There Are Times When We Talk Without Talking
by Samantha Kent
Her nieces arrive first. All three of them, mid-twenties, clad in looping scarves and the guilt of being absent since their mid-teens.
Then her son, his eyes trained on the notices pinned to the walls, on the white rectangle of sky out the window.
His pregnant wife, his pretty daughters, their vitality as sharp and painful as a knife.
Finally her husband, back from pacing the sterile corridors. Knuckles white, eyes red, fingers tobacco yellow.
The room is warm – nauseating – but her feet, she says, are cold.
One by one her visitors ask if she’d like another blanket. One by one they are informed by the others, in jovial tones, that she already has three, ten, a thousand.
Over her dying body – because it is dying, now, the doctors are sure – the visitors draw a line around the thing they can’t face talking about and take a step further back for good measure.
You’re how old? Wow. How’s big school treating you?
That’s frustrating. Do you think your buyers will stick around?
No time off in between jobs, no. If only!
They loved it. They’re definitely cruise people now.
He’s good. Just hungover, or he would have come along too.
Every now and then the visitors force themselves to look down at the woman propped up against the pillows, to return her slumped and crooked smile.
It is easy to wonder how she might be feeling, beyond the icy feet and the aching lungs and the wounds from the failed cannula. But it is hard – it is impossible – to ask.
In time, snow begins to fall, and conversation turns to the weather.
About the Author
Samantha Kent is an Associate Creative Director and aspiring novelist (aren’t we all?). She lives with her husband and cat in suburban Berkshire, enjoys hiking and escape rooms, and eats faaar too much chocolate.
Gemma Church: October 2024 Highly Commended
GODETIAS
by Gemma Church
Eight letters.
I’d never heard of GODETIAS until I started listening to Countdown. Never watched it neither cos I was at school… or bunking off, if you want the truth.
Anyway, two contestants (complete nerds) pick nine random letters. Then, they’ve got to get the longest word in 30 seconds while the Countdown clock ticks down.
Sounds dumb, right? But I’ve learned loads of new words.
GODETIAS comes up a lot because certain letter combos are more likely.
ASTEROID.
RODENTIA.
ORDINATE.
Eight letters.
Popular and anagrams of each other.
FAVOURITE.
Nine letters.
Claire’s the favourite. She’s smart. Went to uni. Left me with…
RELATIONS.
The most popular niner.
PHYSICIAN.
Nine letters but rare.
They came into my room today, RELATIONS and PHYSICIAN.
I was annoyed cos they turned the TV off.
PHYSICIAN spewed out loads of (nine-plus) words that I couldn’t understand. I stopped listening, cos I was pissed about missing the end of Countdown.
When PHYSICIAN left, RELATIONS started arguing. Again.
The worst thing was, I had to lie here, listening to the same old…
BULLSHIT.
Eight letters.
Countdown allows swear words, if they’re in the dictionary.
VEGETABLE.
Niner. Not popular. What RELATIONS called me.
But they’re wrong. I’m still in here and I’ve found something I’m good at and I’m going to go on Countdown and prove that I’m no…
WASTER.
Six letters. Crap Countdown word. But everyone’s FAVOURITE word to describe me.
Want to know the worst bit about lying here?
Claire hasn’t visited.
That’s hit me hard.
Harder than when Claire blocked me on her socials.
But not as hard as the tree that I drove RELATIONS’ car into.
I just wanted someone to see me.
Now, I’m trapped in my head.
Listening to Countdown.
Praying Claire visits and, maybe, brings me a bunch of GODETIAS.
About the Author
Gemma lives and works in Cambridgeshire with her husband, two sons, and one dog. She loves all things science fact and fiction with two degrees in physics and currently leads content at a quantum computing company. She has an Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing from Cambridge University, studied at The Faber Academy and is working on a sci-fi children’s novel with The Golden Egg Academy. Gemma’s SFF short stories appear in numerous publications. She is also a very proud Countdown teapot owner and discovered the word GODETIAS (amongst others) during her spell on the show. Find her @gemmakchurch.
