Patricia M Osborne

Thank you to author, Patricia Feinberg Stoner, for taking part in the ‘write a story in less than one hundred words challenge with her lovely story, Very Nice, Dear.

‘I never wanted you,’ she’d say.

Every Mother’s Day I bought her a red rose out of my slender pocket money.

‘Very nice, dear,’ she’d say.

I so wanted her approval. My first job, my headship, my professorship,

‘Very nice dear,’ she’d say.

Today the clearance men are emptying her house. ‘Is this important?’ says one, handing me a cardboard box.

Under the felted dust is my name in her precise writing. The rubber band snaps under my touch.  I open the lid and stand looking at the slender corpses, their scarlet heads turned to black. Red roses.

98 words

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Another weepy one. Have you noticed how these micro stories have promoted creepy or weepy themes?

You can find out more about Patricia’s writing by visiting her website.

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Thank you to Author, Anita D Hunt, for taking part in the ‘write a story in less than one hundred words challenge’ with her lovely story, A Wish for Dad.

September 2015

‘Hi Dad! Happy birthday!’ I said as I bounded up the drive, potted orchid held aloft like a grand prize. ‘I didn’t buy you a T shirt this year, I’m bored with buying you T shirts.’

Dad laughed as he took his present, ‘Don’t be daft, but this is lovely.’

September 2016

‘Hi Dad. Happy birthday. I bought you flowers again, I hope you like them,’ I said as my tears mingled with the water I was pouring into the urn. ‘I wish I could buy you a T shirt again…’

93 words.

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I think you’ll agree that one was quite a weepy.

You can find out more about Anita’s writing by visiting her website.

 

Thank you to my latest writer, author, Lynette Creswell, who has taken up the challenge to write a story in less than one hundred words. Lynette has written a lovely nature story titled, The Butterfly. You can read her story below. If you’d like to know more about Lynette’s writing, visit here.

I hear the call of nature. The pond is still, the breeze gentle. I’ve grown to bursting point. I take a deep breath and expand my body. The soft silken thread rips in two. I break free. The heat from the sun is welcoming, its yellow rays flicker across my back. I shiver. The dampness around me evaporates. I lift my wings as they dance on the breeze. The stillness is broken. A shadow, a flash of brown and green. The leaf shudders and I turn to fly away. As I ascend, a long thin tongue flicks towards me.

99 words

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Thank you to Colin Ward, author of To Die For, who has taken part in the story in less than one hundred words challenge. Colin writes thrillers and has made no exception in his ninety-nine word story, Leaving. To find out more about Colin’s writing you can visit his website

Everything was arranged. Tickets booked and bag packed. He’d triple-checked his passport was there. The chlorine smell lingered on his clothes.

‘Never leave your home dirty,’ his mother always said. Advice akin to why one should always wear clean pants.

‘Just in case the worst happened and…’

He silenced her voice.

Starting the car and looking over to the house as a matter of habit. He hummed a popular John Denver song about a jet plane.

He was about to put the car into reverse when he saw the thin, dark red line down the edge of his thumb.

99 words

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Thank you Jules Hartnett for taking part in the ‘Write a story in less than one hundred words, challenge.’ Jules has sent in a great piece of writing – Remote. Enjoy.

She stares hard at David as he sits in silence; his phone in one hand, the remote in the other.

Across the room, Robson Green is babbling on about fish on the 54” HD TV. David never fished in his life. Was it always like this? She can’t remember when it wasn’t. She was his first love, before the whisky and the wide screen TV became his. Her lonely days and nights spent at the keyboard writing a different life, a different world.

She sighs and gently takes the phone from his cold, stiff hand and dials 999.

99 words

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The responses are coming in for the challenge to write a story in less than one hundred words. This next story is written by writer and poet, Ann Fox. Thank you, Ann for sharing this great piece of fiction – A Moment in Time.

