Sunday Snippet - by guest author Louise Wilford

                                                                  Choose

The red-gold sky stretches ahead, still as a salt flat, resting on clouds that obscure the landscape beneath. The rippled granite of the summit unrolls behind me to the horizon.

I’m halfway, balanced on the edge between the climb and the fall.

Taking the granite path will definitely bring pain, though a pain dulled by familiarity. I’m already acquainted with the endless drone of regret, each day as pewter-grey as the last, until even the daily acts of washing, eating, breathing have become too tiresome to sustain.

A long dying, followed by a long death.

Stepping into the sky will probably bring pain – my body a shattered, bloody mess, lacerated by the knives of jutting rocks as I fall. Or, who knows? I might soar through the sky like a gull, held in the warm arms of the air. My grandma used to say that, for every demon’s push, there’s an angel’s embrace.

The only way to avoid either of these pains is to choose the other.

It is the vernal equinox today. I heard it on the news. Today there is an equal quantity of light and dark. Here, we’re about to tip from winter into spring, but elsewhere they’ll vice versa it and move from spring to winter. The magic is in such borders, they claim. On the brink of here and there, of sleep and consciousness, of death and life.

My grandma used to claim you could balance an egg on its smaller end at such times. But what good does that do? Balanced on its end, it’s still an egg. It still smashes as it hits the ground, or grows rank and sour from being kept in the same bowl too long.

I’ll choose the red-gold sky.

I’ll hope for an angel.

[297 words, including title]

 

Came Third in Fosseway Flash Fiction Competition 2022 - Theme: Equinox

 

BIOGRAPHY:

Louise Wilford lives and works in Yorkshire, UK, with her husband and an elderly cat. She has been writing poetry and prose since childhood. Her work has been widely published, most recently in Allium, Epistemic Literary, 805, Heartland Review, Last Leaves, New Verse News, Ocotilo Review, Pine Cone Review,  Punk Noir, River and South, Silver Blade, The Avenue, POTB, Balloons Lit, Parakeet, The Fieldstone Review, and Black Hare Press, and was nominated for Best Of The Net in 2022.  In 2020, she won First Prize in the Arts Quarterly Short Story Competition, and was awarded a Masters in Creative Writing (Distinction). She is working on a fantasy novel. 

You can read her blog here: https://louviewsnewscues.blogspot.com/

Book reviews - Locked 'room' style novels - Part 1

All of these books have a locked room feeling due to the isolation of their location/setting, or way in which the murder comes about:

*Spoilers are kept to a minimum!

The Guest List – Lucy Foley

This book was great! It has a beautiful use of a remote island - I could really picture the setting.

It does jump forward and backwards in regard to time/structure, and the death occurs very early on. It works though, you just have to remember what and when! Backstory in this is shown effectively and it all felt necessary and well interwoven, rather than info dumps. If anything, I wanted to know about the past of each character…it felt crucial to what was happening when in the present!

Despite the timeframe being restricted in terms of current action (it occurs in just a couple of days) I was hooked and read this book in just over a day.

 

Sleep - C.L.Taylor

A remote island, like the above book. There’s a VERY clever twist and it’s well written. Typical me, there's a funny tale to accompany the first glance of this book that I will put on my blog on a Tuesday post. Put it this way...I was glad to find and read this book! :)

 

Pretty Guilty Women – Gina LaManna

Four women confess to the same crime and it has a ‘locked room’ feeling like the previous books mentioned due to being set at a holiday resort as there are limited characters, therefore restricting the chance for it to be anyone else/plus no other locations. I could NOT put this down!

 

An Unwanted Guest – Shari Lapena

This is WELL worth a read and it’s very similar to And Then There Were None and Lapena admits to being influenced by Christie.

I felt at times that it was slow (waiting for things to happen…especially in a couple of specific places) and wanted to read through these quickly! However, in a way, it added to the claustrophobia of the characters being isolated and stuck…plus sitting there suspecting each other…so I was arguing with myself that these particular sections were actually quite effective!

 

The Holiday – T.M.Logan

I did get a bit frustrated waiting for the death, and there are a lot of  perspectives used so you have to remember who is who/their story etc. However, with patience, it builds well with lots of potential/possibility for who will actually die, and why. This element I liked a lot! 

