Drabbletober
72 episodes
(Actual number of episodes significantly different than number of episodes as recorded in database.)
Tell me about it.
Web <link> from RSS feed:
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/
Database link:
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/
RSS Feed:
https://caribou-mango-x7yw.squarespace.com/drabbletober?format=rss
Creator from RSS feed: Elizabeth Guilt
Database Creators: Elizabeth GuiltSynopsis:
The podcast of tiny speculative fiction. Brand new drabbles (stories of exactly 100 words) every day during October.
Language: English
Format: Audio Book
Continuity: Anthology
Writing: Scripted
Voices: Solo
Genres: Multigenre
Soundscape: Voices only
Completion status: Not applicable
Not tagged: [Maturity] [Country of origin] [Transcript]
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Episodes:
Season 2, Bonus Episode 3: January You
Thu, 01 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of January, 2026 and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: January You
---
Join the gym. Run every morning. Go vegan. Two yoga classes. Read fifty new novels this year. Drink less. Do dry January! Learn Spanish. Get up early. Journal. Marie Kondo the spare bedroom, the kitchen, the whole house. Maybe try paleo?
Maybe not paleo. Is vegan paleo even possible? Is vegan possible? What the hell do vegans put in sandwiches?
The gym is expensive. Running hurts your knees. The yoga is fun, though. You blow dry January on the seventeenth, laughing with Kim over cocktails, speaking in broken Spanish.
Marie Kondo was right. Keep the things that bring you joy.
---
Welcome to 2026! If you are making new year's resolutions, then remember to be kind to yourself. There's plenty of good stuff about the old you.
As a minor point of order, I checked with my reference vegan and she assures me there are plenty of sandwich fillings from the mundane (fake ham) to the grandiose (crispy-fried tofu with lettuce and tomato) via hummus, marmite, avocado…
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-jan1-bonus
Season 2, Bonus Episode 2: Don't Wake Christmas
Tue, 30 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the thirtieth of December, 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Don't Wake Christmas
---
Christmas lies glutted with turkey and mince pies, asleep behind the sofa. A child shrieks with glee, still delighted with a new toy, and Christmas stirs, muttering half-words of whiskey and late-night cocoa.
A parent begins to gather up the discarded ribbons and wrapping paper, smoothing them out with vague thoughts of next year. They nudge Christmas.
"You indolent beast, lying there in a smear of cranberry. Entertain us!"
Christmas waves them blearily away.
"I'm tired. Go and see Hogmanay for your fun."
And Christmas shuffles off, to nest comfortably among the tinsel and paper chains until Advent.
---
I'm actually a big fan of keeping Christmas up till twelfth night, though it's not always easy to keep the festive feeling when January looms with all its back-to-work vibes. Whatever you celebrate - or don't - at this time of year, I hope you're safe and warm, and finding the opportunity to rest.
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-dec30-bonus
Season 2, Bonus Episode 1: Last Resort
Mon, 01 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of December, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Last Resort
---
Hayley knows it's there. She's known for years, ever since that stupid night when they drank too much vodka, lit loads of candles and slurred Latin incantations. She felt it crawl into her.
Anthony insisted the salt circle would keep them safe - perhaps it did. They woke up, after all.
Sometimes, she feels it stir. When her mother suggests diets. When her boss talks over her.
She fights to keep it inside. She never drinks, now.
But in the darkness, the footsteps have been getting closer. There's a hand on her shoulder, another grabs her throat.
She lets it out.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-dec1-bonus
Season 2, Episode 31: The Singing of Drowned Sailors
Fri, 31 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 31, season 2, for Friday the thirty-first of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Singing of Drowned Sailors
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Me dad always told the stories. Strange calms in dark storms, and the hush that fell during the wildest winds.
"You keep yer head down, lad, and pay them no mind. They'll lure you away, drag you under to join their songs."
I was half-drowned already when I heard them; frozen and clinging to the mast, not even caring if anyone heard me crying.
Their voices were gentle between the wind's screams.
Heave her to. Turn her round.
We steered towards the familiar rhythm of the chorus.
And, drifting ragged grey over the waves, they sang us back to harbour.
---
Happy Hallowe'en. Today is the final day of Drabbletober 2025. If you'd like to keep up with the bonus episodes throughout the year, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast feed. Thanks for listening, I hope you've enjoyed this year's series of tiny stories.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again soon.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode31
Season 2, Episode 30: Peace and Love. Mostly.