Hannah Retallick: October 2024 Highly Commended
He Owed Me
by Hannah Retallick
When he died the man owed me £35 in petty cash and that was my first thought when I heard about The Accident, a collision between a camper van and lorry on the A55 which proved fatal for both drivers, the lorry man being the one who owed me £35, a twinkly-eyed neighbour, a single forty-something-year-old called Luca who smelt of cigarettes and bacon and always told me he loved my hair like that, like however it happened to be, up down blonde curly red straight black crimped, and we were starting to know each other quite well because he had got into the habit of rushing up to my front door and saying he needed to borrow some change to give as pocket money to his niece or for carpark tickets or for slot machines, so I would do the neighbourly thing and pluck coins from the dusty dish in my hallway, saying, ‘Here, hope that helps’, not knowing if I’d ever get it back but making a mental tally as though I needed to know how grateful he should be to me, and it was the selfishness of my first thought when I heard he’d died that meant I couldn’t bear to go to his funeral, crumbling under the weight of guilt, because £35 doesn’t matter in the face of death, and as the weeks passed I purged those thoughts completely and stopped torturing myself about the petty debt and my own failings and just wished I could ask Luca whether he really did love my hair like that, like however it happened to be, or whether he meant something else
About the Author
Hannah Retallick is from Anglesey, North Wales. She was home educated and then studied with the Open University, graduating with a First-class honours degree, BA in Humanities with Creative Writing and Music, before passing her Creative Writing MA with a Distinction. Hannah has gained recognition in many international competitions, including receiving Highly Commended in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2022 and winning the £2000 Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction 2024 – the biggest flash prize in the UK. Her debut short story collection, Something Very Human, is being released by Bridge House Publishing in November 2024. https://www.hannahretallick.co.uk/about
October 2024 Short List
Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award sHort list.
Author names are yet to be announced, so while it is fine to share that you are on the short list, we do ask that you do not identify yourself with your particular fiction at this stage.
Flash Fiction Festival Day, Sat, October 26th
There’s a bit of a lull now between the longlist announcement for the 28th award judged by Matt Kendrick and the short list and results announcements.On the day we end British Summer Time in the UK and the evenings get darker, why not come to the first of our trio of flash fiction festival days,this Saturday, 26th October. Booking is closed via paypal on this site, but anyone who wants to come, just contact me by tomorrow afternoon (Friday 25th October) at jude(at)flashfictionfestival (dot) com. Only £30 for a day packed with flashy fun from 11.00 am until 6.30 pm BSt.
More details at flashfictionfestival.com
For those affected by darker evenings and for anyone short of cash we have five more free places left. Just contact me if you would like one.
Jude, Octoher 24th
October 2024 Long List
Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award long list and huge thanks to all who entered.
Author names are yet to be announced, so while it is fine to share that you are on the long list, we do ask that you do not identify yourself with your particular fiction at this stage.
Important
We receive many many entries, and occasionally some entries have the same title. We are in the process of sending an offer of publication email to all authors on the long list. Please do not assume you are on the long list unless you have received that publication offer. If in doubt, contact us.
Guess the October Award Last Minute Badge colour!
If you still pop in at X (formerly Twitter) and/or Facebook, we have the usually day-long mini contest tomorrow Saturday 5th October, to guess the colour of the Last Minute Club Badge. Which is usually two-tone. Check out previous colours here
Maybe you could choose a colour-combo from this photo of figurines I saw in the Open Exhibition of art at the RWA in Bristol today.
The winner of this guess the colour contest receives a Bath Flash Fiction Anthology or collection published by Ad Hoc Fiction. If two guessers are close (maybe choose one colour each) they each win a book, The Last Minute Club runs all day Sunday for final day entrants.
And another bonus. Matt Kendrick, our judge, has produced a second amazing thread on X (read a previous one this week reproduced reproduced here ) for those writers who do begin from scratch sometimes a couple of days before the end of a contest.
A few of the excellent ideas in this thread for very last minute writers plus links to a couple of his own published stories are below,and a few by others with story structures that can be used to write fast. I would also like congratulate Matt on receiving two Best of the Net Nominations this week. Fantastic news for a fabulous writer and hard-working editor and resources-person.
Matt says:
I wrote this piece in one day, edited it the next day, and submitted it
the day after. It was picked for the Wigleaf Top 50 so hopefully does a
few things okay:
This piece uses repetition. The reason this might be a quicker thing to
write is that it comes from emotion. The repetition creates resonance.
Here, I’m using epistrophe (end-of-sentece repetition), but anaphora
(start-of-sentence) is probably easier
Another technique that leans more into the emotional is the
breathless paragraph like this brilliant example from James Montgomery
HC in Bath last year: bathflashfictionaward.com/2023/06/james-…
James Montgomery June 2023 Highly Commended
bathflashfictionaward.com
If trying this, I’d suggest picking an emotion and just letting yourself
write from small emotion to big emotion, seeing what comes out. Don’t
worry about it being messy on first draft. That’s what editing is for.
