Visual Dare: Third Eye

Oooh I haven't joined in for ages - love the photo as always and thanks to Angela as ever for her fab, fun visual dare challenge!

“What? You’ll have to speak up.”
“I said…”
“Shhhh, not so loud, you’ll give the game away.”
“I said… why can’t we just hide in a bush?”
“Don’t be silly, there aren’t any bushes. We have to use a bit of imagination. We’re private investigators now. Just think Tom Selleck in Magnum PI.”
“I feel more like Frank Spencer in Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em.  What’s that? I can hear someone laughing. Is someone laughing at us?”
“No. Well… it’s just that gatekeeper. He’s not really laughing at us. Well he is a bit. I’ll give him a Magnum PI stare. He’ll draw attention to...”
Clang, clunk, thwack.
“YEOWWWWCH!”
“Ooops sorry.”

Visual dare - distorted

I'm delighted to get time to take part this week in Angela's Visual Dare. I'm not quite sure how I got to this from her fab photo prompt but guess that's part of the fun..! 

Her heavy sealed eyes opened slowly, scouring the room. Strange faces in a photograph stared back, a bright red dress, the kind she would covet but never dare wear was slung over a chair. Was she dreaming or ill, maybe she had a fever. Then droplets of memory started tapping onto her thoughts. Bright lights, sticky smells, a fairground. A dare to go into the tent of Mystic Mags. She’d entered laughing, saying she’d cross her palm with silver. She hears clearly the voice replying ‘so you want a new life, a new you? Well if you're sure my pretty...'

Back in the Dare

I sadly missed out doing the Visual Dare last week - and I really missed doing it too. This week another great pic as always from Angela - and here is what it's made me think of..!

It wasn't the first time they'd strolled past the building, as tall as a tree with a tarpaulin curtain pulled tight over the top. The noise this time though was unmistakable. As he stepped forwards she tried to pull him back. He shrugged her off. She moved to another gleam of light, putting her face against the rough wooden wall. They peered into the dark, shapes coming into focus, getting sharper and closer. For a few seconds, the silence of shock hung in the air. Heads pulled back, they looked at each other and said, in one voice, “It’s you.”

Angela dared me...

Thanks again to Angela whose visual dare has once again inspired and here is the piece I wrote in response to this weeks photo (another stunning one). Take a look at her fab blog here if you want to see the picture where this little flashy bit came from - actually I don't know where it comes from, I just scribble something, faff about with it a bit and very much enjoy myself in the process. I think this may well become a regular thing...!


From a distance they look like marooned whales, great grey mounds with an elephant skin surface jutting above the sea. They are rocks, jaggedy, slippery, bitterly cold. I know because I sit on these rocks. A melody, crystal clear, quietly strong, floats over the rolling waves, smashing and spraying skyward. It's the song of the sea. I know because it's my song. Some say here there is danger, a demon, a devil. But it's fate, it’s meant to be. I know because it's me.

My first flash!

I struggle at times to call myself a writer as I'm still in awe of 'proper' writers - mystical creatures who craft creative gems, gripping stories and fabulous fantasies - all from scratch. (I did love the comment I saw going round twitter this week that if you write you are not an 'aspiring' writer - if you write then you are a writer. Full stop.)
My comfort zone is non-fiction - which of course is still writing and still a creative task albeit you don't (or shouldn't) really make it all up! I have done a creative writing course, which I enjoyed, have various short stories drafted, have a notebook full of ideas, plots and characters, and of course have the ubiquitous half finished novel tucked away (who doesn't!).

But I don't 'do' fiction regularly, don't feel part of that world, and I've never shared what I have written with anyone - beyond tutors and other students on the course I did. I write articles and reviews which I am more than happy of course to be made public but even my current WIP is a non-fiction travel memoir type. However, yesterday, inspired by National Flash Fiction Day and a prompt on Anonymous Legacy, and encouraged by Sarah I took the plunge - the first time I have tried 'flashing' (see what that's all about here) and the first time of putting a piece of fiction up in public on someone else's blog for anyone to see. And, like most things, it wasn't as scary as I thought, or difficult, in fact it was great fun - and got lots of other ideas flowing too!

So thank you Sarah, Angela and the other lovely people who read and commented - you may just have started something now...

And - in another first - here is my 100 word Flash, dear reader, just for you to see!


Her feet slapped the bridge, water spittling out from under each heavy step. She hunched her shoulders under the umbrella as the rain drummed down. Her face flinched as his words spat through her mind. A gust of wind caught the umbrella, she watched it slip from her grip and dance away in the river – free, flowing. Tearing off her coat, the rain's fingers felt fresh on her skin. She climbed the fence, balanced a moment, then dropped. A figure nearby, hearing the splash, came running. She gargled out a laugh. She didn't need saving. She was waving not drowning.