This time last year I posted this article of articles that includes the links to all my free craft articles & resources in one handy place. Thought I might share it again as an early Christmas present to all the writers who bring me so much joy: prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/everything...

I feel like the writing community is out to break me. Day 1 at not-quite-six-o'clock and we're passed 75 entries already. 😬 SOMEONE PLEASE SEND HELP AND / OR PRESS PAUSE 😂😂😂 Also, the standard is even higher than last year so making decisions is going to be TOUGH!

A quick reminder for the last minuters among you. This workshop is this week, either Tuesday (UK evening) or Saturday (UK morning) 👇 Come write funny with me! Still a few spots remaining 😀

We. Are. A. Go. The @welkinprize.bsky.social is open for another year, bigger and better (hopefully!) than ever before. Can't wait to read what gets sent in. Always such a pleasure.

"Maybe, in a lot of ways, the world has always felt like it’s ending" Brilliant weaving together of narrative elements in this gem from @christinaltudor.bsky.social in @smokelong.bsky.social; wonderful writing www.smokelong.com/stories/judy...

"This should end the conversation, though you might feel like a jerk for not expanding on your answer" Brilliant piece from @colettelh.bsky.social in @smokelong.bsky.social showing how a found form can be infused with so much emotional exploration www.smokelong.com/stories/how-...

Just seen from the editorial to the latest issue that @smokelong.bsky.social is going to be accepting narrative poetry from January. That's pretty exciting. Now I can send them an even wider selection of my drivel 😀 (How to begin - "On a dark and stormy night, an onion...")

Today is one of those days where I'm wanting to get on with all the work in my inbox but I'm having to accept that the body is not happy with that idea. Le sigh! Still, very grateful I've been having some better moments just recently. Often, it's just about framing 😀 #SpoonieLife

Still places in this workshop next week for anyone who fancies it. Going to be a lot of fun(ny) and should get you writing from new angles.

Just realised the mini interview I did with Cathy Ulrich about this piece is now available. Thoughts on what Mrs W is thinking, Mrs/Mr Bridge inspiration, how Mr W is a MAMCASAW man and prattling about proverbs: milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/11/24/t...

I feel like this is some of my best work. If anyone else wants a limerick (see alt text), I'm in that sort of mood... Crowns, though - they're reserved for Welkin winners.

Ridiculously pondering running a writing retreat next year (when getting my disabled body anywhere is an impossible challenge and staying healthy for 7 days in a row is equally hard) 😂 It's good to dream, though, right?

"I was babysitting him for my weed dealers, a pair of comfy old dykes. My mother snorted when she saw Little Hansel and me, dressed alike in our orange sweatshirts and Captain Eo sunglasses" Richly creative and original from @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe...

"The man stepped under the eaves of a darkened storefront. Suddenly he began to sing about the past. About the nights in the cellars of the houses sprinkled beyond the main road" Such quiet beauty in this flash from @amymarques.bsky.social ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe...

"All we can do is grow more flowers, more beauty, more magic, until beauty and love fill the room and the elephant won’t find room to grow." Such a clever use of an extended metaphor from @happilander.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute: ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe...

"Before being charmingly interrupted by hypocrisy, Anna had been thinking about how everyone put the dead on a pedestal of beauty and humanity and kindness, which they rarely were" Swirling, contemplative writing from @delgeo14.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute: ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe...

"The change began subtly. At first, I noticed a strange stiffness in my joints, like the heavy, creaking doors of an old house" Wonderful speculative piece from @swethaamit.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute: ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe...

Ideas for lit mags that have a reasonably fast turnaround between acceptance and publication? This is for a 500 word piece. It's a surreal-dystopian-lyrical triptych in 1st person plural. Suggestions?

I hope you'll all enter - love running this comp every year and always so honoured by everyone who sends in their work

I made some artwork to go with my story. This was a lot of fun to envisage. Hope it connects with the writing in interesting ways.

Thrilled to have a new story out today with the wonderful Milk Candy Review that features eggs, soldiers, silence and absent suns. Hope you'll give it a read: milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/11/20/n...

"In hindsight, maybe our dad was trying to do something nice, something normal families did, but he wouldn’t have just driven to the circus on a whim." A CNF micro from @dianelp.bsky.social that unfolds so cleverly to show the essence of a family: www.claudineliterary.net/dianepayne

"My cat gazes at the void. She’s deep in thought, as if she’s a Rodin statue, but we don’t do thinking here. We only do duties and responsibilities" Love the surreal absurdity to this piece from @happilander.bsky.social

"I liked it alright, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t rub the longing off its face. The painted eyes looked past me" A tiny gem from @ezhang77.bsky.social in @claudineliterary.bsky.social www.claudineliterary.net/elenazhang

"Friday night is a halter top in the Dunedin winter. Friday night is open-toed heels, purpling toes peeping at the beer-soaked floor of the Captain Cook" Brilliant use of anaphora in this fab CNF from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social www.claudineliterary.net/sumitrasingam

"and my mind peels back the pastry folds of time and brings me to the beach on the northwest side of the island" Absolutely beautiful breathless micro from @kleopatraolympiou.bsky.social

This month's #Mondettes picked by Shome Dasgupta ⚡Ten wonderful flash fictions 🔍Ten splashes of analysis as to why Shome made these brilliant picks 🪴Three fantastic prompts to get you writing mondettes.substack.com/p/november-2...

