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Short Fiction: The Dealer
Before he’s even opened his mouth I know what he wants. ‘Vinnie,’ I says to him. ‘I’ve told you before – it’s no good keep coming back, I ain’t got any and I can’t get me hands on any.’ ‘Have you tried—’ he starts. ‘I’ve tried everybody I knows and they’ve tried everybody they knows.…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Y is for Yellow
The yellow can be incidental to your story, the springboard for it or a major part of it. Loads of things can be yellow: Clothing – including hi-vis clothing, but also have a think about clothing that’s not normally yellow – like a suit or a raincoat. Unusual things intrigue us both as people and…
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Memoir poem: The Silence Of Saturday Teatime
Every week my dad would write His Xs in the column: A ritual time-honoured, Almost sacred, always solemn. He diligently worked out – well, I say ‘worked out’, he guessed Which teams would win or lose or draw, Whose score would be the best. On Friday evening at the door The coupon man would be;…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: X is for… X
Have a think about how we use the letter X. If you’re marking something, it’s ticks for correct and crosses – or Xs – for incorrect. Putting an X in the box is how we vote. X is used to denote an unknown quantity, which you’ll remember from trying to solve equations at school or…
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Memoir: Windows
The window I looked up to the sky through had a cracked pane, the result of my dad flailing a cardigan at an irritating bluebottle. The cardigan had a penny in the pocket – one of those big old heavy pre-decimalisation pennies, blackened and worn smooth through countless transactions in tills and endless jostling against…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: W is for Window
Despite Louise Hulland suggesting that after last week’s foreshadowing of car trouble, this week’s prompt should be ‘Winning the lottery’, it is, in fact, W for window. There’s plenty of scope for stories involving a window. Are you on the outside looking in, or inside looking out? Either way, what’s going on on the other…
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Poem: Something Amiss in My Engine
There was something amiss in my engine: a new water pump needed, I thought; I booked my car into the garage – for a service, a see-to and sort. The message came back from the garage: your water pump’s fine – working well – And your motor now waits on our forecourt, it’s running as…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: V is for Vehicle
Happy New Year, one and all. Writing Club across BBC in the East of England is off and running again, and this time your prompt is ‘vehicle’. According to the dictionary, vehicle is a general term for anything by means of which people or goods may be conveyed, although always more commonly used as a…
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Short Fiction: Digging The Allotment
‘COPS HUNT MISSING ARISTO’ read one of the more down-market headlines. Ella didn’t need a newspaper to let her know what the police were doing. They were on her allotment, trashing a year’s worth of growing and tending as they searched for a body. She watched, raging but helpless, as they ripped up sweetcorn, climbing…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: U is for Uniform
Lots of different people wear uniforms – not just the military services, but nurses, emergency services, police, commercial pilots, cabin crew, ground staff, some shop workers, posties, schoolchildren, restaurant staff, hotel workers, some construction workers, athletes… I’m sure you can think of more. You might say that standard business suits for both men and women…