Worthing Flash

#worthingflash is open to anyone who writes flash fiction. Writers from all over the world have contributed. I mention this because I have had three of my stories published in Australia and yet one magazine "Slush" refused my work because I am not Australian. I am glad that others are less prejudiced. #slush Derek McMillan Derek McMillan is a writer in Durrington in the UK. His editor is his wife, Angela. He has written for print and online publications in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. His latest book is an audio-book with the cheerful title, "Murder from Beyond the Grave" which is available on eBay. 

The Citadel The Citadel was a  building on the south coast. Although it had the look of a castle, this was an illusion. The battlements were far too small to be of any use to men-at-arms. The protection was provided by state-of-the-art equipment. The modern-day men-at-arms in the Citadel were fighting a cyber-war. They were protected by eight protocols which were changed on a random basis. Naturally, the protocols were top secret. This means they were available to anyone with a computer and access to the internet. Hackers are no respecters of persons. My son, who worked at the citadel, was coming home on holiday that weekend. “I am forbidden to tell you which protocol will be in action. I am not allowed to inform you.” All of his phone and WhatsApp messages were monitored of course. I didn’t need him to tell me which protocol was in action. One protocol was called ALAL which, as you can see, repeated itself. The fact that he had engaged in a little tautology was a...

Teachers are familiar with pupils who will write the minimum because it minimises the mistakes they might make. With flash fiction, correction should normally involve shortening the story.  Shakespeare used the phrase "Brevity is the soul of wit." He deliberately gave it to the most tedious character in "Hamlet", Polonius. Most stories can be improved by removing redundant phrases or words. Mark Twain once apologised for the length of a letter to a friend by saying, "I didn't have time to write a short one." Flash fiction is not a soft option. It involves thinking about what point you are trying to make and eliminating everything else. Pupils are invited to send their flash fiction to worthingflash@gmail.com for the chance to have it published in the blog worthingflash.blogspot.com , and I can assure you there is nothing better for motivation than seeing your work in print and realising other people will read it.

BBC News “ This is Radio Two. The BBC news read by John Thomas.” “ Good Morning. Following extensive public consultation, the government this morning removed the reigning monarch formerly known as King Charles the Third” “ Over to Robert Starling at Buckingham Palace.” “ Good morning, John. Mr Charles Windsor was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police in the early hours of this morning and he has been taken to what they describe as a 'safe palace'. “ An hour later, a chauffeur-driven limousine arrived at the palace to deliver a canary, who has been named as 'Binky'. Members of the public at the gates have been turning up dressed in yellow; some of them have had yellow face paint and hair dye too; as a mark of respect. The yellow flag is flying over Buckingham Palace for the first time. “ This will be Britain's first avian monarch. The closest analogy was when George the Third made his tree prime minister. The government has announced that the...

Christmas in Nether Sodbury In Tesco, Christmas starts some time in September and seems to go on forever. The Christmas decorations start going up in Nether Sodbury at some point in November. The Mander family were traditionalists and only celebrated Christmas at Christmas. It is a time of games, presents and family rows. In fact, the games frequently ignited the family rows. "Simon has been stealing from the bank. He's always doing that," said Graham. "Now, Graham, you must give your younger brother a bit of leeway," said Mrs Polly Mander. From this, you might not have gathered that all of the children were in their twenties and perhaps Polly hadn't caught up with this development. Graham's sister, Sally, probably didn't help matters by giving him a clip round the ear. "Did you see that? Did you see that?" Polly was sick and tired of "seeing that" and decided to ignore the suggestion. There was then an extended inquest ...

"Clive, you remember that article I wrote about female priests?" "Darling," Clive sighed, "I could hardly forget it now could I?" "Well since I wrote it, I have had a troll." "A Nordic monster who lives under bridges?" "A monster certainly. This one follows me on social media and has said the most ghastly things. He says that I am obviously a frustrated spinster who needs a good seeing-to." "And then he threatened my life." "Ah. Have you consulted the police." "They traced the IP address." "The what?" "It tells them which computer the messages come from. It's yours, Clive." "The police would like a word." The End Derek McMillan is a writer in Durrington in the UK. His editor is his wife, Angela. He has written for print and online publications in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. His latest book is the audio...

