A new story out today. I'm describing this as historical-lyrical-speculative-ekphrastic-social-fiction which is possibly quite niche as a genre... 😂 Thank you so much to @ScrawlPlace for publishing. Wonderful to be included in your literary atlas.

Wow! Love this from @NoraNadj So evocative, so much originality of language, love the personification of the sea, the way the narrative shifts from one paragraph to the next

These look so wonderful. Jeanette is such a talented artist.

Favourite examples of experimental form in flash fiction to help Lauren out?

"House of routine, walls of enormous blankness. Even the wind chimes numb." Lyrical, rich writing from @MandiraPattnaik in @LEspritLit - always wonderful to see a historical piece of flash; one that transports me to revolutionary France no less! lespritliteraryreview.org/20…

"Then, the divers would glide across the water, bend at the waist, and, kicking their legs into the air, swim straight down" Always wonderful to see another #WriteBeyondTheLightbulb piece out in the world. Great writing from @mfitzwrites

Hard not to resists a story called "When an Orange Goes to School for the First Time." Brilliant writing from @mlmcguinness in @FictiveDream that brings the emotions so clearly to life and builds its tensions so effectively. Ooft!

"We, the scrawny fawns from the fields stuck still, blinded by the sun-bright headlights hurtling our way" Such a philosophical, moving piece from @AbbieDollWrites full of startling imagery and repeating notes

"We wake one morning to a faint melody. When we open the windows, the drapes reach toward us, and music wafts in like the scent of honeysuckle" A beautiful piece from @Annalou8 that grows so wonderfully from beginning to end.

“I lost my bones in an accident,” he tells me. “Now I’m only of skin and flesh. Do you have any idea how impossible it has been to sit up?” Weird and wonderful writing from @TheEcemYucel

"But this is your ex-husband’s house, not the dim lit mausoleum on Red Square, and those guards, eyes the colour of dill, mouths downturned sickles, your daughters." Huge congratulations to @kazbarwrites! Wonderful to discover who wrote this brilliant piece.

"You wake in the carpark of a long-forgotten Little Chef. In the chain-link there are clumps of things that once had feathers and tails and chickweed is coming up through the cracks in the concrete." I was immediately drawn to the lyricism of this piece from my very first read.

"Her nieces arrive first. All three of them, mid-twenties, clad in looping scarves and the guilt of being absent since their mid-teens." My third place @BathFlashAward pick from Samantha Kent, a piece that spoke to me at a personal level.

"I’d never heard of GODETIAS until I started listening to Countdown. Never watched it neither cos I was at school… or bunking off, if you want the truth." Love the tone and use of form in this one from @gemmakchurch in @BathFlashAward, another of my HC picks.

"When he died the man owed me £35 in petty cash and that was my first thought when I heard about The Accident." A wonderful breathless story from Hannah Retallick as one of my HC picks for @BathFlashAward

Does anyone have experience applying for Arts Council Project Grants? I'm pondering an application (for something tip-top secret) and am wondering about the best way to answer some of the application questions. Any help gratefully received.

ICYMI my latest (and probably last of 2024) story. 👇👇👇