Just had the most frustrating non-meeting with a new mentee because apparently the internet has gone glitchy (what even is cloudflare anyway? Clouds shouldn't be flaring, they should be floating). Technology is good when it works but very not good when it doesn't. 😶

"My own nest was happy slammed. Each straw and pine needle woven tight to make a whole" Wonderful use of extended imagery from @bsherm36.bsky.social in this evocative micro.

Spending a bit more time writing my epic editing course this morning. I've reached the final "proper" topic 🥳. So looking forward to when this is done - a lot of blood, sweat, love and brain-poking is going into this thing. Really hope it's worth it!

Would love to win this to fund the @welkinprize.bsky.social (which if I do say so myself is the best free-to-enter micro comp that has me as a judge and runs through Dec and Jan...) Wonderful @smokelong.bsky.social doing wonderful @smokelong.bsky.social things as always ❤️

Okay, I wrote a shape poem. It's prose-poemy-still-a-flash. But probably too poemy to be submitted as flash. And formatted as a particular shape. So, where do I send it? Just over 300 words, slightly biblical, slightly messagey... Suggestions?

"Many years ago, I loved a man I would have to leave. (Or: I loved a man because I would have to leave.) (Or: Because I had to leave this man, I would always love him.)" Another stunner for a Sunday morning. Love the fracturing of time in this piece, how all these departures echo against each other

"It never ended well. The contents always terrible. Like the bees that swarmed the shy barista who tentatively plucked at the lid (this, when there were still bees left)" Wow, this is a stunner from @jjlofflin.bsky.social So originl and powerful

"Alligators Assassins zig and zag duck and weave Black Bears Muggers go big and go loud" Stunning breathless list micro from @angelajoynes.bsky.social

"A stain. A case of misidentification. Brothers. A road trip. A detailed account of an emergency appendectomy" Been meaning to catch up with this piece from @kathyfish.bsky.social for ages and of course it's brilliant: reideasjournal.com/kathyfishfic...

"I sat out under this sky for a couple hours, watching the lights dance for everyone but also for me" Beautiful capturing of a single moment from @patrickjohanneson.com in @templeinacity.bsky.social : templeinacity.com/creative-non...

"Pink fairy-wings, because every girl should have some. Any pink thing, really." Wonderful build to this prose poem from @cake-girl.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social; great use of a list: templeinacity.com/poetry-karen...

"And then it happens. She stops in the middle of the street. A sudden impulse fills her. She must buy flowers." Oh, I love this from @deniseb.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social. What a great re-telling: templeinacity.com/flash-fictio...

"We were all new proportions and unmet potential. We were the promise of a future" So much suggested around the edges of this micro from @ramccafferty.bsky.social - great writing

"You-and-Kate found me, a mouse hiding in a hole and enticed me out with bits of cheese and memes of wet cats" Wonderful uplift into joy from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social; love the use of repetition to underpin that: templeinacity.com/flash-fictio...

Two weeks on Tuesday or three weeks tomorrow - come be funny with me in December 😀😆🤣😜☺️ and learn about the universe of tone and the lyrical / humour overlap among other exciting and edible-sounding things. Also, I've written a story about the loch ness monster going to the pub...

"it was at the exact moment Earl took a hard left and Jason wasn’t wearing his seat belt so he fell out of the car and landed in a ball" Love the breathless rush of this piece from @thorntonforreal.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/subway-was-r...

"They start in the attic with buckets and bleach, their efficient brooms sweeping spiders into tiny binbags as sunlight spills through gaps in the broken shingles" Wonderful build to this from @maireadwrites.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social and what a group of three to end on ❤️

"Our Papa preaches at New Word Presbyterian: “God will smite sinners,” he yells and pounds his fist on the pulpit" Brilliant use of a title to add an extra dimension in this piece from @salgal.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/three-truths...

"A wishy-washy wave of partial kindness inflected itself within the row of syllables Matthew methodically released into the ear canal of the woman limbo-ed on hold" Love the use of sound in this piece from @shemurph.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/thank-you-fo...

"I am kayaking with my son on the river that once caught fire and has never been allowed another personality" So much depth to this emotionally layered piece from @stephieosaurus.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social

"You don’t share moules-frites and suck each other’s salt slick fingers or eat tiramisu-with-two-spoons or watch Marilyn Monroe liking it hot in the park" A story with so much build to it from @abbywilliams.bsky.social and such a great title that hangs over the piece: flash500.com/flash-fictio...

"What if his unpregnant mother hadn’t married his homesick Irish father, had let him go back to Ireland alone, and found a different man" Love how this winning story from @quickasaflash.bsky.social shifts backwards then forwards through its anaphora "what ifs" flash500.com/flash-fictio...

"She knows what a fronted adverbial is and can use one correctly in a sentence. She has her times tables at her fingertips" Brilliant contemplation of "all work, no play" from @alisonwassell.bsky.social; wonderful rhythm to the way this is brought to the page