Links to pieces by @emilyrinkema.bsky.social @marioaliberto3.bsky.social @amyhempel.bsky.social @ericscottryon.bsky.social @bdiggswrites.bsky.social @aniking.bsky.social @smokelong.bsky.social @emergejournal.bsky.social @splitlipthemag.bsky.social @trampset.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social
This month's #Mondettes picked by @kplumhoff.bsky.social
⚡Ten wonderful flash fictions
🔍Ten splashes of analysis as to why Katherine made these brilliant picks
🪴Three fantastic prompts to get you writing
mondettes.substack.com/p/april-2026
Open for submissions - always a brilliant event 👇
That’s so kind of you. Wonder if I’ll make it to 100? 🙃
Just realised this is my 50th one of these craft articles stretching back five years. That’s a LOT of words (/waffle) 🤓 Grateful to the over 3000 of you (!!) who subscribe. ❤️
Thank you so much, Gearóidín. That's so kind of you.
Such a lovely comment, Lisa. This has made my day ❤️ So glad this is useful - good luck with the prompt - let me know how you get on!!
Thanks so much for reading and sharing, Joshua. Really kind of you ❤️
"Direct and compelling, it is the literary equivalent of making good eye contact."
Such a good craft article from @kathyfish.bsky.social on using second person in flash fiction. I want to try out the prompt in here straightaway but I have to work 😒 so saving this for a future date 🤩
My April #CraftArticle is a contemplation on showing and telling, how showing is often more about "slowing", and how show-tell isn't a binary. Musings on Hamnet and a prompt to have a go at as well!!
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/the-tell-a...
For those of you who know, I’m H-10 days 😬😵🤪😎
I'm blessed with such a lovely group!!! Some real superstar human beings in this first iteration and I know you'll all have some really interesting things to say.
I'm so excited too!!! I've been seeing the stories popping up in the workshop and I just want to dive in and have a read!!
I'm so glad you're enjoying your initial read. I can't wait to hear all your thoughts (did you get to the bit where I talk about story-animals yet 😂)
I just saw your stories pop up - how exciting! Can't wait to have a read and to chat with you about editing techniques over the next three weeks. Hope the course is useful and lives up to expectations!!!
(the computer I fear may soon warrant a Monty Python "dead parrot" sketch...)
On a happier note - yay!!! Excited to be running "The Editorial Funnel Part 1" for the first time over the next three weeks. Got a wonderful bunch of writers taking part.
Want to find out what it's all about?
Next running in June: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/the-editoria...
Is it a law of the universe that my laptop must give up the ghost whenever I launch a new course? This happened for the first WBTL course five years ago as well 🫤
Not in the mood for steam-emitting laptops today. Or the possible expense / effort of getting a new one 😠
Always my aim!! Of course, I should have gone with "A Tail of Two Shih Tzus" - "... It was the age of whippets, it was the age of poodle-ness, it was the epoch of chinooks, it was the epoch of Indian pariah dogs, it was the season of laizhou hongs, it was the season of dachshunds..."
Pretty sure Jane Austen said it best...
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a wonderful woman in possession of a beloved dog, must be in want of a new puppy"
Believe it's from the lesser known novel "Can Yield Barks"
Twenty nine minutes 😬😁
You're in the hat - good luck!!
You're in the hat!!
24 hours left to get your name in the hat for anyone who wants to come to one of the Welkin workshops for free.
Check out the 6 workshops here. Hopefully plenty to whet your appetites: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-workshops
"I shell out and shell out until I am a shell, a shill, a shallow, a swallow"
"I have no respect for eggs / I find them disgusting / loathsome / reeking / of questionable character"
Love the way @maureenlangloss.bsky.social uses language in these three micros in @literaryruby.bsky.social
This went on my list of favourites from 2026 so far!
"He’d be the first to call BS on all this religious stuff—no offense, Pastor Chad. Santa was all about laughter."
Brilliant humorous tone to this flash from @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social. Great evocation of character; love the way the story shifts from one thing to the next.
"five exhausted, knee-length dresses, crammed"
Wonderful use of a countdown in this teeny-tiny micro from @sudhab.bsky.social; that brilliant sense of moving inexorably towards a revelation and the hints planted in each list item
"You remember now what kids call it: a faceplant. Don’t skateboarders faceplant all the time? And they’re okay"
Wonderful build of tension (both external and internal) in this CNF from @jacqdoyle.bsky.social; the way this reflects outwards into universal experience - such great writing
"This new board game, pristine, will restart everything between us"
The sense of yearning and hope crumbling into darkness in this micro from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social. Some wonderful imagery in here.
"If I had known how hard it would actually be to kill a chicken, I wouldn’t have welcomed the apocalypse quite as enthusiastically"
Love, love, love the humour in this and how the tone shifts in the second half. Stunning as usual from @emilyrinkema.bsky.social
gooseberry-pie.com/eunice-bobs-...