A few days late, but here's a dark story for day 12. *** The shrill call of the phone tore through the dark bedroom. Its incessant noise dragged him from his slumber, and earned a groan of annoyance from his wife. A phone call at this frankly ungodly hour could never be good. “Yeah? Uh …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 12 – Scintilla
The eleventh day of this challenge delivered me a theme that I really enjoyed writing a short story for. *** He wandered aimlessly through the dense forest. The chill in the air invigorated him, for he knew his season approached. Nervous eyes regarded him warily from a distance, animals ready to run. Leaves carpeted the …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 11 – Nyctophilia
Today is the tenth day of the challenge, and my eighth story. With this theme, I've come up with a ghostly little tale. *** The king was not a bad man. Naive, ignorant and often selfish, but by no means bad. At the very least, he was not malicious. He wasn’t greedy, or mean-spirited. He …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 10 – Poltergeist
Having struggled with inspiration for yesterday's theme, today I am back in the saddle. The story that came to me for today's theme ended up being a little darker. *** The landscape before him was scorched, razed to the ground. Skeletal trees and the ruins of a village charred black, smouldered in the cool morning …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 8 – Elderwich
This theme conjoured up all kinds of imagery in my mind, it made for a fun one to write about. Another word I have learnt new for this challenge, it's something I love to just sit and listen too. *** The Ancients had existed from the very beginning. Longer than anyone or anything could remember. …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 6 – Psithurism
Today brings a nice wintery theme for me to write about. Today's theme describes one of the things I love most about the winter period. I look forward to crisp, frosty days coming back. *** Winter. My favourite season. The ever-present hope that I might actually get snowed in by a blanket of fluffy white …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 5 – Ammil
Another day, another word I've never seen or heard before! It made for a challenge today. Today was a touch more of a struggle. A word I'd never heard or seen before meant a bit more thinking was needed. It took me a bit longer to work out what I wanted to do this time. …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 4 – Dwale
Today's piece of writing continues the story of the man first introduced in my short story for Day 2 of this writing challenge. It's as if Hideaway Fall have turned to my personal list of favourite words. First 'susurrous', and now 'petrichor'. Not only do I love the word, but I love the smell too …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 3 – Petrichor
I thouroughly enjoyed writing my piece for the theme set on Monday of 'susurrous'. Today I am sharing my take on the second theme: Kairos. This one fascinated me. It's not a word I knew of before now. That's not overly surprising considering it is an Ancient Greek word. I had to do some research …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 2 – Kairos
It's been a long time since I last had a go at writing a short story. A small UK publisher, Hideaway Fall have started a daily writing challenge. There's a very simple premise behind it. Each day they will share a theme. Those joining in then write a piece, whatever they like, about that theme. …
Continue reading Hideaway Fall Writing Challenge Day 1 – Susurrous
Steven Smith 