The winner of the 2025 100-word challenge is Bhattacharjee Sagata and you can find the winning story here  Thank you to everyone who took part in the contest this year. It was a privilege to read all the stories.

We had never seen a white fox. We called it a ghost fox. Foxes cannot talk so think of it as a fairy story and go with it. I was teaching the white fox binary arithmetic. There are 10 types of fox. Those who understand binary arithmetic and those who do not. What he said at first was reassuring in a way. "We do not eat humans. You are too big and the meat just goes off." "We do kill you though." the last bit was a little muffled because he had his teeth in my neck. Derek McMillan Derek McMillan is the author of the Durrington Detective Agency stories which are available as audio CDs here

Today is the eighth anniversary of #worthingflash. It now has over 100 writers and 100,000 readers. This story was published first by "Free Flash Fiction": “I spoke with my father last night, er and my mother,” I said. “‘Er’ indeed,” said Martin, “you realise they are both dead?” “Yes and no.” “What do you mean, ‘yes and no’. You don’t believe in ghosts do you… and if you say ‘yes and no’ again, this conversation is at an end.” “My father explained to me about ghosts sixty-five years ago so I may not be word perfect. Ghosts, he said, are ideas in your head. When people die their souls either cease to exist or they go to heaven. In dreams and reveries, nobody really dies. I revisited my childhood home,” “In a dream?” “Mm Hm.” “For the tape, Derek nodded,” I think my old friend Martin watches way too much detective fiction. “My father,” “Who died when you were seven?” “Yes, that father. I only had the one.” “He was there, my mother was in the scullery. My wife was there too so ...

I used to visit Aunty Sash on Saturdays. My mother was glad to have a ten-year-old out of the house for the day. I enjoyed it because Aunt Sash fed me on cake and Corona which was a kind of lemonade in those days. She couldn’t move around very much so she would sit in her chair and tell me all the scandalous things my mother used to get up to when she was younger. Then she would go on to the extraordinary behaviour of her neighbours. It was only later that I realised all this jiggery pokery came from her imagination. One day there was a broken nutcracker on the draining board. She said she had broken it trying to crack a peach stone. Aunty Sash did not particularly like peaches and I later found most of them wound up in the bin. “Why are you trying to crack peach stones?” I asked. “Can you just pop to the shop and get me another nut cracker and then of course I will tell you.” I brought the new nutcracker and she got me cracking the peach stones. That nutcracker soon broke too and I he...

The Legend of Loof Lirpa Originally published on  April 01, 2021   In 1793 the health ministry of Norway was tasked with measuring the feet of all the citizens. The runaway winner of the contest was a little-known man called Loof Lirpa. His picture, alongside a picture of his feet with a normal-sized pair of feet for comparison, appeared in the newspapers of the day, there were two. The King awarded Loof a thousand Kroner which could be expected to keep him in comfort for the rest of his days. In those days there were no shoe sizes so Loof had to have his shoes specially made. Fortunately his father came from a long line of cobblers. Loof decided to set out exploring.  The first country he discovered was Denmark. Norwegians had heard of Denmark but hitherto they had thought of it as a mythic land inhabited by giants. Danes are similar in size to Norwegians and in fact Loof, with his prodigious feet, was regarded as a giant by them.  He was introduced to the King who ...

There is only one rule. All stories must be below 1000 words. There is also an annual contest for 100-word stories.  Looking at the blog you will see there is no restriction on subject matter or type of story.  Although the majority of the posts are of prose, I have recently accepted two poems. If you take the two most popular poems in England, Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and Rudyard Kipling's "If" they do not total 1000 words between them. And "brevity is the soul of wit" according to Shakespeare. Derek McMillan Send your masterpiece to worthingflash@gmail.com for consideration for inclusion in the blog.