He left his family on the beach and went for a stroll.  An old-fashioned ale house caught his eye and he enjoyed a refreshing pint of real ale served by a prim barmaid in a white apron. Half an hour later, on his way back, he looked for it again in vain. He asked a passer-by.

‘Pub?’ said the local, ‘there hasn’t been a pub here for over one hundred years.’

71 words

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Well I’ve had my first taker in response to the challenge of writing a story in less than one hundred words. The story Lost is written by my little sister, Sandra Greenough. Sandra not only tries her hand at writing but she creates wonderful gifts using wood. Do take a look at her products over on Etsy.

And here’s her story:

She searched the cavernous depths of her handbag, depicting the chaos of her life; amidst never-ending half-finished to-do lists, stray hairs from the hairbrush, in need of a clean, the random number of people fleetingly met, important in the moment, but never to be contacted. It evaded her in her home that gnawed for attention; a petulant never satisfied child. It wasn’t at her work, the demands always more than she had left to give.

But it was in the forest where she found it.

86 words

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Thank you for taking part in the challenge, Sandra.

Any other takers?

Have you ever had a go at writing a story in less than one hundred words?  Here’s mine. Lost Love.

He enters the white walled room; a clinical smell camouflages the stale aroma from yesterday’s flowers. A jug of water stands on the wooden cabinet. Linked up to tubes and monitors, Olivia lies still. Bleeps from the machine provide life in the form of slow breaths.

Fifty years ago, they first met. A striking beauty, heart shaped face, smooth creamy complexion. Soft long lustrous auburn hair falls below her shoulders.

It’s time to flick the switch.

Time to say goodbye.

A high pitched sound peeps… a flat line shows.

89 words

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***End of challenge – blog entries below in process of being moved under new menu. ****

Please welcome my special guest, a very inspiring man, Roland Chesters, author of Ripples from the Edge of Life.  Roland has come on the blog today to share his article:-  What inspired me to write my book? But first, let’s find out a little more about him.

 

Roland Chesters was born in the north of England to an English father and French mother and has lived most of his life in London. He graduated from the Royal Holloway College with a degree in Modern Languages and after a variety of jobs joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a language-testing specialist. Following a diagnosis of HIV and AIDS in 2006, he became a campaigner for disability rights. He is now a self-employed Disability Development Consultant and has his own company, Luminate.

Roland lives with his partner, Richard, in London and enjoys opera, classical music, theatre and fashion (his favourite item of clothing being a bright red corduroy suit). He fights boredom and normality with gusto, and says he is at his best when he’s made a positive impact on someone else’s life.

Ripples from the Edge of Life is Roland’s first (and only, according to him,) book.

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Over to you Roland.

What inspired me to write my book?

As a young man I had spent many years living in shadows, hiding the truth, constructing a fragile network of semi-truths.  Because I am gay. I was afraid of how people would react if I shared that with them.

I was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at the age of 46 and at the time of diagnosis, I was given two weeks to live.

It’s perhaps not surprising that something like that makes you evaluate what is important. And what’s not. And as two weeks extended into three and three into five and five into… many more it became clear to me that I was not prepared to crawl back into that semi-obscured subterranean world of subterfuge for whatever time was left in my life.

So I stood up and spoke out.  And unsurprisingly met with backlash. Hate. Anger. Fear.  Sometimes nicely gift-wrapped so that the sting was less vicious.  Sometimes blatant, open and intentionally hurtful.

As I engaged more and more with the HIV community in the UK I found that many chose to live in the world of subterfuge because they were concerned about the impact sharing information about their diagnosis would have on them – and on those they love.

And so the Circle of Silence continues.  Stigma is created by fear, which is created by ignorance.  Until there are enough people living with HIV prepared to stand up and say ‘this is me and HIV is only a part of me’ then that Circle of Silence will never be broken.

