This is my attempt at Thimbleful Thursday's latest prompt, "Runs in the family." Even on my second attempt I could not stay within wordcount.“Well, that could have been worse,” commented Clara Fowler as she poured hot chocolate from her thermos into mugs for her niece, Maig Trudhove, and her niece’s Magis Obscura teacher, Miss Crowmeyer. “My third ( Read more... )

This comes from the Tell Me Tuesday Prompt back on 20 September 2016 and it has been living on my computer as "Who dired and madre you KIng". Anyway now it's finished and at 2,446 words I have failed to meet the 250 word goal. I hope you enjoy it.

The Jorlich ambassador stood because Crown Prince Uthor had not asked him to sit.  He summarised, “ ( Read more... )

This is a few months after Bed of Roses 1.

“So, how’s things going?  Last time I saw you there was a sour taste in your mouth about everything.”

“I was out of sorts with the world wasn’t I?  Let me buy you a drink for unloading on you last time.  What’ll you have?”

“Thank you!  The usual please.  So did something happen to make you feel better ( Read more... )

I wrote this to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt "Bed of Roses" as the first of a pair of stories.

“Congratulations on getting the cool gig!”

“What are you talking about?  I wanted field work and instead I’m stuck with being dogsbody on the archival deep dive team.”
“Coriander Evans!  Here you are with a paying job in your field, in the capital, ( Read more... )

I wrote this in response to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt "X marks the spot" but I have been unable to prune it to the 220 word upper limit and so it runs to 237 words. This occurs around the time of Captain Bennett's marriage to Captain Count Schtulvayer.

Merrill was at the front door when his father caught him. Looking at Merrill’s ex-military ( Read more... )

This was supposed to be 300 words (plus or minus 50) written to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt Wild Goose Chase. Except it wound up being 638 words with a minor footnote - mainly because someone was too sensible to get himself chased by the wild geese. *Looks pointedly at male character.*

This is probably happening between Zip One's Lip and Zip ( Read more... )

I wrote this to the Thimbleful Thursday 100 word prompt Packing Heat.

“So,” said the elegant older woman with asperity, “who’s providing who with a cover story here?”

“Ma’am?” The younger speaker was a nondescript girl/woman in her late teens.

“I was persuaded to let you and your friends tag along because chaperoning a school representative team ( Read more... )

I wrote this in response to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt "Two Minds". I think this one is more than a bit creepy.

“The other, it’s alive. Is it a what or a who?”

“We’re almost hungry enough that it doesn’t matter.”

“We’ve talked about this before. We don’t eat people.”

“We shouldn’t eat people - there’s a difference. The body requires fuel.”

“ ( Read more... )

I wrote this to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt Meal Ticket and it follows on, but not immediately on, from Gravy Train. (Yes, I decided to do that because of the name of the two prompts.)

“Do you think the little Hardbottle girl knows she’s being used as a distraction by her aunt and uncle?” Savarin Bowmorris was speaking to his associate and long ( Read more... )

I wrote this to the Thimbleful Thursday prompt of "Lay Down the Law" for 500 words, plus or minus 10%.

“Legally speaking,” began Hudsto then he stopped. “Actually, I don’t know if there is any legal precedent for all of this.”

“Really?” Cardew pursed her lips. “This hasn’t happened before?”

“Well, Step One would have been illegal before the Public ( Read more... )