Or how about a list? I wrote this FictiveDream piece in a couple
of days & it was picked for Best Microfiction:
https://fictivedream.com/2020/02/25/a-list-of-things-that-are-white/
Start with a title (“a list of things / people /
emotions) then come up with that list. Try mixing in expected &
unexpected items…(7/13)
Try contrasting concrete with abstract. Try going overboard with
language. Jo Gatford won Bath with an astounding list piece, Things Left And Found at The Side of the Road, back in 2018
You can see the rest of Matt’s thread for more suggestions if you visit him on X.
In the meantime, happy writing/editing/polishing. We love to read your stories and thanks to everyone who has submitted already. Results out at the end of October, £1460 in prizes.
Jude October 4th 2024
20 Tips from our judge, Matt Kendrick for final week writers!
With 6 days to go to the deadline of 6th October, the sun’s setting on our 28th Award judged by Matt Kendrick. I’ve copied here a marvellous thread of tips Matt posted on X a couple of days ago, useful for any competition entry or for any time you are writing. He generously agreed I could post them up here again. Also take a look at his website for all the amazing resources there.
Matt’s thread of tips posted recently on X
Book Great Festival Flash Off Days — Oct, Nov, Jan
To begin the Autumn, the fourth series of the online Great Festival Flash Off, hosted by Jude, is now open for booking!
Saturdays, October 26th, November 30th and January 11th.
Still only £30 a day (11.00 am to 6.30 pm, London time).
Book via Paypal or card at flashfictionfestival.com
Each day includes a mini writing contest with ekphrastic prompts from Jude In October, loosely following the challenges in the Great British Bake Off the nearly vintage reality TV show, you will write your ‘signature’ challenge, November there’s a technical challenge and in January a ‘showstopper’. Judged by Diane Simmons, the winner and two runners up will receive Ad Hoc Fiction books, free entries to Bath Flash Fiction Award and publication.
We also. have 2 60 minute workshops, and one ninety minute workshop each day. Workshops run by Kathy Fish, Sarah Freligh, Judy Darley, Anika Carpenter, Stephanie Carty, Audrey Niven, Alison Woodhouse, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, plus a special Novella in Flash session with NIF writers, Karen Jones and Diane Simmons discussing, reading from and answering questions on their new novellas. There is also Yoga for Writers with Sudha Balagopal, readings, and chat in break out groups. Further details on the website.
Hope you can come! And if you are in vicinity, come to a free evening of readings, this Saturday 28th September at St James. Lots of well-known flash fictioneers reading one flash each and slightly longer readings from Diane Simmons and Flemming George who will read from their recently published novellas in flash. I’ll also be reading a few stories from my new collection.
And. here’s another two reminders for you. Our 28th £1460 prize fund single flash Award for up to 300 word storiescloses Sunday October and our ninth yearly Novella in Flash Award closes in just over a month on October 31st. More details on this website.
(In case you want a writing prompt, why not let the photograph spark off an autumn spider story?
Jude, September 27th, 2024
Book Sale!
With just twelve days to go until our £1460, 28th single flash Award closes on Sunday October 6th, and just under five weeks until our ninth Novella in Flash Award closes on October 31st this year. (Results out January 2025 with £500 in prizes plus publication for the top three), here’s a little book sale for you. If you are writing a NIF, it might give you a boost to complete it ready to send.
Jude is trying to clear the Ad Hoc Fiction ‘warehouse’ (ie her very small office full of boxes of books) a bit and is selling the following novellas in flash at £5 or £4 each if you buy two or more.
Free postage for buyers from the UK. And it’s still a good deal for overseas’ buyers. If you are interested, send an email jude (at) adhocfiction (dot) com mentioning your location and she will send a payment link. You can find more details about the books at bookshop.adhocfiction.com
Here’s the list:
One for the Road by Tom 0’Brien
The Tony Bone Stories by Al Kratz
It Felt Like Everything by K. S. Dyal
The Roster, Debra A Daniel
Echoes in a Hollow Space by Ruth Skrine
Essence by Christopher Drew
The everrumble by Michelle Elvy
the other side of better by Michelle Elvy
Small Things by Hannah Sutherland
Lessons from the Water’s Edge by Caroline Greene (winner 2022)
In the Debris Field (anthology of three winniung novellas in Flash from 2018)
How To Make a Window Snake (anthology of three winning novellas from 2017)