"This door is alarmed". The door was also the emergency exit. The fire started in the hardware department. A battery exploded and soon the department was filled with choking black smoke. Customers rushed to the door. It was locked. By chance, there was a display of hammers. The manager, a big brawny bloke, grabbed a hammer and made his way to the door.. "Stand back, everybody." It was the sort of commanding voice people obeyed. He attacked the door with a will and smashed it so the grateful customers could escape. The door had a good reason to be alarmed. Derek McMillan is a writer in Durringon in the UK. His editor is his wife, Angela. He has written for print and online publications in the UK, USA and Canada. His latest book is the audio-book "Flash Fiction" which is available on eBay. 

The Christmas tree lights were twinkling. Just a minute, they're not supposed to do that. Then the room was plunged into darkness. Somebody screamed. It was my niece, obviously. The phrase "we won't make a drama out of a crisis" does not apply to her. It was Boxing Day, my birthday if you are thinking of buying me a present. The downside of a Christmas birthday is that people only buy you one present as a rule. The upside is that the whole family is together for the day. Then the lights came back on. There was blood all over the front room carpet, Mum was going to have a fit. I assumed it was one of my brother Steven's jokes until I saw a knife stuck into my niece. Her real name was Gladys but she preferred 'Calamity Jane' when she was alive. She had a point. So did the knife. A very shaken Steven explained that he thought it was the toy knife he got for Christmas which had a blade that retracted into the handle. In the dark, he'd got the ...

"Mrs Darcy Johannes was convicted today of the horrific murder of five...." I turned off the radio. "What's up, Syd?" said Beatrice. "Our daughter, Darcy. Her name is cursed, tainted with murder." "Well, Syd she hasn't been registered yet. We could choose another name." "Such as?" "I quite like Myra." "Like Myra Hindley?" "Or Ruth?" "Like Ruth Ellis?" "Well, what about the old Queen's name?" I registered our daughter as Elizabeth and came home. I even put on the wireless. "You can't chop your mother up in Massachusetts, "And Lizzie Borden knows because she tried." "Oh my goodness," said Beatrice   Derek McMillan is the author of the cheerfully-entitled "Murder from Beyond the Grave" which is available as a paperback, kindle or audio book Murder from Beyond the Grave Click here

Today is the seventh anniversary of #worthingflash. It now has over 100 writers and 84,000 readers. The following story was published in Entropy Squared and is available in their print edition. Queenie was a friend of mine. I went to visit one weekend. Her husband was there but I didn’t get to see him much because he was “busy working on the boat.” He was working in the garden. I went out to say hello but he was silent and went on with the work. We had a meal, just the two of us. Queenie was used to dining alone. When we heard that the boat had sunk on its first voyage, there was a certain amount of hilarity. He had escaped with his life. The devil looks after his own. From Guest Contributor Derek McMillan Derek is the writer of “Murder from Beyond the Grave” available on eBay.

Happy Mayday Everybody. Thank you very much to the people who entered the 100-word challenge. The stories have been a pleasure to read. The winner of the 100-word challenge is Tony Roberts and the winning entry follows: MISSING MOBILE   It was the morning after the party and the house resembled a battlefield. I had the task of clearing up while Judy went to work. “Bye then,” she muttered. I sighed; things were not good between us. Later I found a mobile. I shrugged; I knew its owner would ring to track it down.   It rang at lunchtime; I pressed answer. Before I could speak I heard a voice harsh and strident; it was Judy. “You bastard, where are you? I’ve wasted six months of my life on you.” “Hi Judy, who do you wish to speak to?” I said.  

Poor woman. Her husband has a heart condition. As she says, the old man has a dodgy todger. And as for her brother-in-law, nothing wrong with his health unfortunately but he treats his wife like a skivvy. He deserves to be hung drawn and quarantined. And when she doesn't quite understand what you are talking about, she wants to know what you are on about Pacifically. She wants you to laugh. She wants you to correct her. The last thing she wants is for people to be 'polite' and ignore the faux pas. She isn't Mrs Malaprop, she's Ms Conceived.   Derek McMillan is a writer in Durringon in the UK. His editor is his wife, Angela. He has written for print and online publications in the UK, USA and Canada. His latest book is the audio-book with the cheery title "Murder From Beyond the Grave" which is available on eBay. Check it out.