Five minutes until 'I do'

I'm a big fan of the 50-Word Stories site. Trying to squeeze a good tale into just 50 words is one hell of a challenge!

My latest story is Five minutes until 'I do'. I had some great news today... it's been named Story of the Month :-)

This is especially lovely because this is a prize I've been trying for all year long! The last time I managed this was "Head Case" in June last year!

Now the story will go forward (along with all the other 2016 "Story of the Month" winners) to compete for Story of the Year. And the winner of that is given a place in the Hall of Fame. Exciting! :-)

The Daily Check on His Enchanted Girlfriend

Very excited today! My latest 50-word story ("The Daily Check on His Enchanted Girlfriend") was awarded "story of the week" on the 50-word stories site! And the piece has been ranked alongside the awesome Bob Thurber (read his stuff - it's brilliant!), so I'm feeling kinda good about myself right now :-)

Manu

Manu is out! It's a short film by Deepa Jacob, inspired by one of my stories! (I won't say which story because that'd spoil the ending of the film!)

The YouTube player should appear above, but if it doesn't then click here to see the film (it's about 14 minutes long).

My name on a film poster - how exciting is that?! :-) 

A second film poster - yay! :-)

Etiquette on the Modern Dance Floor

Another 50-word story is out. I borrowed this one from the best man's speech at a wedding! It's called "Etiquette on the Modern Dance Floor".

"May I Have This Dance?" by SarcasticLeaves

One Last Tale

"One Last Tale" is the third piece I've had accepted on fiftywordstories.com. Please let me know if you enjoy it!

The site is full of (yep, you guessed it) stories that are exactly 50 words long. It's a real challenge to write them. And it's fun!

'Bedtime Stories' by Richard S. Johnson

Added bonus: Here's an interesting article by Bob Thurber (master of the art) about how to write a compelling piece of flash fiction.

"Head Case" wins a prize!

Happy news! "Head Case" was chosen as "Story of the Month" on fiftywordstories.com!

And there was a prize too! My first ever payment for a piece of writing! :-)

Head Case

More exciting news! Today I had a new piece appear on the 50-Word stories site. It's called Head Case and it's weird in all the ways I think a story should be!

I'm really enjoying learning how to submit pieces for publication. So far I've managed to get nine acceptances which has really helped boost my confidence. Three of those pieces are already live (the rest are due out later this year).

[EDIT: Woohoo! "Head Case" was named Story of the Week!]

[EDIT: Woohoo again! The story also got named Story of the Month!]

Headless Skeleton by Lisa Zador

Smaller than you: a 50-word story

I rewrote Flying Ants for Tim Sevenhuysen's 50-Word Stories site and it was accepted!

It's been tagged as "artistic" and "metaphor" which makes me feel quite posh!

Random info: the name of the story had to change because I'd removed the description of the ant swarm in order to achieve the 50-word target. I think this shorter version has a very different feel to the original story... the playful "friend" character has transformed into quite a menacing figure.

Here's the text, just in case the link isn't working.

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My friend is a foot taller than me. That makes him the leader.

"They taste like butter," he says, showing me ants emerging from their nest. "Try one."

I grasp an ant as it takes its first view of daylight. I watch it struggle, small, helpless and lost in indecision.

#

EDIT: I'm even happier now! The story got named "story of the week"! :-)