Also, this is another excellent use of location in terms of it feeling ‘locked’ and there's some wonderful imagery. I decided not to view the C5 adaptation when it aired as I knew the book and sometimes when I have read (and enjoyed), the show will not work for me!

The man at the gate - Part 2

 The 'what happened next...'

Following on from last week, if you've read the blog post from last Tuesday, you'll know that in the summer of 2021 I had an unwanted visitor...

After playing Poirot, I discovered he was the first owner of the house and had sold it on years back. It had been sold a few times before I purchased it. At this point, I started to think that he was just confused!

When he was sent on his way in July 21 he was told if he returned that he would be arrested, therefore I couldn't quite believe it when he came back again in spring last year when nobody was home! Luckily, my neighbour let me know and another neighbour called the police. 

        The man was saying it was his house and that he wanted to gain entry.

Unfortunately, it was PCSOs that arrived and they said (to me) that they didn't have the power to arrest him, and thankfully, he went on his way of his own accord... 

This time, I put my foot down, with regards to safeguarding concerns as, basically, he was living in sheltered housing and was encouraged 'short walks' - not long drives! I pointed out to the officer (that I had been previously given as a contact) that he was buying a new car each time to make the journey - we were able to obtain records of purchase for each car using the number plates.

A welfare team visited and he was assessed as raising many concerns... To my knowledge (they weren't able to tell me everything) he was then place in an EMI style home and not allowed out on his own again.

        Safety had to be a priority - him and ours. He was confused, at times violent (he broke the gate in two different ways on two of the visits) and a danger to those on the roads as well - it was a long journey.

To this day, the 'visits' he made have haunted me as there were points, until I discovered WHO he was/ that he was away safely, that I feared his return... I still think it's the councils fault for discussing his moving date without checking any details - I'd been on the phone to them, using the address, the house wasn't up for rent/sale and they didn't check anything - they just took his word that he was moving in and this made him convinced he was.

    I understand only too well how cruel the ageing brain can be having been witnessed my Nan's dementia decline, but I will never forgive the people at the council for not talking across the departments. If A had spoken to B and B to C and A, it wouldn't have escalated.

Have YOU ever had anything like this happen?

Another Sunday Snippet -

The escape pod – fifteen minutes and counting:

The digital countdown clock on the wall was Paul’s only opponent. Two minutes had whizzed by already and there were twelve minutes left to escape…

‘Think I’ll stick to a full hour escape room next time!’ Paul spun the digits on the padlock using a code he’d just found in a number maze on the back wall. Playing solo is no fun either, he thought.

7732, a tug of the lock and the black box was open, revealing an envelope that contained a clue.

This new pop-up concept needed volunteers to trial it and Paul had secured a slot. Although he was now wishing he hadn’t! The experience lacked the story line that made all the other rooms memorable. Plus, it was dark and cramped with an unidentifiable smell.

‘Ok, next puzzle – an anagram,’ he declared aloud, missing having someone to talk to as he had always completed games with his wife previously. 

ehad     oruy     bovae     pu    loko 

‘Toooooo easy,’ he announced aloud as he looked up – giving the owners the feeback they wanted.

His celebratory mood soon changed. ‘There’s nothing up there?’ he called into the CCTV and microphone to notify his ‘Games Master.’

Ding!

A much-needed clue pinged in:

YOU NEED TO FIND SOMETHING IN THE POD FIRST!

Paul scratched his head. It was claustrophobic in the pod and a bead of sweat was forming across his forehead. What am I missing? His initial observation of the two-metre cube (on being locked in) was how bare it was apart from the puzzle on the wall, the black box and the red cube chair.

Ding! 00:10:00

‘The cube chair,’ Paul muttered as he began to feel the edges of the red plastic box. The edges were joined, but not tightly. Manoeuvring the plastic with his palms, Paul managed to slide the top face off towards him. This revealed a torch, a code sheet, a whiteboard and a pen.

Instinct kicked in and Paul shone the torch up onto the ceiling. This revealed a series of four codes that he immediately set about writing onto the whiteboard. He glanced at the countdown timer (00:06:45) and knew that he needed to hurry.

