Just for fun: I've written the same story, first in under 150 words, and then in under 300 words. I've entered both in different Flash Fiction competitions. Which do you think is best? Why? Crossing Over (150 words) We spear through the pre-dawn. As we shoot down the last hill before the pier, all wheels…
A Short Short Story
As I have previously pointed out, I love writing short fiction. Perhaps still high on my success in the 2013 Reader's Digest 100-word story competition (I came runner-up), I've just entered the BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) Literary Awards, in the Short Short Story category (150 words). As long as your story is deemed eligible, it's published…
The Writer in print
It's quite something to see yourself in print. This story was published in the April 2013 issue of Takahē, a New Zealand literary magazine. I received my copy in my letterbox today. I have posted the story previously, but for the sake of ease, here it is for those who haven't read it before. The Writer The Devil…
My Wee Winning Story
My, that's a large one. I refer to the photo of my face that jumped out and slapped me as I opened the April issue of Reader's Digest (New Zealand edition). With the issue finally out today, I can announce that out of thousands of entries I am one of two runners-up in the NZ Readers…
Furnishing Desire
Could you write a short story in EXACTLY 100 words? I had a go today... You stand in the corner, silent. Your legs, your arms, your back all curve luxuriously, solipsistically stealing space. You are taunting me, teasing me. Come. Closer. Covet. I circle you, regarding with giddy wonder the graceful whorls and lattices traced intricately…
I Grow Old
Apologies to those who have already read this story. I realised today I had mistakenly put it in the Trash. It has been revived. It started on a Tuesday in September. She was in the shower, lathering up, pondering the day to come, when she happened to look down at her hands as they moved up…
The Writer
I wrote this story to be the "anchor" of a short story collection which is still a work in progress. Each story can stand alone and be read as a complete piece, but they are all linked to this one – in some cases so subtly that the reader may have to search for the connection.…
Our Father
I wrote this story after someone close to me had died. I held this person's hand as they passed. I wanted to capture the profoundness of that moment. When I was little, just before bedtime, my mother used to wrap me in my dressing gown and take me outside to see the stars. “Who made them?”…
Three
This was originally going to be a three-part short story, the first part told from the woman's viewpoint, the second from the man's, the third from the nurse's. I stopped after the first. It felt like enough. Maybe one day I'll finish it. The Woman First, the gift of the anonymous gown, stiff with cheap…
The Belfast Question
This story is based on something that really happened to me to when I went back to Northern Ireland in my 20s. I was born there, and my family shifted to New Zealand when I was four. My father was a Presbyterian minister in Country Armagh (termed “Bandit Country” in 1975 by then Northern Ireland…
Patricia Bell, Author 