Writing prompt – overturned

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Slipper limpet baby. Photo by Judy DarleyIn a local woodland, I happened across a flash of magenta pink. Intrigued, I reached out, turned it over and discovered a curious work of art – a figure tucked up as though in bed, inside a slipper limpet.

How could you explain this delightful oddity? Alternatively, could you focus on the theme of ‘overturned’?

Use either of these as the basis of a story.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Slipper limpet. Photo Judy Darley

Poetry review – Afternoons Go Nowhere by Sheenagh Pugh

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Afternoons Go NowhereTime, in Sheenagh Pugh’s hands, has a tendency to turn gleefully slippery. In Afternoons Go Nowhere, her tenth collection, Pugh turns her poetic sorcery to humanity, history, geology, nature, and the spaces between all those magical things.

Silken strings of words offer up glorious catches: bewildered kings, harangued statues, a lord’s horse, a  bored husband building cairns, and monks speculating about saints exhale alongside bus passengers “postponing goodbyes”, not to mention glacial water scooping “a hollow in limestone.” In Pugh’s eyes, it seems, each of these has equal gravitas.

Lit by Pugh’s keen gaze, every plant, stone, animal or person has the potential to grow playful or impatient, coy, attention-seeking, or ashamed. Unexpected characters emerge humming tunes that seem familiar, but which curl with their own original lilt.

Continue reading →

Writing prompt – clouds

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Storm cloud over Bristol by Judy DarleySometimes a summer storm can creep in like a wall that hangs in the sky and threatens to fall. The contrast is so vivid – a perfect metaphor for a country’s political state or a family in crisis.

What do these forbidding clouds bring to mind? How could you use them in a story?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Heading to the Flash Fiction Festival?

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Bee sheltering from April shower. Photo by Judy DarleyThis Friday marks the start of one of the hottest UK-based events for fans of intense, bite-sized fiction – the Flash Fiction Festival.

Taking place at Trinity College, Bristol, it promises a high calibre assortment of workshops, readings and talks from the field’s finest literary luminaries.

Stellar attendees are too many to mention, but include Vanessa Gebbie, Kathy Fish, David Gaffney, Meg Pokrass, Jude Higgins, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, K M Elkes, Santino Prinzi, Carrie Etter, David Swann, Michelle Elvy, Nod Ghosh and Nuala O’Connor.

I’ll be attending as a volunteer, which means I get to relish as much of the festival as I can fit around bar shifts and so on. I’ll also be reading my flash Skip Diving at the Friday night launch of the National Flash Fiction Day anthology 2019, And We Pass Through.

Hope to see you there.

Writing prompt – foster

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Brandon Hill, Bristol, child in tree by Judy DarleyThe word foster is a slightly curious one, meaning as it does to harbour everything from suspicions to emotions to children.

Imagine a family that takes in a child. Are the motives of the adults genuine or suspect? Are there offspring resident who will colour the experiences of the foster-child?

What led to the child being fostered?

What can you introduce that will catch your readers by surprise and challenge their expectations?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Short story – The People of The Soil

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Dinefwr water meadows. Lake. Photo by Judy DarleyI’m delighted to see my story The People of The Soil published by Enchanted Conversation magazine.

The story is inspired by the Welsh myth of the Lady of the Lake, and has found a home is Enchanted Conversation’s June 2019 Issue: A Drop of Water, A Flood of Dreams.

ThePeopleOfTheSoil-DARLEY-CoverABergloffThe story begins:

I stirred as I heard the river move beneath the crops, its murmurs rejoicing. My brothers lay intertwined beside me. “Fam’s leaving,” I whispered, and their eyes snapped open. We crept outside, leaving Dad asleep. We’d known this day would come, even before he struck her for the third time.

What rises from water can’t live on land forever…

To read the full story, click here.

Loving the gorgeous artwork by Enchanted Conversation Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Amanda Bergloff too!

Open the door to flash fiction

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Otter wood grainNational Flash Fiction Day UK kicks off tomorrow with events across the country. Highlights include the grand launch of the National Flash Fiction Day anthology 2019, And We Pass Through.

Edited by Santino Prinzi and Joanna Campbell, the eight annual instalment of the anthology is crowded with stories inspired by doors. I’m thrilled that my story Skip Diving has been included. It features a door with some wood grain resembling an otter. That detail is inspired by the above, which floats on the back of our bathroom door.

As part of the excitement, the Flash Flood journal will publishing flashes throughout the day. My story Clatter will appear on the journal at around 11.10 a.m. BST.

This year, the National Flash Fiction Day epicentre has relocated from Bristol to Coventry. If you’re heading over there for the huge celebrations of the bite-sized literary-form, have fun!

Writing prompt – pools

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Pendine Sands, brittle star. Photo by Judy DarleyAs a child, I thought there was little that could match the magic of a beach brimming with rock pools. Each one cradled a world that promised countless living treasures.

Why not give your character, whether they’re an adult or child, a chance to investigate their local shoreline and discover something unexpected? Could they encounter a chatty brittle star, for instance, or something far more sinister?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Care Home Vignettes in print

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Snapdragon journal Summer 2019A selection of my Care Home Vignettes have been published as creative nonfiction in the Summer 2019 issue of Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing, with a theme of Inside / Out. I find myself feeling unexpectedly moved!

The pieces are drawn from the experience of visiting my father, who has Alzheimer’s Disease. I’ve often been struck by how, as he paces the Home’s corridors, he seems to see a world beyond where we are, which made this issue’s theme particularly apt.

Snapdragon is full of poetry, creative nonfiction and photography capturing thoughtful moments of connection, many of which speak of hope and beauty even in challenging times.

The issue’s editors Jacinta, Petra and Aimee have done a beautiful job. The cover artwork is by J. Ray Paradiso!.

You can buy the issue for $5 here.

Writing prompt – flash

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Footprint. Photo by Judy DarleyJune is a joyful month for all things flash fiction-related, with National Flash Fiction Day UK happening on Saturday 15th June, with events happening nationwide and the Flash Flood journal publishing flashes throughout the day. My story Clatter will appear on the journal at around 11.10 a.m. BST.

Flash Fiction Festival is celebrating the mastery of the shortest literary prose form, from Friday 28th until Sunday 30th June.

Over in New Zealand, Micro Madness has begun, publishing a 100-word tale every day between now and 22nd June, which is Flash Fiction Day in New Zealand. My shortlisted tale Aftermath went live on 4th June.

Happily, each of these mini word-hits also serves as a fantastic creative prompt, firing up synapses with possibilities. Why not drop by to see what journey the published stories can set you off on?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.