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Short stories and Poems

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Neighbours from Hell!

Our homework for writers’ group last week was to write a short story about neighbours from hell. The title of mine is: Smoking is bad for your health ‘Hi,’ I said shyly to the new neighbour. ‘Hi,’ she replied, and smiled. This was the extent of our pleasantries for about a week, until somehow, we got chatting. I can’t remember what about now, but oh how I wish I had looked the other way; just got on with my life and never said anything to her. However, here were these new neighbours and they were about the same age as us and it’s so difficult making friends with other people our age; and they just seemed so nice! ….

Characters & Characteristics

February 28, 2012

A writers’ group exercise: Take a character from one list, and a characteristic from another. We had half an hour and this is what I came up with…

January 17, 2012

The advantage of having a broken foot is that it has given me the ideal opportunity to get some writing done. I am re-visiting a book a wrote a few years ago, that now needs updating and re-editing. I’ve got three weeks till my foot is hopefully healed, and I’m aiming to get it finished in that time. The title is Cam Girl. Here is the first paragraph:

halloween short story

A Halloween Romance

November 5, 2011

Competition time again at our writers’ group. We were challenged to write a short story with a ghost/supernatural theme. This was my go… A Hallowe’en Romance It was a cold clear night as a witch, a devil and Frankenstein’s monster made their way down the High Street towards Susan. The witch’s head was far too big for her body and she parted her black wig in order to be able to see from the eye sockets. The monster’s cloak had inadvertently wrapped around the devil’s trident and it nearly tripped them both up. The trio whispered to each other as they approached Susan, and just when it looked like they were going to pass her, they suddenly turned, with their hands up in the air and yelled in her face. She’d been expecting something, but none-the-less it made her jump and she let out a little scream. As the kids ran off laughing, she called after them, ‘Your costumes are rubbish.’

ghost town barn

“The first time I smelled that…”

The little village of Pilton in Somerset has been home to many creative people, including authors such as Fay Weldon, John Le Carre and Guy Kennaway. Our writers’ group has been fortunate enough to have the company of Guy Kennaway recently; it’s so fascinating listening to a published author and having the opportunity to ask questions. A couple of weeks ago he gave us the line, “The first time I smelled that…” for our homework. We’d been talking about darker fiction involving children, which I think may have been the inspiration for me writing this…

pink alarm clock - a short story about Kurt Cobain

Another little thing I wrote at Writers’ Group this week. This time we were given the (potentially morbid) theme of suicide. We had half an hour to write, and this is what I did – the end is a bit rushed and silly though!

poppy for a poem about war

She married for love…

Last week at writers’ group, Ruth gave the rest of us a little and very interesting lesson in prose poetry. Our homework challenge was to write a prose poem with the theme of ‘war’. I didn’t completely stick to Ruth’s rules, but here’s my go…

Our Writers’ Group homework last week was to write about a situation where people get stuck together eg in a broken down lift. This was what I wrote…

Gizmo with Ziggy

This is the name of our new kitten who joined us a month ago now. Can you tell why we called him that?! He’s the runt of a litter of persians and was half the size of his brothers and sisters, but eating well and was happy and very cute! During my writers’ group meeting just before we collected him, we were given the theme ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and this is the poem I wrote.

“Time” – A poem

February 21, 2011

I am so chuffed to bits. I have just won first prize in my village Writers’ Group poetry competition! I won a pen with Pilton Writers engraved on it. I shall use it all the time! Sadly, winning meant I had to read it out loud, something I didn’t manage to do without making a fool of myself and blubbing like a baby because I blub at everything including my own writing! Anyway, the theme was ‘Time’ and if you’re interested, here it is…

Image to come

The Last Bird’s Song

August 25, 2005

This poem is quite sentimental to me. It’s about a time on holiday in 1994 with my boyfriend (now husband!) and two of my best friends when we were 16. I’m returning to the same campsite in Salisbury today, so I’ll have a look to see if there are as many shooting stars.

Image to come

August 18th 1992

August 18, 2005

There’s obviously a bit of imagination used for this poem, but this is based on the actual events on this date with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.