The 1st Sherry's Shorts of 2026 is here! Listen to dazzling stories of new starts & journeys by award-winning Scottish Highland-based writers @seanluskauthor.bsky.social, Helen Sedgwick, Ian Tallach & me with fab actors @churchofben.bsky.social & Margo Fraser. www.mixcloud.com/invernesshr/...

Happy to have a story on Hannah's Imbolc Special on North Manchester FM. Listen live today on Saturday 31st January, 2-4pm: hannahkate.net/north-manche...

You carve your #dream into the rock, stare through each crevice at the ever changing sea. I reply with sunrise, softening your edges with a shimmering kiss. Morning by morning, our love lives on. #vss365

We will lie down here, waterside. You trace my scars, each #argent line an echo of sweeping mountain curves, reflections of the starlight spiralled sky. And so it is, and will be, when we return to earth. Moonlit. Marvellous. Immortal. #vss365

We name it #experiment: code word concealing intent. 'Just a game,' you say. Until it isn't. We sit, squished: three bodies in a two man tent. It learns quick, whispering words echoes of our own. Two syllables repeat, urgent. 'Hungry.' We hold our breaths. Wait. Either way, it will be over soon.

She'd glimpsed #terror once. Now she kept her head down, counted pavement cracks Until the red shoes with lollipop lacquer that squeaked as she slid them on. And danced. And stared at the shine until it coalesced into a million eyes. By sunset, in the dark, the shoes were all that was left. #vss365

It lies inside, this silent #songbird. Buried deep beneath the many masks we wear, it beats its wings, forcing a flutter in the chest, weaving its way up, up to form a living lump in a choking throat. One day, soon, she'll sing again. For now, we wrap ourselves in whispers and we wait. #whistper

FFF19052021 Chosen by Judge Hazel Turner FFFCompetition Three Winning Story: The last wolf in Brighton’s in the prize booth on the pier by Abi Hennig @abihennig.bsky.social #flashfiction #writingcompetitions freeflashfiction.com/fiction/the-...

Love love love this piece by @stillsquirrel.bsky.social

Thrilled to be a tiny drop in this year's FlashFlood. Happy #nffd2025

scarlet dawn the city gulls are crying salty for the sea here is a splinter of my driftwood heart #whistpr #30Days30Words #vss365

When the sea stills, When the sky sinks - grey, impenetrable When the hummingbird's wings stutter When the leaves curl inwards, holding their breath Let us lie together on the shore and sing the song of the #nudibranch Watch colour explode anew #vss365

"You said autistic children are a burden. That they ruin families. That they’ll never pay taxes or write poems. That they are, in essence, collateral damage. I’d like to introduce you to my daughter."

That first morning, me and Old Robot sit on a cliff edge. Split boots and rusty feet dangling over a sea all maybe colours of new day. Old Robot says, all these long nights I saw in black and white, as zeros and ones, only safety or danger. Look now, the gulls are flying golden spirals. #whistpr

I'm thrilled to be a small part of the @tldrpress.bsky.social charity collection - available now in print and ebook: tldrpress.org/2025/03/16/h...

The March episode of Sherry's Shorts is here, with tales about fishing & the sea. There's a great piece by @sagreene1.bsky.social & also super stories by local Highland writers Timski, LG Thomson & Cynthia Rogerson. www.mixcloud.com/invernesshr/... Listen live to @highlandhradio.bsky.social

They come from the sea, tall as trees, a slick #cerulean swarm. Close up we see the stippling, presume pixelation - holographic horror hosted by a hive mind. But as they swipe to smite, a million microplastics vibrate in time. Too late, we recognise the monsters we made. #vss365

" #Myopic Man " the headlines blaze. Readers devour the story: "Pensioner's prescient painting." "Model mirrors: microchosm of real life murder discovered in shed next door." They call him soothsayer, set the old man free. He dips his brush. Begins again. #vss365

Their heads do nod as I pass, gathered together in fallen leaves, not grass. How they whisper, how they #chime. With golden trumpets, they put on a play, and I, a crowd of one, do pause briefly to see. No fee. They're just the ticket for me, to lighten my step, lift my chin, begin this day. #vss365

Hello lovelies. Here is a tiny but cheerful blog about how (not) to be original. 2 mins read. Hope you enjoy. #amwriting #writingcommunity #blog www.jennygaitskell.com/single-post/...

When you slammed the door, stillness descended. At the window box, my fingers sieve soil. Even seeds won't grow in silence. A scattered shard of glass; #sonic scream unleashed. Sound spills like milk, across the ground, up the wall, above the sink. There, slowly, green shoots spark. #vss365

In light of everything happening, I wrote about how the KKK in the 1920s felt unstoppable, about the people that fought against them anyway, and about how fascism always fails. dansinker.com/posts/202…

So pleased you enjoyed Interludes, Pat. Thank you for reading and sharing @pdforan.bsky.social @lisaferranti.bsky.social #flashfiction #flashfictionfebruary

Congratulations to all the winners. I'm so pleased my little story will be part of this collection! #tldrterrors

Black History Month with @levertthebassman.bsky.social Day 01: Fred Hampton

after the system went silent, we took to the forest and learned all we would ever need to know in the shadow of an ancient #oak #vss365

‘My children found my old Universe in a Box.’ Next up, this cosmic wonder from Neil Clark in @splonk.bsky.social ✨ Less than 2 weeks until the @natflashfictionday.bsky.social Micro Fiction Competition deadline! This is not a drill 🚨🚨🚨 Get drafting! splonk.ie/2020/06/01/u...

