I've learnt a lot since joining Smokelong + I owe a good few successes to their prompts.

www.facebook.com/share/p/17ep... I made the finalists' list for the London Independent Story Prize. It's about David Bowie's brother. Very happy to place this one. It was born in March Micro Marathon, thank you @smokelong.bsky.social

www.fridayflashfiction.com/100-word-sto... @heatherbooknook.bsky.social This is beautiful!

Buy it for the stories. Buy it for the charity your money will support (wilderness places and wilderness creatures)

Well that was a nice surprise. I somehow missed reading the longlist and only saw the shortlist today, and my story's on it! ( note to self: subscribe!)🫰

Wow. Tom Weller has written a series of Scrap Boys flashes, incl. 'Rangers', 'Bottles', 'Hunger', but I think this one's his best.

Once in a blue moon I write a poem.

Well done to the winners!

Huge congrats to the shortlisters, you stars! (not me). And good on us nearly-got-there longlisters. I'm thrilled to now have 2 in the 2025 anthology, but still chasing that elusive shortlist! Kudos to @bathflashaward.bsky.social for the professionalism + @kazbarwrites.bsky.social for the judging.

This will be worth tuning into. 7pm UK time.

Oooh, just seen. One of my submissions is on the longlist, the one I least expected! A morale booster. Congratulations to everyone.

Just found this gem. Odd, funny, smelly, and emotional, like all the best stories!

Berwick Bank could kill more birds than any other windfarm on Earth, devastating colonies of Gannets, Puffins and Kittiwakes off Scotland’s coast. 🚨 We support renewables, but not at catastrophic cost to seabirds already in crisis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JE...

Really looking forward to hosting this panel discussion on "Emotional Depths" with @claudiamonpere.bsky.social & @dawnsteffler.bsky.social. Should be such a great event. It's a week on Monday at 7pm GMT for anyone who'd like to sign up: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-worksho...

I witnessed the birth of this flash at @flashficfestuk.bsky.social in @fionamckay.bsky.social 's excellent workshop and look at it now - beautiful! Congrats Rosaleen!

What a lovely surprise, a first for me. Congrats to the other nominees and thank you Trash Cat. Made my day!

“Enough cannot be said about Aldridge-Morris’s ability to pin an era. She is simply a wizard of time-and-place vibe.”

www.smokelong.com/stories/anot... The joy of being part of @smokelong.bsky.social fitness is that you get prompted to read stories long after they were published. This one by @elissafield.bsky.social is amazing.

Love Ani's work, discovered via @smokelong.bsky.social fitness groups. She always manages to write something that builds and builds and hits you in the gut. This one's no exception. Plus plenty of other good stories to be found in @claudineliterary.bsky.social

Aww thanks Underbelly.

I entered 4 stories as I loved being in last year's anthology. 3 made it into the top 10% but sadly for me that's as far as it went this year. Congratulations to all the longlisters and good luck for the shortlist.

Source: Instagram share.google/9ltU3nwXWRlV...

It's publication day for FUEL ebook—with 75 prizewinning flash fictions plus TWELVE bonus flash stories not in the print book! It's a great read *and* all profits go to UK fuel poverty charities. The print book raised over £4k; winter is coming, help us raise more: www.fuelflash.net/product/fuel...

Beautiful!

Congrats to @therelphian.bsky.social for producing such a beautiful book. Great stories lie within, and when you buy a copy proceeds will go to The Wildlife Trusts who are made up of 46 charities working to maintain and restore wildlife and wild areas.

Good luck Cole! @nomad-sw18.bsky.social

The paperback proof of our upcoming anthology is getting some last-minute editorial attention from Mary. She's ruthless! but also chonky so one could say, the proof is with the pudding 🦝😼 Not long now until the book can be in your cat's paws too!

This story is so beautifully constructed. flash500.com/flash-fictio...

This is so good! Funny & wry and just brilliant. But stop all this cake stuff. There's no cake in my house and now I want to eat some!! @quickasaflash.bsky.social

Thrilled to be published in issue 5. I enjoyed writing this one and hope it'll make you laugh. I look forward to reading the other stories. Good to see some familiar faces here @nomad-sw18.bsky.social @emilyrinkema.bsky.social @joycebingham.bsky.social

Just signed up. Sounds good.

Your story is fantastic, Gill, I was knocked out by it - looking forward to people getting a chance to read it in full.

I'm very happy that this anthology has taken its name from my story. Buy the book and you can read good stories AND help save UK wildlife and wild places Why wouldn't you?https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/

Three friends struggle to figure out how they'll cope with loss and the fears it provokes. Amidst the teenage banter, @emilyrinkema employs her trademark delicate touch to show us the mother's essential role in giving these girls the safety they lack. Love Emily's work!

Just read Jess Dolan’s beautiful counterpoint narrative. An icy scuba dive is interspersed with flashbacks to the event that led the narrator to seek an escape. The structure is perfect and the descriptions visceral. Do go and read it.

Two lifelong friends party together. With skilful foreshadowing @finnegag.bsky.social establishes a growing unease as their differences start to show, suggesting disaster is on the horizon. Great story!

Wow! Just read the three winning stories. Each one’s a stunner.

Look forward to reading this on Sunday.

This is beautiful. I find it full of both urgency and stillness.

Congratulations to David O'Dwyer, Megan Griffo, and Jamie Redgate for placing 1st, 2nd, & 3rd in the Cambridge Prize. Thanks to @rupertdastur.bsky.social for all his hard work in running this competition.

Really happy to be included in this shortlist and excited to find out the winners. Congrats to all shortlisters, including those I recognise @chriscottom.bsky.social @uksherka.bsky.social theshortstory.co.uk/competitions...

Just devoured this Twin Peaks inspired piece in @tinymolecules.bsky.social Brooding and brilliant. I'm reading it in a cafe with a kids' playground in the garden, now waiting for something awful to happen to inspire me.

Oh I did enjoy these prompts (after an initial wtf moment) !

Congratulations to the winners. Can't wait to read these stories.

Didn't get further than longlist but congrats to the highly commended and the shortlisters. Thanks to Frazzled Lit editors for their professionalism and warmth in their timely announcements and commiseration emails.

Excited to be on the longlist. Congrats to other longlisters + all eyes on the 3rd.

Thank you so much for reading and posting Christine! I appreciate it.

Gill, I wanted to make sure you saw this one, too: open.substack.com/pub/andreagi...

Gill O'Halloran reading Another Time, an emotional yet surreal sea-inspired story, published in the 2024 Bath Flash Fiction Anthology. @flashficfestuk.bsky.social @bathflashaward.bsky.social