The seconds ticked by and turned into minutes.

With less than two minutes remaining, Paul had the exit code for the keypad on the pod of the door!

UP, LEFT, LEFT, DOWN

A brief, victory tune played, and the door clicked opened. He done it! 

Ahh, daylight and freedom!

Book review: Local Girl Missing – Claire Douglas

 *May contain spoilers...

Are you tired of getting to the end of a book and there always being a happy ending?

Well, look no further than Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas because I can honestly say that when I first read this book, I was delighted with the bold ending!

Whilst there is an uncertainty to the fate of one character, the unexpected events (and mind-blowing twist) help the ending to stick in your mind after reading.

Littered with beautiful descriptions throughout, this has an unusual narrative that alternates between a diary from the past and a present tense narrative that addresses another character. Both viewpoints drive the story forward to the shocking conclusion.

I instantly looked for other stories to read from this author when finishing!

Can you name a story where the ending really delivered?

The man at the gate - Part 1

Home sweet home?

In May 2021 just before 11am, a scruffily dressed man (driving a white car) turned up at our house saying it was his. Nobody was home so he knocked at the neighbours, to say the house was his. It isn't!  

The following month (near to the end of it) he returned at about 12:35pm and attempted to gain entry through the garden gate and was forcibly trying to get in, even when the gate was locked. Thankfully, I wasn't home alone!    

    This time, he was smartly dressed and driving a blue car!

In the middle of July, a letter to provide a pin number for an online council account that we hadn't requested was on the doormat when I got in! The following day, having phoned the local council to query this letter, the reply was that it was likely an error in someone typing a reference number and to ignore it.

    It soon transpired that receiving the letter wasn't an error as he had returned wanting ‘his paperwork,’ which I later realised to be the pin number. Due to the force in which he used in order to try to enter the property and the fact the neighbours had informed of his previous visit, I phoned 999 and requested police assistance for us whilst the gate was barricaded to stop it breaking!

What happened next was unbelievable as it turned out that he had told the council that he was moving in on 17th and they had transferred the Council Tax to him! A letter even arrived in his name!

    I discovered all of this by phoning the council and when I did so (explaining the situation and that the police were on route) the man at the Council that I had been referred to - with the man at the gate naming him for us to speak to - knew what property I was about to tell him about from my opening sentence! What?!

    He confirmed that the property had been raising suspicion due to the online team being unable to grant the man's wishes due to him not being able to get through security questions. He also said his colleague (in the tax department) had had dealings with him too, and had been suspicious as well!

    Another lady that I then spoke to (it did feel like they passed the issue around, nobody taking any responsibility) even said that she had been speaking to him that morning and that when he’d given her contact numbers previously, she had been unable to contact him. 

Why weren’t alarm bells ringing? 

See next week's blog on Tuesday for what happened next!

The Inner Thoughts of a Hungry and Cheeky Bunny

Initially written as a two-hundred words story for a competition and now slightly edited/extended.

Hungry. Waiting. Hungry. Waiting.

What is that thing she’s looking at and tapping? I like to nibble the rubber casing that it’s trapped in on the occasions that she’s stupid enough to leave it on the floor.

Using my paws, I’ve had a try at tapping too, and there were things moving around under my paws, but my eyes didn’t see the interest – personally.

Bored now! I know, I’ll speed things along…

BANG!

BANG!

‘Don’t do that Peeps, you’ll hurt your teeth.’

I’m not worried about my teeth, it’s tummy I’m thinking about…

Damn, it’s not worked…she’s stroking my head now. I know, I’ll look cute: eyes wide, nose twitching…

Anyhow, ‘Peeps…’ what’s that about? I’m sure she called me Sweep when I first arrived! All these nicknames make it hard to know when she’s talking to me…and equally easy for me to deny I’m being spoken to! Afterall, I’m a rabbit, not a monkey. So, when she says, ‘Stop eating the carpet Monkey, or Piglet…’ how am I meant to know that is meant for me, Sweep – rabbit?

Finally, there’s movement. She must have heard my rumbling tummy.

            Success! A nice pile of hay. Think I’ll do what I did yesterday and put four large bits in at once, that got her worried! That’ll teach her to keep me waiting!