When night's cold fingers slice my skin, rip beneath my ribcage at tangled terror in my heart, I do not lie still, silent, scared. I walk outside, into the arms of the #oak. Ensconced in smooth shadows, I sit, soothed, safe. 'This too,' the tree whispers. 'This too shall pass.' #vss365

"Her reflection in the deep burgundy gloss of the door is amorphous and sinister. The brass fittings gleam coldly." So much poise to this brilliant piece from @jtstories.bsky.social; love the way the title hangs over the story like a shadow

"The birds in my head are yakking again so I ask the orderly to give me something please that will shut them up please but he says honey you know I can’t" Stunning micro from @sfreligh.bsky.social, my winner for the @welkinprize.bsky.social 2025 - breathless, breath-taking and brilliant 🤩

We were etherised, scrutinising shadows from carefully curated cocoons, grimacing through white-picket teeth. Inside, the clickbait carnival continued. Until...a curtain tugged, a peer behind the mirror, ears primed for the echo's hitch. It was then the door opened, and the #sonder sang. #vss365

GORGEOUS story by @taracampbell.bsky.social - the! Layers! - "Malibu Lacey is trying to cut back on a lot of things..." ghostparachute.com/issue/octobe... #FlashFiction #FlashLit #Writing #Writer #SpeculativeFiction

Smile! #FlashMonster 2024 results are posted. Top 10 will be published on the site before the eggnog turns. themolotovcocktail.com/2024/12/20/f... @mlenoirbond.bsky.social

FFF19052021 Competition Three Winning Story: The last wolf in Brighton’s in the prize booth on the pier by Abi Hennig @abihennig.bsky.social #flashfiction #WritingCommunity #writingcompetitions freeflashfiction.com/fiction/the-...

Over 160 calls for submissions of poetry, fiction, flash, non-fiction, art, photography & more - competitions, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in December 2024. Best of luck & pls share! www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

"The kids at school mostly ignore Millicent and her silly, too-hot hat." I love this story! So many perfect lines in this gem by @sfreligh.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute! 💙💙💙 ghostparachute.com/issue/decemb...

Gulls #complain the sky at the municipal tip and I miss the sea as a magpie watches my arrival through metal bars with enough sorrow for both of us, keeping her colours to the simplicity of old magic as the north wind curls at her feathers, and I sort out my life from the boot of a car. #vss365

Underneath it, (it the violence of thunder’s jasmine-scented punch, it the steel-bellied cloud enraged) a #skerry eaten by wind’s teeth, Crumb sullen, rattling in the water’s open throat. Home to bleak grasses,(another clenched fist of living wire), the cry of warring gulls. Fight, fight. #vss365

We skim stones, aim for the so-called haunted #skerrry. Ava, closest, declares her stuttered splash a win. 'Still miles away,' Joe huffs, stung by the loss. We turn to go. A pebble skips along the water, lands between my feet. We stare across the water. Wait. #vss365

First post here. Breaking in the feed with this gorgeous micro by @kazbarwrites.bsky.social that I can't stop reading. fracturedlit.com/yellow-straw...

"To enroll your child, click here and answer three ancient Babylonian riddles, each more difficult than the last. Failure to correctly answer each riddle will lock you out of the site for forty-eight hours."

open.substack.com/pub/susanlan... This is a very honest account of attempting to be a writer during cancer treatment and coming up against the corruption in the literary world as well as peripheral neuropathy.

Last week I got nominated for a Pushcart! Thanks to @trashcatlit.bsky.social 🦝 trashcatlit.com/the-scavenger/

I fingertip up the wall, marvel at how the #raise of an arm has come to feel like the raising of an army: muscle, sinew, tendon, bone. I sense stitches stretch, volunteer regardless, clench fist to defy dividing cells, count to ten, slide back. Repeat. #vss365

My son donates a portion of his comic book proceeds to local schools to pay for kids school lunch for those who cannot afford it. For more information on Team Tech Boy His website www.teamtechboy.com

After you left, I ordered a NewYou online. I ticked boxes: Attentive & GSOH; put crosses next to: Messy & Mean. I thought they'd sent a #dud bc I felt safe, loved. When you inevitably came back, NewYou told you I was out and we watched you slump away as the sun set against grey. #vss365

this story by Michael Harper - written in 100 word sections - is so sweet & funny & beautifully structured ! so good !! read 'Stations of the cross as performed by a 6th grade Catholic education group for a small congregation on the Friday before Easter' xraylitmag.com/stations-of-...

"You want to ask what training she had because you’ve had five years’ experience and you are not confident." When an Orange Goes to School for the First Time by Marie-Louise McGuinness @mlmcguinness.bsky.social #shortstory. Please follow link and enjoy tinyurl.com/2n2nsrb7

When I'm dead, don't put my #ashes in an urn. Put it into an hourglass, so I can be on time. Scatter it under a tree that's called what I am now. Grit the road with it, so I can help you one last time. #vss365