, coaxing a particularly reclusive flower from behind its thorny guards when voices had hit her from the raised floor of the …
I had things to do today, nothing earth shattering, just the weekly security report from Sir Scatterscurry, and jam-making. Of course I didn’t need a mouse with a sword and an over-developed sense of chivalry guarding my home, but his primary domain was the potting shed, and he did a lovely job of keeping my …
“Dad, Dad, Dad! What’s brown and sticky?” Damian wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. “I don’t know, what?” “A stick!” Emily flopped into the armchair, giggling at her own joke. That actually a pretty good one, definitely better than yesterday’s. He chuckled. “Nice, I’ll have to remember that, tell the guys at work.” …
It was all well and good to have a home up the hill. The views were lovely and there was none of the worry about flooding the valley people had, but did the damn hill have to be so steep? Justine re-gripped the shopping bags and kept going. “Alright then?” Ergh, not young Marcus McShea. …
An exercise from Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft book – write one piece with sentences of seven or fewer words, then one that's all one sentence... Exercise 3a – Short Octavia hung back, scared. She didn’t want to go in there. It was dangerous, everyone said so. Why did Roz have to dare them? …
It had taken a week of solid work – every evening after dinner – but it was finally done. It was beautiful. A proper display cupboard for the Collectors’ Edition dolls she’d been buying for years. She’d already had the cupboard, a lovely glass-fronted antique. It had just needed some decoration, to put each of …
The leaves on the palm trees outside his hotel window waved mockingly on the afternoon breeze. ‘Here you are in paradise’ they seemed to say, ‘but all you can do is pace about your too-large-for-one hotel room, talk on your phone, and tap on your computer.’ And the room was too large for one person, …
It was a quiet morning until the call from Jason Bandswitch, the Manor was in uproar. Lady Charlotte had disappeared. He was waiting outside for me as I made it to the end of the drive (newly gravelled thankfully, the rain’s been back in force, and the previous surface was a mud pit), his face …
The DNA of Stories 