Sophia jumped away from the door, just in time to get out of sight of the yard before Imelda swung it open. Thankfully she didn't react to Sophia's presence, lurking off to one side. Sophia supposed she'd known of her eavesdropping the whole time but there were more important things to discuss. "You think I …
This came out of a four line prompt (the first four lines of dialogue you see below) and turned into a personal challenge to write an entire vignette in dialogue, no descriptions. "I'm pretty sure it was a ghost." "I'm pretty sure it wasn't." "Oh really?" "Ghosts don't bleed." "But it was floating, and moaning." …
Connor strode out to the stable and hunted for something physical to do. There was a pile of wood and an axe nearby but he wasn’t a great woodcutter and he didn’t want to risk a sharp blade with his current mood. He settled for hunting down some leather polish and a cloth and attacking …
It was Friday afternoon and this time it was Ally in the station car park. Cesca was coming to inspect the bolthole and fill her in on happenings since she left. She waved as she saw her best friend exit the station and a short time later they were on the road. Ally had bought …
Waving Mrs Rightmore off, more convinced than ever she'd made a great decision in moving to this village, she turned to her front door and turned the key in the lock. Even though she'd been in and out of it numerous times over the past few weeks, visiting it, negotiating the contract and finally moving …
Thunder scratched at his jaw, clearly searching for words. Lorsan calmly moved around the kitchen, tweaking and tidying. Lydia cocked an eyebrow at him but seemed to understand and moved cautiously back to a seat at the table, near the door and well away from Thunder. The twins merely switched perches and looked on avidly. …
Sophia strode through the forest, smiling a greeting at a friendly raven and tossing some scraps collected from breakfast to both her and the uncertain little furballs in the undergrowth. She wasn't sure what they were, the island collected mythical animals that had lost their belief along with everything else, but they were cute and …
She'd made the train with minutes to spare, thankfully it wasn't full. She was easily able to find room for her suitcase and a window seat for herself. The advantage of moving to more internationally-focused hours for work, she was able to do things, like the big final move to her new home, during quiet …
Lorsan heaved the bags he was carrying onto the kitchen table and turned to retrieve the basket from Lydia, who sidestepped and put it on the table herself. He was aware of buying rather a lot, but it was rare to have a visitor and this one needed feeding up and strengthening for as long …
One of the exercises at the CityLit course I did a few weeks ago was to write a piece about only having half an hour to pack, that focused on the senses. It was my first inkling that Ally and Chris had plans to take over large portions of my brain at unexpected times. Ally …
The DNA of Stories 