Zing and Zap's flying saucer orbited the barren planet. "Why didn't global warming galvanise them into action?" Zing asked. It seems they were too busy posting cat videos," Zap replied. I wrote this 30-word story for September 2024's #30Words30Days challenge on Twitter/X. Is it sci-fi or speculative fiction?
In September 2024, Danielle Baldock (@WritingDani) from the #WritingCommunity on Twitter/X ran her third #30Words30Days microfiction challenge for the year. She posted daily prompt words and invited writers to share our 30-word stories. As with the earlier challenges, it was fun and addictive!
Episode 100 (1 October 2024): Thinking about things was not supposed to happen during matter transference. Scientists couldn't predict what it would feel like, but the disassembly, transfer and reassembly of a test pilot's atoms occurred at the speed of light, so in theory, there was no time for thoughts.
Episode 99 (17 September 2024): I'm getting too old for this. My speechwriter's pulse quickens as the PM mounts the flag-decked stage, flanked by senior ministers and mining industry executives, to announce her government's green coal plan. Panned by environmentalists and scientists, polling suggests it could be a vote winner … if the PM nails my speech.
Episode 98 (1 September 2024): The local dog club, where I volunteered as a trainer for twenty years, ran season-ending Fun Days with events like Fancy Dress, Agility Slalom, Waggliest Tail, and other novelty races that changed from year to year. One of my favourites was the Sack Race, where my dear old dog and I always placed third.
Episode 97 (14 August 2024): Excuse me, humanity, please pay attention. I have an urgent message. "What? Not in the middle of my reality TV show!" I'm sorry. I'll be brief. But first, a little background. My message concerns the fate of a pale blue dot in the inky expanse of the universe. Beyond its fragile borders is vast nothingness.
Writers often comment on the difficulty of naming characters. But I didn't have that problem with one of my earliest stories, which featured four children, sibling pairs, John and Wendy and Jack and Jane. Not very imaginative, I know, but I was ten when I wrote Sand Island, inspired by Enid Blyton.
Episode 96 (28 July 2024): I open my eyes, blink and try to focus on the bright lights set into the white ceiling flying past overhead. I hear beeps and muffled voices. It feels like I'm strapped to a camp stretcher, but it's moving. I'm on a hospital gurney. What happened? I want to ask. But there's a tube down my throat, and I can't talk.
I grew up in Perth, WA, in the 1960s and '70s, with very little interest in Indigenous or Aboriginal issues. It wasn't until I left Perth for Sydney in the early 1980s and then headed overseas to live in England from the late '80s to the mid-'90s that I started to question the "true history" of Australia.
Episode 95 (9 July 2024): In 1987, my wife and I shouldered our backpacks and set off from Australia. The plan was to live and work overseas in England for two years, using it as a base for UK and wider world travels. And the widest of these were inspired by reading books like Alan Moorehead's The White Nile and The Blue Nile.
In April 2024, Danielle Baldock from the Twitter/X #WritingCommunity reprised the #30Words30Days microfiction challenge she'd run with Sumitra in April 2023. Danielle posted a daily prompt word to inspire us to write and share our 30-word stories. It was so much fun that we were all keen to do it again in June!
Episode 94 (18 June 2024): Have you ever had one of those mornings? You know, where everything goes wrong. It's like a farce, a series of mishaps increasing in frequency and intensity that have you howling with side-splitting laughter or shedding tears of frustration.
I wrote a post in April 2024 about spending 62 minutes in a float tank on my 62nd birthday in March. In addition to Tall And True, I have an eponymous writer profile and blog site, RobertFairhead.com, where I cross-share posts. This website has an AI page builder, so I thought I'd test it with an AI blog post.
Episode 93 (27 May 2024): Teresa's first thing in the morning text message was a punch in the guts. "Sorry, Colin. I love you, but we're on different journeys. Let's stay friends." I blinked twice to clear my eyes and was about to respond, "Are you serious?" but threw the phone against the bedroom wall instead.
In April 2023, Sumitra and Danielle Baldock from the Twitter/X #WritingCommunity ran a #30Words30Days microfiction challenge. Danielle re-ran it this year, posting a daily "Nature" themed prompt word and inviting writers to share their 30-word stories, read and cheer everyone else, and have fun!
Episode 92 (10 May 2024): I've lost a few things over the years but never imagined losing a story! I only realised I'd "lost" A Window Table when I started working on a blog post to mark my fourth anniversary of writing Furious Fictions. However, when I found and read a copy of the story, I didn't recognise its plot or characters.
I turned 62 on 30 March. In previous years, I've swam laps to match my age on my birthday (until I tore my shoulders), read 59 and 60 chapters, and written a 61-word story. This year, I spent 62 minutes in a float tank, and to prepare for it, I read my travel journal entry on my 1995 trip to the Dead Sea.
