Thanks 🙏

Wasn’t sure whether to enter this year. So glad I did. My flash - Always the same ice-cream van - will be part of Flash Flood at 7.10am (BST) on 13th June. Looking forward to a day of flash reading. There’s till time to enter 👇👇👇👇Go for it!

#vss365

She tore the sheet from her notebook, ripping the list to shreds and tossing it into the water, watching the ink bleed, the letters of each hurtful word dissolve as the paper sank. She flushed them away. It didn’t remove the pain completely but it was cheaper than therapy.

#vss365 #arm

He raised his arm, saluting like a Boy Scout, swore on his grandmother’s grave it would never happen again. When she discovered his grandmother alive and well she realised it wasn’t the only lie.

#vss365 #hand

Let me hold your hand and lead you through a lifetime of memories. From my newborn cry to grazed knees and teenage heartbreak tears. Tell me how you held mine, offered words of comfort and understanding, for surely those moments I’ve just forgotten.

#vss365 #sand #ring
She writes his name in the sand, draws a ring around it - should have been a heart. She sets a fire on it, watches alone as the flames dance in the sunset. His loss. On the other side of the world he pops an antacid listens to his boss talk figures over dinner.

#vss365 #pen

The pen nib scratches over the surface of the paper trying to bring order to the thoughts that spill uncontrollably. One hundred days sober and she may need a hundred more to expunge all the crap from her system, but soon her mind,at least, will be clean.

#vss365 #man

I notice the man at the store, we reach for the same bottle of my favourite pop and I catch a glance of his steel blue eyes. Later he’s at the cafe, orders a mocha as do I. There’s something familiar about his stance at the bus station. ‘Hello Dad,’ I say when he gets off at my stop.

#vss365 #fascinate #revolve #illusive

She relishes her illusive role, watching from behind an ivory veil as onlookers revolve in fascination. She waits. Her marbled flesh cold to those who dare to touch. Then she moves, delights in the recoil. The statue lives.

#vss365 #frustrate #tempest

Usually the traffic lights would frustrate her journey home, but after the day she’d had each red light was a welcome pause. A chance to ponder the day’s exasperations, let each tempest settle, arrive home a little wiser and a lot calmer.

#vss365 #waver

“Do not waver.” She read the words on the postcard that fell from the pages of the library book. Glancing around, no one in view she slipped it into her pocket. Another sign, like the horoscope in the discarded newspaper. The universe wanted her to be bold. Who was she to argue.

A photo of a cloudy sunset.

an #overcast mind
can still have
beautiful thoughts

#vss365

#vss365 #divide

The sharp knife glides through the sponge, dividing the cake into eight portions, equal to within a millimetre. With six offspring to contend with, Ma was a slick separator where food was concerned.

#vss365 #overcast

Her overcast mood reflected in the dark clouds and the grey ground. Feet pounding in rhythm to her anxiety as she faced another day. The spot of yellow caught her eye, a solitary daffodil in bloom in a muddy patch of earth — an oasis in the gloom.

Ha ha, we had exactly the same scenario with my mother 😁

#vss365

Two books in the Pix and Gabe adventure tales.

Would you care to #partake of a full length Pixie and Gabe tale?
Full of pixie laughs and sass, Gabe's scowls, and edge of your toadstool adventure.
Find out more at: bit.ly/4uzJSb0
#vss365

in a world that lost
its sense of where it’s going
it helps
to step away
from stale air
& lift just enough
to hear what doesn't speak
to #partake in poetry
& search for what still matters
in untamed nature
where mind & feeling meet
without excess
& it all
falls into tune

#vss365 #poetry 🎨A. Pasini

#vss365 #partake

She clasped the medal in her hands, her heart swelling with pride. She’d won. Of course, she’d say all the right things –the importance of teamwork –how happy she was to partake, but all the hard work had paid off. She’d succeeded and most importantly she’d proven them all wrong.

#vss365 #surpass

She turned away to hide the grin. Her two-year-old’s capacity for drama surpassed Hollywood’s best. A performance worthy of an Oscar, yet there would still be no Peppa Pig DVD before bedtime.

Thank you Debbie, wonderful words prompts to get my writerly brain in gear on a morning 😁

#vss365 #corner

She hates parties, her friends only invite her because she doesn’t drink. A free lift and someone to hold their hair as they puke. Once again the corner swallows her as she watches and waits for the drama to begin.

Time is #precious, Dad told me. I think that's why he kept his over polished and hidden behind thick protective glass. I like my time scuffed at the edges with cracked paint and faded colours from days under the sun. Dad's time may have been precious, but I'm making sure mine is well spent.
#vss365

#vss365
Fallen from above, like a #precious starling, where the sun bleeds into the sky. Her eyes dance like desert lightning - her skin is flecked with gold. She holds the breath of rain shadows. She is the mirage of love – the after image of desire.

Waves breaking over stone jetty under a cloudlit sky.

She looks at me,
eyes moonstruck from the craggy shore.
I pray I’ll never forget those shoreborn eyes,
which held me for many a night and morrow.
But the ocean turns hours to years and boy to man,
and my #Bonny is but a memory—
for land and sea, they meet but once.

#vss365

📷 Pixabay

#vss365 #precious

She waited patiently for the precious moment when she could step outside after the rain to see the rainbow and smell the petrichor, knowing the darkness had passed and she would once again feel the warmth of the sun on her skin.

#vss365 #bonny

A teddy lies on the bank of the Loch, lost and forlorn. I pick him up, sit him on a rock beside me, imagine, somewhere, a bonny bairn being carried to bed, fearful of a night alone. Together we look hopefully across the water Ted and I, patiently waiting to be found.

I’m delighted that my #debutnovel is now available to preorder from Barnardpublishing.co.uk I’d love you to take a look 👀
There’s even a special limited edition hardback 📚☺️

#vss365 #harmony

She seeks her shoal, a harmony of voices swimming together through life’s discord, where words give balance in a chorus of like minded souls.

#vss365 #lightning

There was no flash of inspiration, no hasty scribble to capture words before their spark discharged. She waited and waited for the enlightening moment which failed to materialise. Perhaps tomorrow lightning will strike but not today.