The Acorns of Bartlett Park

'The Acorns of Bartlett Park' is a piece of micro-fiction, that was written for and won the prose catgory of the Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender Writing Competition and was awarded this fabulous illustration of the story by Alban Low. 

Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender Writing Competition

Prompt: Trees in our local public gardens and parks have a special place in our hearts. They have boosted our spirits and willingly offered us something to hug! We want you to put your feelings about trees in public gardens and parks into just 250 words.We invite you to write a flash story or poem of 250 words or under about trees in your local public garden or park.

My story is about a tree in Bartlett Park in the East End of London. I'd been in this park with my partner sheltering in the rain with a carpet of acorns under our feet. As a child and a mother and youth worker I've played with acorns like these but this story is also about the stories we tell our children. The stories we tell them for fun or protection or to explain what we do not know. About nature and our nature. Some stories get changed over time, and we forget that Pinochio's maker Geppetto told the first lie, and not Pinochio, in Carlo Collodi's original story - Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet (1881-1883). I wrote my story thinking about climate change deniers and Covid deniers, wondering about the stories they will tell their children, and the stories those children will tell theirs.

👂 Listen to all the shortlisted stories read here.

Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender is a partnership project between ReThinking Cities and the Sydney Gardens Project and this competition was run by Rethinking Cities/Museum of Walking on behalf Bath and Northeas Somerset Council.

Eclipsed

Photo by Kashif Haque

'Eclipsed', was published in print in the nature writing anthology, This is Our Place by Spread the Word and the London Wildlife Trust, and can be downloaded here. 

'Eclipsed' began life on June 10th in a Charlie Latimer class (@Charlie_Lat). We were talking about writing and when we get stuck or can't start. We were asked to write 'one true sentence' in the Hemingway tradition of when he told himself...

"Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.  (A Moveable Feast, Hemingway, 1964)

My 'one true sentence' was:

'The sun eclipsed looks like a crescent moon.' 

There had been a solar eclipse that day and this became a refrain in the story and 'Eclipsed' was then developed in the Spread the Word and London Wildlife Trust nature writing workshops (@STWevents & @WildLondon).

Here's what was going on in my head and in the world, that influenced the story...

1. A solar eclipse that loooked like a cresent moon.
2. Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' 
3. Urban nature, seasonal cycles, from the human body to the solar system
   
4. Domestic abuse triggered in pregnancy
5. Rise of Domestic Abuse numbers in lockdown
6. Domestic Violence websites 'hide' button
   
7. Reports of  billionaires going into space when people on earth are going to foodbanks and earth is going to pot. 

This Is Our Place was launched by Spread the Word and the London Wildlife Trust, on the 27th of November at Camley Street Natural Park. The event had live streamed readings from the project’s writers-in-residence, Jackee Holder, Elspeth Wilson, Laura Barker, LiLi K. Bright and Anita Sethi, alongside writers like me, whose work had been selected as part of the anthology showcasing voices in nature writing.

I Am Coin

'I Am Coin' published by EllipsisZine started off at the Stay-at-Home Literary Festival 2020.

The festival began as a single tweet by CJ Cooke, an award-winning author and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. A few short weeks later the festival launched, bringing together 220 authors and industry professionals with support from lead partner, Paper Nations. With 145 events held over two weeks, Stay-at-Home! debuted as one of the largest literary festivals in the United Kingdom.

The story came from prompts from two free and fantastic workshops, where an object was the starting point.

27 April 2020 -  Morning Workout with Susmita Bhattacharya - prompts (see link) included listing objects a character would carry and what they tell us abut the character in a situation.

1st May 2020 - Experimental Writing with Dr Tawnya Selene Renelle - prompts included writing from the perspective of a 'cherished object' and what the object sees, hears and feels.

The cherised object I chose was a silver coin (dated 1888) my grandmother recieved on her wedding day and gave to me the year my daughter was born in 1988. I was reminded of the letter she sent with it saying it wasn't worth much but meant a lot. I'd written 'Other Uses for a Woman's Body' thinking about the effects of climate change and 'I Am Coin', writing from the perspective of a coin fit with themes around the objectification and commodification of womens bodies like in sex work and human trafficking.

 

Deptford High Street 

We're Playing Doctors and Nurses

This story began on my way to work at our youth centre, when a young woman passed me wearing a mask under her chin as if it was the most natural thing in the world. 

