#Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community

September 25, 2021September 25, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 3 Comments

September 23, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about an author’s chair. It can belong to any author. Where is it located and why? Does it have special meaning? Go where the prompt leads!

My authors chair is in a pub called The Drum.
It has a blue plaque with his name on, H G Wells
A man before his time, no pun intended
He sat inside with the likes of Lewis Carrol and others
Discussing their latest ideas
I would love to have been there as he wrote notes 
about what became my favourite film
The TIME MACHINE
How many would queue to sit in that chair
I would in a heartbeat
Push that crystal stopper from his brandy decanter
be on my way
Don’t look for me, I’ll be a while…

© Anita Dawes 2021

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #FFFC

August 6, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 8 Comments

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #129

The photo is from the Google Photo Frame.

The midnight land, they call it
Grandad said it existed
Said he had seen it
Been there once when he was young
He showed me a strange, coloured stone
he had taken close to the beach
said he saw a mermaid leave it there
it’s blue, not any blue you have ever seen
it seems to change each time I see it
Grandad said it is hard to place to find
Like Shangri-La, you need to believe
Like Gulliver’s floating islands
Never say never, Grandad would say
You know we have our own mystic island
I saw the twinkle in his eye
Because of that, I spent hours on the cliff top
Waiting to see this strange island appear
Grandad left me his mermaid stone
I slept with it, made wishes on it
Grandad had been gone a year
When one night I felt his hand in mine
We walked around Midnight Island
Mum never believed me
I know it happened,
because I now have two blue stones…

Crossover Moon…

April 22, 2021April 22, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 8 Comments

I am used to dreaming, to have one dragged into a nightmare,
kicking, and screaming, is a step too far.
I am half spying on Pa, as he sits in the shady part of the workshop.
I know what he is doing, and it’s not good.
The black shadow of my nightmare is chasing Pa across our field.
I am firing at him with a small crossbow that I grabbed from detective Snow.
Snow has no place in my nightmare, he belongs in Jaye’s mind.
Covered in blood, a small bolt sticking out of his chest, he calls for pa to stop.
I scream, as I let fly a bolt, it goes wide of pa’s shoulder.
Making him turn to look at his only daughter, trying to pin him down
with a stolen bow that belongs to a character from Jaye’s book CrossFire.
Something is very wrong.
I could see it on pa’s face. I love my pa and don’t want him harmed.
I must turn with my last bolt to kill detective Snow. I don’t care if he’s not mine to kill off.
It’s him or pa, and I choose pa.
The last bolt leaves the bow. I hear the sound, which wakes me from my nightmare.
My first thought, did Annie save her pa…

Broken Fields… #FlashFiction

April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 3 Comments

I left my love in a broken field where no flowers grow.
This, written on a card with a red rose lying on top, I found on my doorstep.
Who left it or why means nothing to me.
I popped the rose in a small vase, dropping the card in my pocket.
I left for work and the who drove me mad all morning.
There are so many fields where no flowers grow.
The unknown author must have a place in mind.
Over lunch, the word ‘broken’ struck me, lodging itself in my mind,
until I came up with the graveyard.
That is the broken field where no flowers grow.
I am the ghost the rose belongs to…

‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge 2021.’ Week #43 @Suzanne Burke @pursoot #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #IARTG #WritingPrompts

April 2, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 6 Comments

Flaming skies, a white devil moon

Watching the galleons fighting through rough seas

Birds hover above, waiting to pick over dead bones.

Let them wait, the dead are thrown overboard,

the adventure isn’t over yet.

There is gold beneath these waves and the captain means to find it.

The men desperate, after months away from home

Waiting for their share. Some fighting,

trying to convince the captain there is more

buried on shore than under the boat.

Diving, too slow, perilous. The men want to get on shore.

One believing he has a map, leading to three hiding places

Of buried treasure, they persuade the captain to abandon the dive.

Leaving a skeleton crew on board, they row the small boats ashore,

They land on black sand, greeted by total silence.

Moving slowly into the undergrowth, the men disappear from history.

Would you go on such a journey, for the chance of a handful of gold?

‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge 2021.’ Week #41. by Suzanne Burke @pursoot #IARTG #WritingPrompt #WritingCommunity #FlashFiction

March 22, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 1 Comment

I had Him for the next hour.

You created the earth below, why

did you make this one visible to all?

What is so important about this planet?

If there are others,

why are we not allowed to see them?

Childish questions maybe

My brain wants an answer. He smiled.

Time is the key to all things…

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

March 1, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 2 Comments

February 25 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the word frozen. It can be descriptive, character focused, action driven. Go out onto the ice and find a frozen story.

Frozen with horror by the razor-sharp edge,
the blade at my throat, the overlapping fear of warm blood
Free flowing from my body, zoning out into darkness
Falling into a world of blank memory, near to death
I see the dark cloaked figure of an angel gently waking my sleeping body
Not realising, my spirit had decided to jump around the room with joy
Without letting me know where the happiness comes from
I lie there wondering why I had been sent an angel wearing L plates
Would she pull the two halves of my body together in time?

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

February 21, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 7 Comments

February 18: Flash Fiction Challenge

In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story where a character is in the right place at the right time. It may be cause for celebration!

Turning 75, something to celebrate, you think?
Not me.
The morning went slow,
dragging my mind further into darkness
Deciding on a fresh cup of coffee
to pull myself together,
walk around the Friday market.
I notice a face, my best friend,
a sister I should have had.
We lost touch twenty years ago.
Thoughts rush my mind.
Why had we lost touch?
Would she want to speak to me?
Would we have anything to say after so long?
I need not have worried.
My 75th party went like a sixties disco,
With my best friend by my side…

‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge 2021.’ Week #37 #IARTG #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #FlashFiction #Poetry

February 20, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 7 Comments

What would you do if a strange door popped up in your bedroom?
A weird twilight moment
There are no signs, yet I feel it screaming, stay out, do not enter.
How many of us can resist the temptation?
Slowly, I push the door open, stepping into the dark space.
In the blink of an eye, I find myself in the centre of London.
Standing in Trafalgar Square, Nelson towering over me,
Four black lions standing guard, tour buses,
on their way to show eager eyes the Queen’s House
with its high black gated railings
Smart soldiers stand ready while the Queen sleeps,
Flag flying high on the pole.
There is plenty of culture for those who wish it.
Street art drawn with bright coloured chalk.
Step inside the History Museum,
see how small you feel against the giant dinosaurs.
Sit on the pews of St Martins Church
Take a rest before going on to Piccadilly,
where Eros stands with bow and arrow in hand
Ride the London Eye, high above the River Thames.
Take a red bus to where you left the strange door,
hoping it’s on the tourist route…

‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge 2021.’ Week #34 #IARTG #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #FlashFiction #Poetry

January 31, 2021January 31, 2021 / Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie / 6 Comments

Early morning fingers of sunlight
Warms the water below.
Where young life drinks its fill
Shadows vanish, he is safe.
his mother carefully nudges him.
To go deeper for a bath
She will teach him by being at his side.
his days are filled with love…