Very short stories #22

I was pretty busy with my day job in August, and September’s going to be quite full as well. I did manage some writing time with further polishing of The Diamond Device. A huge thank you to all my critiquers and beta readers 🙂 ! Also played around further with Daz Studio (remember, my artistic skills are non-existent) and came up an image for the following encounter. Due to an unfortunate sequence of events, my main character Rich (an impoverished noble) ends up meeting the staid and suspicious Inspector Castor for the first time at Ironfort’s police station. They don’t exactly hit it off, as evinced by Rich’s thoughts:

Thinning hair was one thing, but at least a man could shave rather than dangling a rat’s tail from his chin.

Book reviews

Back to working on site is definitely beneficial for reading! Here are the books I’ve reviewed since my last post.

Circle of Ash by Sterling Magleby
Carpe Glitter by Cat Rambo
Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold
Nobless Oblige by Uri Kurlianchik

Very short stories

And lastly, half a dozen very short stories from April. I’ve also started participating in #hangtenstories (a daily prompt for a 10-word story), so you may see a few of those cropping up in later posts.

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rock

As he hauled the boat up the beach, she adjusted her full-length dress. “This isolated rock is your idea of fun?”
“Fun for me, babe.” He smirked. “You’re too small to move the boat. So you’d better—”
“Idiot.” She jumped in the water, flipped her tail and swam off.

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classic

“Various prints from the murder scene.” The rookie scanned the report. “Just one definite match.”
“What idiot doesn’t wear gloves?” The detective smiled. “The culprit made a classic mistake.”
“Not exactly, sir…”
“Oh?”
“They’re yours.”

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telegraph

As they accelerated, Joe relaxed into his seat. “Yay! Nobody can catch us now.”
“You sure?” Em frowned out of the window.
“You worrywart! Who can overtake the fastest train on the continent?”
“Hmm.” She silently watched the telegraph poles whiz by.

Image by LOC from Pixabay

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isolation

A putrid stench came from the doorway.
The hospital inspector gagged. “Who’s in there?”
“Isolation ward, poor things,” said Matron. “Do you want to—”
“No! I’m satisfied, thank you.”
Matron saw him off and went back to work. Her zombie army wouldn’t raise itself.

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rescue

“Soon be home.” With a grunt, the knight heaved the wriggling burden over his shoulder.
Floury hands battered his back. “What are you doing?”
“A quest,” he said in confusion. “Enter the castle, rescue the maid.”
“MAIDEN, you idiot! Anyway, I’m the cook!”

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street

Sitting up with a groan, Doug touched his split lip. When he’d snuck down the alley in search of street food, he hadn’t expected to end up eating cobbles.

Image by sanghyuk cho from Pixabay