“How many people do you think have ever lived?” he asks.
My story “How to Find a Prehistoric Ghost” is published on Milk Candy Review.
Group Hug
“They announce it during an emergency broadcast – we can embrace once more.”
My story “Group Hug” is published on Milk Candy Review.
The Best British & Irish Flash Fiction for 2019-2020
My story ‘We Feed Them to the Lions’ is on the list of The Best British & Irish Flash Fiction for 2019-2020.
You can find the list here – BEST BRITISH & IRISH FLASH FICTION 2019-2020
The original story is over at Okay Donkey – We Feed Them to the Lions
We Feed Them to the Lions
“Nine years old, with parents distracted, a boy falls into the lion enclosure.”
My story “We Feed Them to the Lions” is published today on Okay Donkey.
https://okaydonkeymag.com/2019/12/27/we-feed-them-to-the-lions-by-paul-thompson/
Ninety-five percent of my anxieties are unfounded
Ninety-five percent of my anxieties are unfounded. She tells me at our weekly breakfast. To focus on the genuine five percent. The following week I do so, spending ninety-five percent of my time on it. When we meet again, I know ninety-five percent of my anxieties are founded. Focus on the new five percent, she says. And so it goes on, worrying about worrying, and how to tell her I no longer enjoy our breakfasts.
***
This 75-word story first appeared on Paragraph Planet
Younger than records will show
It will be our secret, deep at the bottom of the reservoir. We will meet the others, the boys from town. Buy alcohol with fake identification, from a shopkeeper who has already seen the end of days. Cider sweet and nostalgic, as we go to the water park, where dusk will paint us with mosquitoes and laughter. And many years from now they will find us, when the reservoir is dry. They will find us and our fake identities, and finally treat our bodies as adults.
***
A version of this story recently appeared on Paragraph Planet
How to Pack a Suitcase with Zero Baggage
“Packing a suitcase is easy. Keeping to the essentials, less so.“
I have something new on Spelk today. It’s called ‘How to Pack a Suitcase with Zero Baggage’
https://spelkfiction.com/2019/09/13/how-to-pack-a-suitcase-with-zero-baggage/
You can wake from any dream if you want to
You can wake from any dream if you want to. My son tells me how over breakfast. He has a technique to use when having a nightmare. You click with three fingers on the back of your neck, and the dream will instantly stop. He tells me it works without fail. I try it for myself, clicking as he describes. Click! Everything vanishes, and I am back in the house where I have no son.
***
This 75-word story first appeared on Paragraph Planet
Somewhere there is a memorial bench with my name on it
Somewhere there is a memorial bench with my name on it. Has to be with a common name like mine. My research finds several, and so I pick the nearest, where I sit and pretend to be a ghost. I wait all day for people to come and ask, waiting to surprise them with my big reveal. But no-one asks, no-one comes to the stranger on the bench, who may as well be dead already.
***
This 75-word story first appeared on Paragraph Planet.
Group Hug (On the Radio)
My flash fiction piece ‘Group Hug’ was on @BBCUpload @BBCSheffield last night.
You can hear it via the link below (12 min mark). I also talk to @ellieontheradio about it.
You can read the original piece at Milk Candy Review
The Physical Exertion of Human Flight
“Thirty years ago, his brother flew off a cliff.”
My story “The Physical Exertion of Human Flight” is published today over at The Phare.
Memory is now a thing of the past
Memory is now a thing of the past. I will teach this during home schooling. How you find facts at your fingertips. How your past is on social media, places on timelines. How software corrects your spelling as you type. I will explain there is no need for mental storage. Instead of this curriculum, I will teach you analysis, validation, interpretation. We will begin immediately, as soon as I remember where I put my phone.
***
A version of this story recently appeared on Paragraph Planet.
Inspired by recent events and home schooling.
Open Heart Surgery
“In our home town, in the nursery where we played and fought like adults. I find it deep in a box of toy cars, remnants of your blood on the plastic, a motorway pile-up in miniature.”
My story “Open Heart Surgery” is published today over at Ellipsis Zine.
http://www.ellipsiszine.com/open-heart-surgery-by-paul-thompson/
Paul Thompson 