In a pub, the winner of a popularity contest, as captured in a reporter’s photograph, balances an empty pint glass on his head and grins a rubbery wet slop of a grin. In the background, unwitting members of the public, alongside some of the man’s friends, are also grinning. Their mirth has been caused byContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Populist Trick’”
Tag Archives: news
100-Word Fiction: ‘720 Sentences’
07:20 is the time he leaves the house, pulls on his coat, blows a kiss, says goodbye, gets embraced, steps onto the concrete, breathes the air, checks his pockets, flicks his hair, buttons his coat, checks his phone, walks down the street for the last time. 07:20 is the time she closes the door, waitsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘720 Sentences’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Faces and Names’
To S___ on High Street it would be the time when the names were erased. She counted them up, window-shopping in the spring sun. The names that were now gone, in such a brief spell of time. Sam T and Granny F. Uncle, suddenly. The fit guy in the year above. And now they disappearedContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Faces and Names’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Red Dust’
The red dust came from desert skies sanded the paper and screens of the press caught in the eyes of conspiracy freaks piled up the stress of Western dreams grazed the feet of measured prose stormed the sounds of drum and song covered the rows of memorial crosses and all their long-remembered losses tickled theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Red Dust’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘In the Night’
I waded to the middle of the river and was swept along, searching, searching. I was high in the air but tumbling downward trying to catch you. I stared at the screen until my eyes were dry and sore. I ran down the street pushing past shoppers, over and over. I shouted, screamed, shouted. IContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘In the Night’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Silence of the Sea’
No matter how hard I search, the internet will not uncloud my memory. How many secrets are trapped there, out of reach? I have been searching for a specific edition of a small and rather famous book by the French resistance writer, Vercors. In my mind its cover is blue, but nothing I find confirmsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Silence of the Sea’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Some of us woke’
It was meant to be a different story but the call came late, at 21:51. Fifty-nine children had been shot or burned to death by a terrorist group in Nigeria. The words on the wire… bodies… ashes… discovered… bullet wounds… students… more than 300 this month. In Venice it was carnival. In New York photographersContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Some of us woke’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Slow News Week’
A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. Rent a smaller home. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. Wear a warmer jumper. A slow news week. A slow newsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Slow News Week’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘They Wrote His Obituary’
I am told that Robert had been a radical. He certainly shirked definition, never committed to anything. I’m not sure that makes someone a radical, just an arch-critic, a cynic, a difficult bastard. Others say genius; I’d argue a fantastic populist. They say he was an intellectual; he was simply willing to share his viewsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘They Wrote His Obituary’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Pumped Air’
An obituary stated that oxygen was his making. Air, and good publicity, had delivered fame and fortune. In reality, success was mechanical. He invented a forced-air pump that inflated almost any object. Industrialists, financiers and the public sector all bought into it. With a quick shot, the pump blew air into balloons, bubbles and evenContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Pumped Air’”
MW Bewick 