Notebook Writes, May 1st

As a distraction during the last weeks, I have been having fun colour coordinating outfits to flash fiction books published by Ad Hoc Fiction,the small press I direct, which focuses entirely on publishing short fiction. Check out the gallery of pictures I posted on the Bath Flash Fiction Site of Series One: The Older Writer/publisher Dressing Up To Go Nowhere

Series Three, which I have just begun today, will continue all May, and I will colour coordinate outfits to some of my large stash of unfinished notebooks. I will also offer a daily prompt. I know others like me who are enticed by the lure of a new notebook but never fill up the pages. Today’s notebook is one I bought in 1995 to record dreams. Plenty of blank pages in that one and some interesting dreams, many still on the same themes as today!

As it is May 1st, a day steeped in ritual and tradition, the prompt is to write a flash fiction story based on a superstition. Include some or all of the words on the list pictured below and any of the items on the table. If you are interested in taking up this writing challenge and you complete the story and get it published, I will send you a free entry (for a different story) for any round of the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Just send me the link to the story or your email with the offer of publication. It could be from any online or print magazine, or a flash fiction competition.
For anyone wanting more prompts and story feedback, I am shortly beginning a two-hour Zoom class following the structure of the popular face-to-face classes I ran in Bath before lockdown began. Two writing prompts and in-class fast writes. Feedback by the group on two or three first drafts of flashes submitted in advance. A story example to study. Fun. We’ll have a trial go at this, and then subsequently it will be £15 a session. Maximum ten people. Contact me via my email asap if you are interested.