I thought about how I'd never seen a surgical mask in a doctor or nurse toy set and I fast-forwarded into a post-apocalyptic world (or maybe somewhere now) and thought about the consequences of discarded masks, a discarded health service, and a discarded world and the irony of the term 'stranger-danger' when statistically we are more likely to be hurt by people we know.

The story is pretty creepy I know. I'm hoping it makes the reader uneasy. I think it's a good thing when I'm not feeling comfortable about something, it's harder to ignore.

Thanks Paragraph Planet for publishing this. Writers, send any 75 worders you have their way here. 

Watering the Garden at 4am

'Watering the Garden at 4am' is a 50 word story published in The Mambo Academy of Kitty Wang presents 'Millipede Ranch' by Blink Ink.

 

Sapsuckers by Rachel Laundon

 

 

Dueling by Rachel Laundon

 

I was thinking of the brilliant Gabriel Garcia Marquez story called 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings', and the health worries of a number people I know, and how a decline in physical and mental health can keep a person in a sort of captivity.

According to Prostrate Cancer UK, 'One man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer. It already kills more people than breast cancer and by 2030 it’s set to be the most common cancer in the UK.'

Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine

...a recycled Oxford English Dictionary as trophy

Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine is piece of flash fiction in the form of a breathless paragraph. It started off life with the title I found in a fact I learned from QI. I got the first line from a mermaid prompt from a Meg Pokrass Flash Gym and developed the flash with an eye on a pirate themed subs call and entered the final draft in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, never imagining it would win, or that the judges would say such lovely things as they did below:

I found this piece outstanding. The final image of the child at the ‘now cold dashboard’ stayed with me – I loved the push of the pace, the lyrical language and structure, the child’s view layered over the lives of the parents; the way the mother’s condition surfaces almost as though it were revealed by the sea, with intricate, telling detail. A rhythm and crescendo that felt like a sea-swept dirge.

Catherine McNamara

---

The voice is immediate and intimate. The language is lush. The pace is breathless. It rewards re-reading.

Adam Lowe

---

Wonderfully poetic and evocative and with great detail and atmosphere.  Strong voice and emotional resonance.

Dr Clare Morgan

Thanks Catherine, Adam and Clare and everyone at the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize. 

Write your 1000 word story and enter it here by January 31st 2022, to be in with a chance of winning £1000 and one of these wonderful trophies!

A Body of Water

A Body of Water is an experimential piece I wrote as a breathless paragraph or as someone else pointed out, a stream of consciousness - which is even more appropriate when you read it.

I wrote it after watching Normal People and a couple of glasses of wine and with a headache that wouldn't let me sleep. I tried using the 'drunk voice' for a character and I read it and liked it and expected I wouldn't in the morning. I did and edited it and the lovely people at Reflex Fiction published it.

Orphan Negative

Orphan Negative, a 75 word micro, was published by Paragraph Planet. This one was prompted by a QI episode - when I heard the term I knew I wanted to do something with it - and here's what I did!

White Line & Forced Moulting

White Line and Forced Moulting are pieces of flash published by the lovely people at Gone Lawn. Both are stories of mothers in cities doing what it takes to survive. Both were written either side of Halloween 2020 and both are influenced by magic realism and lockdown (but neither are set in lock down). 

White Line is set in Mumbai, prompted by the time I was there when new lines were painted on the road for a visiting VIP. Add to that - life in lockdown with the gap widening  between the haves and have-nots and the rise of domestic violence and all the roads taken and not and all the lines that are crossed. 

I wrote Forced Moulting after Halloween when there was a call for horror stories. I was drained from all the horror - real and fiction and the first line was my response - I have no horror left inside me - and I went from there. And with the second lockdown the food poverty in East London brought a familiar picture of chicks in a nest sqwawking for food and I extended the metaphor to the whole piece. My research on moulting took me to the practice and the title  - Forced Moulting. 

Like Rain

Like Rain was published in the Blues Doodles Word Collection 1 - Women celebrating International Women's Day and Month. 

Rot

Rot, published by Reflex Fiction started out in a Jude Higgins workshop.

Meat Raffle

Meat Raffle was published today in the debut issue of the Janus Literary journal. I'm particularly glad to see it out there considering the recent issues of food poverty in lockdown in the UK. 