Ripples is my attempt to start fracturing that circle.  Chipping away. Until that time – probably not in my lifetime – that a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS will be received in the same way as a diagnosis of cancer, or diabetes, or….or…..

My diagnosis has changed my life for the better.  And for that, I have nothing but gratitude.

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Thank you for that great article, Roland. I’m sure our readers will agree that you are an inspiration and definitely have a story to tell.

 

 

If you’d like to find out more about Roland’s journey, Ripples from the Edge of Life may be ordered from

Roland’s website

or from

Amazon

You can find Roland on

Twitter

Linked in

Facebook 

Facebook specifically for Ripples

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I’m privileged to feature fellow Chindi author, Carol Thomas. To celebrate the release of her latest novel, Maybe Baby, Carol is this week’s ‘Chindi Author of the Week.’

First of all let’s find out a little about her.

Carol Thomas is an active member of the Chindi Authors and lives on the south coast of England with her husband, four children and lively Labrador. She has been a playgroup supervisor and taught in primary schools for over fifteen years, before dedicating more of her time to writing. Carol is a regular volunteer at her local Cancer Research UK shop. She has a passion for reading, writing and people watching and can often be found loitering in local cafes working on her next book. 

Thank you for joining me, Carol. Congratulations on the publication of Maybe Baby. Can you tell us a little about the book? 

Maybe Baby is a romantic comedy and the sequel to The Purrfect Pet Sitter (Lisa Blake book #1.) While each book can be read as a standalone story, Maybe Baby revisits the characters from The Purrfect Pet Sitter as they move into the next phase of their lives.

I was delighted with an early review that described it as, “full of love, true friendship and humour”! I think that sums it up well.

What inspired you to write a sequel?

There were elements of Lisa Blake’s story that weren’t central to the first book that I wanted to explore further. At the end of The Purrfect Pet Sitter, Lisa and her old flame, Nathan, have eleven years to catch up on; there are secrets to be revealed and new discoveries to come to terms with.

I enjoy reading and writing romance, but I often wonder what happens after the happy ever after moment; writing a sequel lends itself to satisfying that curiosity. I was excited to see how my characters would work together as they embarked upon their relationship and faced the challenges that brought.

What planning and preparation did you do before getting started on the sequel?

I re-read The Purrfect Pet Sitter and made notes on each character, particularly their voice and individual traits. While I felt I knew them well, I had to ensure I carried them across accurately.

During the planning and writing process, I also held in mind that I had a responsibility to those who had read and enjoyed The Purrfect Pet Sitter. Readers who have spent time with the characters and grown to love them have expectations too. I didn’t want to disappoint my readers and considered that in each character’s individual actions and reactions throughout.

For reasons that will become apparent to readers of Maybe Baby, as well as researching plot points and settings, I also prepared a spreadsheet with a detailed timeline of events. It is the most upfront planning I have done for a novel.

Can readers expect more in the Lisa Blake series?

All characters have been left in a good place, and each story is so far complete in its own right. However, never say never, I have an idea for a Christmas novella I would like to base on these characters, and so if that keeps slipping into my mind (these stories have a way of making you write them), I may well return to them again in the future.

Blurb for Maybe Baby:

Just when you thought you had it all worked out …

Best friends Lisa and Felicity think – maybe, just maybe – they finally have everything sorted out in their lives.

Lisa is in a happy relationship with her old flame, and busy mum Felicity has managed to reignite the passion with her husband, Pete, after a romantic getaway.

But when Lisa walks in on a half-naked woman in her boyfriend’s flat and Felicity is left reeling from a shocking discovery, it becomes clear that life is nothing but full of surprises!

Where can our readers purchase a copy of Maybe Baby?

Amazon:

Ruby Fiction:

Where can our readers find you?

Website:

Facebook:

Twitter: 

Pinterest:

Instagram:

Blog:

Thank you for joining me today, Carol. If any readers have any questions for Carol, please ask at the end of this blog or contact her directly from one of the links above.