McCaw Media

Author: Carol

  • Short Fiction: Antonia’s Thank-You Letter

    Dearest Sylvie, Thank you so much for a splendid evening at your birthday party on Saturday. I can’t remember the last time I went to such a shindig. The birthday cake in the shape of Balmoral Castle was a triumph of the confectioners’ art, and it was such a shame that Steven’s mistimed swing of…

  • Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: D is for Date

    This week – the prompt is D is for Date. A few different interpretations for date… A date as in 26th May 2025 or 1066 or 1941. To date as in ‘to tell the age of something’ as in the timbers have been dated as sixteenth century. To date as in ‘to not age well’…

  • Short Fiction: Why Grandad Never Wore A Watch

    The front of the matchbox had a red background, with blue and white detailing in the corners, and in the middle was a white oval showing a blue drawing of a steam ship, which, curiously, also had rigging for sails. My grandad said it was a Victorian battleship called HMS Devastation, and he told me…

  • Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: C is for Clock

    This week – the prompt is C is for Clock. It could be simply a clock, in which case: What sort of clock? What’s it like? Working or broken? Valuable or not? Where is it? Who owns it – or owned it – if anybody? Why is it where it is, and in the state…

  • Short Fiction: The Melville

    My Nana had two mysterious things in her house – a locked cupboard and a ship in a bottle. I was never allowed to know what was in the cupboard, but I was allowed to look at the ship in a bottle, as long as I didn’t touch it. I spent hours staring at that…

  • Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: B is for Bottle

    This week – the prompt is B is for Bottle It could be just a bottle so things to think about: What sort of bottle? What shape is it? How old is it? Is it intact, or broken? Is it worth anything? Where is it? On a shelf? In a shop? Underground? In somebody’s bag?…

  • Short Fiction: The Portrait

    So I says to Frankie, ‘How do I look Frankie?’ and he says, ‘Bellissima, doll, Bellissima!’ which me giggle, and I’m already like a cat with two tails because Frankie’s spent a cartload of money hiring that Leonardo da Vinci to do me portrait. He’s so generous, my Frankie. Anyway, it’d taken me a couple…

  • Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: A is for Art

    This week – the prompt is A is for Art. Now this could mean a work of art figures in your piece – a painting, sculpture, a performance… Perhaps your character is the artist – the one creating the art. Perhaps your story takes place in an art gallery – who could that involve? Customers,…

  • Memoir: Bikes

    Sometimes parents have to disappoint their children. And the younger you are when you are disappointed, the longer you have to brood about it and chew it over at family reunions. Take bikes. Dad would not let my brother and me have two-wheelers. Our terraced street which was a favourite haunt of driving instructors and…

  • Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Free week

    This week – it’s a free week. We’ve reached the end of the alphabet and before we start again, this is your chance to write about whatever you like. Absolutely anything. Go on – give it a go.