I see it as a youth worker in a deprived inner city borough. 

I see it as a food bank worker during lockdown. 

Artists like Banksy see it. Years ago the message below appeared on the site of a missing poster board around the corner from where I work and live in London's East End. 

East End of London - Banksy 

I Wear Other People

I Wear Other People, is a piece of flash published by EllipsisZine. The first paragraph was written new year's day (thinking about empathy) & the second on the 2nd, in a writing sprint from prompts from the first Woolwich Creative Writing Workshop of 2021✍️

Today it was great to watch the inauguration and see some change.

"If we are willing to stand in the other person's shoes...just for a moment, stand in their shoes... the thing about life: there's no accounting for what fate will deal you... Some days, when you need a hand. There are other days when we're called to lend a hand." (Biden, 2021)

"It’s the past we step into and how we repair it... 

We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover... 

Our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it."

(Gorman, 2021 See whole poem here) 

Providing Opportunities for Another to Excel

Providing Opportunities for Another to Excel is a 50-worder published by 50-Word Stories. It was inspired by those times when people feel unable to cope and don't ask for help and those times when people need to be needed and those times when people are stronger than they know. 

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas  published by Paragraph Planet, was inspired by all those Christmas trees that appear out on kerb the day after Boxing Day.

Sowing Sea Meadows

Lovely to have a story up on Litro on Christmas day. There's no mention of Christmas in it but like my mum says lots of movies we watch at Christmas don't either but we watch them because they have some of the spirit of Christmas. Hope that 'Sowing Sea Meadows' has.

The story was inspired by an article about the importance of sea meadows and their replanting. 

The Man I Live With

'The Man I Live With' started off in a Sarah Spence online workshop as part of the Being Human Festival. We used objects from The Huntarian as prompts for writing. The one I chose was the temperence medal below:

Read 'The Man I Live With' and other stories inspired by the acchives in the Alchohol in the Archives Journal

How I Wonder

I was so pleased when How I Wonder was shortlisted for the Friday Flash Fiction's Christmas Competition.

Pine

Pine, published by Friday Flash Fiction was inspired by some of the stories about the homelessness of children in the news and the course material I teach.

Between Rivers

'Between Rivers' was published in the 2020  City Lit anthology launched on December 4th. Check out a free digital copy here or buy the paperback here.

Check out the lauch video below:

Menhirs

Menhirs - a 100 word micro, published by Friday Flash Fiction, began at the start of the March 2020 lockdown with a picture of chairs in a circle that got me thinking of stone henge and a post apocalyptic scene with a hidden threat. 

It was a much longer piece but it seemed to get better the more words it lost. Like the simplicity of a return to a pre- industrial world.

The Black-Lacquered Bowl

The Black-lacquered Bowl found its perfect home with Fudoki. Check out their lovely online magazine for your fix of fabulous Myths, Legends, Fables, Fantasy, Folklore and Fairytale. 

 

The Succulent

The Succulent, published by 50 Word Stories, started life in a Charlie Latt writing class when we were asked to pick an object in the room as a prompt.

Beans

Photo by Deepansh Khurana on Unsplash

Beans was written for the Mum Life Stories anthology and Micro Fiction competition and I was delighted when it won.

Check out the story, the judges comments and what inspired it here.

The Indentation of Pearls

The Indentation of Pearls made it as a Finalist and will be published in the Hysteria paperback anthology with quite a few writers I admire. 

Dear Joy

Dear Joy is a drabble I wrote, at a time joy seemed to be in short supply and it popped up this evening on Friday Flash Fiction. 

The Proper Respect for Water

 

 

The Proper Respect for Water, a piece of flash fiction, about a girl learning to navigate, float and swim in the patriarchal seas, was a semi-finalist in the London Independent Story Prize

➤ Check out my interview, where I talk about it and writing flash, here.

Bubble-wrap and Brown Paper

Bubble-wrap and Brown Paper, published by Virtualzine, was born in the Bishopsgate Institute during a Vicky Grut creative writing class in January 2020. When it was published today I was surprised to see the mention of 'banana bread' as I'd written this story months before the craze started. This is an example of how things might have more significance to the reader than a writer might have intended and fits nicely in with the themes in this story.

