Monthly Archives: May 2014

May 29, 2014 · 10:17 AM

Food and lodgings included (Friday Fictioneers)

Image by Jennifer Pendergast at http://elmowrites.wordpress.com/

FOR RENT: Spacious room with a view. Enquire within.

Mr Bottomsworth fell in love from the moment he saw the arched entranceway. Inside was perfect for tea parties and his cousins lived just down the hall.

And what a great landlord! Thoughtful enough to leave him some supper the very night he moved in. A big chunk of cheese right by his door.

He tucked his tail into his best dinner suit, smoothed down his whiskers and slipped out through the hole.

That first bite was magnificent.

Thwap!

Oh.

FOR RENT: Spacious room with a view. Enquire within.

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To read more from Jessie Ansons, follow her on Twitter:

Follow @jessieansons

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Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image. For more information see:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/30-may-2014

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Tagged as food, for lease, for rent, lodgings, mice, mouse, mouse trap, rent, trap

May 28, 2014 · 6:08 AM

Live Reading

The Writers' Life

Doing anything Saturday? Why not come along for coffee and entertaining readings by some of our best local authors. It’s free! See you there!

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Purple pirates solve the clues (my appearance on ABC Treasure Hunter)

Last weekend I learned that if you mix up the letters to ‘Weak anteater girth’ you get ‘Heritage water tank’. And not just any old heritage water tank. It’s the water tank at number 10, Summit Street, North Lambton.

Let me explain.

Last Saturday, me and my writing group buddy Margaret Jackson (who blogs here at Marg’s Slices of Life) were invited into the ABC Newcastle radio studio for Treasure Hunter with Jenny Marchant. It was our job to solve the clues – with the help of some very clever listeners – and navigate the ABC car around town in search of the elusive red envelopes.

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May 21, 2014 · 7:35 PM

Not another soul (Friday Fictioneers)

Image by Erin Leary at http://erinlearywrites.com

With each step closer to the river she peeled a layer of clothing from her body and dropped it to the ground. Her hunched shoulders relaxed; the tightness around her mouth released.

There was not another soul to be seen. Her naked legs stepped into the water. She scraped her fingers lightly across the surface and the gentle current wrapped around her middle.

She took in the deepest of breaths then let her body sink, leaving just her head above water.

It was so peaceful she could hear the swarm of flies already beginning to gather around his dead body.

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Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image. For more information see:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/23-may-2014/

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Tagged as clothing, flies, naked, not another soul, river, soul, swim, water

May 18, 2014 · 7:50 PM

Not our first kid (Friday Fictioneers)

I’m in the backseat. And the car is surrounded by goats.

‘Mavis. Susie. Clementine.’ He acknowledges each of them as they pass.

‘Darl, look! It’s Josie. She’s just about to pop like you.’

I groan as another contraction reaches its peak.

He furrows his brow and mutters, ‘She seems to be handling it better though.’

‘Just. Get. Us. Moving! For God’s sake.’

‘Oh look, Darl! Josie’s coming to say hello.

The goat sticks her head through the open back window and bleats a loud ‘baaaaa’ right into my face.

I really shouldn’t have married a goat farmer.

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Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image. For more information see:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/16-may-2014/

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Tagged as car, farmer, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, goat, labor, labour

May 7, 2014 · 7:54 PM

Them’s the brakes (Friday Fictioneers)

Image by B. W. Beacham at http://salmonfishingqueen.wordpress.com/

‘It’s terminal,’ said the doctor, ‘there’s nothing I can do.’

Stuck in the mud, waves lapping at her wheels, she thought about her colourful life. Since her first day as a shopping trolley she loved her job. She got to meet the most interesting people: from young singles to elderly couples who had been together for years.

But the mums with babies were her favourite. The babies always drooled all over her but she gladly put up with that for the chance to hear their babbles and look into their sweet, innocent eyes.

She, herself, never had children.

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To read more from Jessie Ansons, follow her on Twitter:

Follow @jessieansons

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Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image. For more information see:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/9-may-2014/

29 Comments

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Tagged as beach, death, Friday Fictioneers, mud, shopping trolley, terminal illness

May 7, 2014 · 7:52 PM

Rooms without windows can make you crazy

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My boss says, ‘Although I can’t see out any windows, I can sense when it’s suddenly dark outside.’

No, we’re not in gaol. We’re at work. And unlucky for us our office is completely disconnected from the outside world. That’s right, whoever designed our part of the building forgot one crucial element.

Windows.

So it makes us rely on our other senses. Feelings about cloud cover. Sounds of light rain. Smells of fresh flowers opening in spring while we’re stuck inside slaving away at our desks.

It reminds me of Alcatraz, the former US prison in San Fransisco Bay. Some of the worst criminals in the United States lived out their days in the prison blocks on that island. Solitary confinement, deaths, horrific riots… it all happened at Alcatraz. The cells are small, dirty, cold and dark, with very little natural light. When you visit you feel its sordid history and it sends chills up your spine.