Cloudburst '72

Cloudburst '72 is published in the Cyberpunk 2020 issue of The London Reader. I'm delighted to have my name on the same front page as one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement and Nebula award winners like Ken Liu, James Patrick Kelly, and Cat Rambo and Arthur C Clarke Award-winners Gwyneth Jones and Lauren Beukes....and Jakub Szamałek - the principal writer for the game Cyberpunk 2077. Pretty illustrious company for my little story!

But more than that I'm glad to have a platform to explore climate change, sustainability, technology and the human relationships of the future.

The London Reader’s Foreword: This sharply-worded piece of minifiction by Rosaleen Lynch cuts into 2172 and a world ravaged by climate change. Her quick-paced and fine-tuned take on a solarpunk future explores the dense subjects of climate catastrophe and reproductive technology. Despite the state of the devastated world, life emerges when least expected.

Contact Lenses

Contact Lenses found the perfect home in Reflex Fiction (the name says it all). They publish stories between 180 and 360 words - the perfect place for a story about the lenses we see through,

 'Write what you know' people say. For this story I knew something about...

• Wearing contact lenses and glasses
• Shifts in perspective both psychological and physical
• The cost of things when you're skint
• Feeling powerless
• Getting ready to go on demonstrations to protest & marching on the streets
  

I don't know everything about these subjects and that's where this story began - with something I didn't know about something I did.  

I wrote it in May 2020 when I was ill, when much of the time all I could do was empathize with and support from afar the protests in the US.

Amnesty International  Front Page

Connected

Connected is another 75 word micro published by Paragraph Planet prompted by this Independent article with the headline:

MYSTERIOUS 'HEARTBEAT' DETECTED COMING FROM COSMIC GAS CLOUD

Overcharged with Dead

Overcharged with Dead was inspired by a QI fact and a Jude Higgins online workshop prompt. I wrote the words 'Winchester Geese' on my phone during an episode of QI and did some research into the Southward sex workers named after the Bishop of Winchester who gave out prostitution licensees to work in this area of London. 

When Jude asked us to look out on the solstice morning and write about it, I wondered what lockdown would be like for a sex worker during the pandemic. 

I entered it for the 'Home' themed flash fiction prompt in Mslexia and I was delighted that Meg Pokrass chose it for the Exploring Our Animal Natures Issue 87.

Remington Made Typewriters

I wrote Remington Made Typewriters after watching a great documentary (if you love typewriters) starring Tom Hanks called California Typewriter. 

This 100 word flash explores that age old adage about the pen being mightier than the sword and found a home with Friday Flash Fiction.

Paper Cranes

Paper Cranes, published by 50-Word Stories, is a micro I wrote on the 6th of August, the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. 

My tiny fiction takes some inspiration from the real life story of Sadako Sasaki and the hope symbolised in the paper crane. 

Duck and Cover

Duck and Cover was one of the winning stories performed by the wonderful Lin Sagovsky at the 'Women and Girls' Liars League event on August 11th.

Read it or listen to it here or watch 👇

Landed My First Kick-flip

This micro, published by Paragraph Planet on August 6th, was inspired by a video of the joy of a Ukrainian girl landing her first kickflip. With the increased interest in pursuits like skateboarding, it is wonderful to see that some good has come from difficult times. 

Covid19 Time Capsule Items List (Archive Copy)

Covid19 Time Capsule Items List (Archive Copy) was chosen by 100 Words of Solitude to complete the 'Life in the time of Corona' project.

I wrote this tiny cautionary tale for the project, inspired by Tim Harford's concerns about having enough glass vials, even if we get enough Covid19 vaccine.

a measurement of silence in one hundred words

a measurement of silence in one hundred words was chosen by Fish Publishing to be third in the poetry section of their Lockdown Prize.

The Lockdown Prize raised over 4000 euros for Oxfam's Coronavirus Emergency Appeal.

The Berlin Heart

The Berlin Heart is in Paper and Ink Literary Zine #16, the Rebellion Issue. Available for pre-order.

One pound from every zine pre-order, and five pounds from print sales, will be donated to Stop Hate UK. An anti hate crime charity that does great work here in the UK, and is sadly needed more than ever given the current state of affairs.

Circle Time

Circle Time was one of the winners of the Waterloo Festival short story competition run in collaboration with Bridge House Publishing with the theme of : Transforming Communities. 

The ebook anthology of winning entries was launched on June 12th at an online event and will be published in paperback with the previous year's winners as part of a trilogy of themes in December.