Thu, 30 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 30, season 2, for Thursday the thirtieth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Peace and Love. Mostly.
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Ancient? Haha, no, not at all! Built in the 60s. Yes, it is pretty convincing. Oh, just a vanity project - a local man got really into ley lines and decided to find one on his own land. Oriented the circle using dowsing rods, would you believe.
Sure you can stand on that. Made of stone, isn't it? Lie down if you want, I'll take the photo.
Ooops, the flash makes it look like the stones are glowing. Haha, yeah the thunder is a bit of a coincidence.
Oh, yes. Actually that is a tentacle round your ankles.
Well, I never.
---
In North Yorkshire, not far from where I grew up, there is a lovely stone circle. It was built as a job-creation scheme in the eighteenth century, but it's a fun place to visit - I'll pop a link in the shownotes. I like stone circles, I think we should build more of them.
https://visitnorthyorkshire.com/index/the-druids-temple
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 31.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode30
Season 2, Episode 29: It Was Supposed To Be a Joke
Wed, 29 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 29, season 2, for Wednesday the twenty-ninth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
It Was Meant To Be a Joke
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Typical slow Thursday, and a short man slunk up to the counter.
"I'm here about the poster."
Great. Steven's latest hobby is designing ornate prank - obviously prank - flyers.
"Oh? Need a unicorn groomed, do you?"
"No. I want to part-exchange my kraken. Do you remove the old one when you deliver?"
"Seriously?"
"Mine's useless. Sluggish, pale, tentacles scarred to buggery."
"It's not..."
"Can't charge tourists a few grand to slay a beast that won't fight."
"Slay?"
"They all think they're Sir Galahad. None of 'em survived so far, but.."
"You killed..."
"I need a new kraken. What are your terms?"
---
Recently, I was walking through Sheffield with friends and we saw a shop-window advert offering money off what the internet calls "a very well-known brand of rectangular backpack". Someone misread it, and thus the part-exchange kraken was born.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 30.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode29
Season 2, Episode 28: The Lady of the Floor
Tue, 28 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 28, season 2, for Tuesday the twenty-eighth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
We'll Have None Of That Here
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
I opened the vacpack of mineral oil, and thumbed a smear across the floor.
"Lady."
Conversation stopped. My new teammates burst out laughing.
"What?"
"You don't..."
"He still thinks..."
The foreman leaned over. "Look, kid. We're adults, building..." he gestured around the hangar, "space shuttles. We run the tightest shop floor in the western galaxy. We don't believe in fairies. We don't pour libations for imaginary gods."
I straightened up. "I've seen..."
"You've seen older apprentices playing tricks. Holoprojections. Cheap effects."
I fell to my knees, clapping hands over my ears. The Lady of the Floor would have no mercy.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 29.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode28
Season 2, Episode 27: All Medical Staff Should Be Briefed In Local Legends
Mon, 27 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 27, season 2, for Monday the twenty-seventh of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
All Medical Staff Should Be Briefed In Local Legends
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Helen had her coat on when the junior tapped on her door.
"Doctor? Sorry. The little girl... Her broken legs... They're..."
"They're what?"
"They're... Mending. In huge solid lumps."
"Where was she found?"
"Romsdal somewhere, her injuries..."
"Where exactly?"
"I don't know, maybe Trolldalen?"
Helen ran to the ward.
"Stop treatment immediately!"
She brushed aside colleagues, and held out a shaking hand.
"I'll take you home."
The patient slid out of bed, knees making grinding noises as she limped.
Helen coaxed her into the car and, later, watched her swarm straight up the rocks, back to her father's stoney court.
---
Trolldalen is a real place in Norway - it means "the troll valley" (please excuse my pronunciation). I visited this summer, and it's beautiful. As far as I'm aware, though, baby trolls being mistaken for human children there is just something I made up.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 28.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode27
Season 2, Episode 26: Making a Myth
Sun, 26 Oct 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 26, season 2, for Sunday the twenty-sixth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Making a Myth
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Mara sits where she's told, and the engineer places the cap on her newly-shaved head. He tinkers briefly, and they all come swaying sinuously to life. The cap's sensors read tiny movements in Mara's scalp muscles, track signals from her optic nerve. When she looks left, so do the snakes. When she smiles, the snakes relax; when she frowns, they rear.
"Woah,' says the engineer. "That works really good! I'll take it off..."
"No.'
He reaches for the cap, and seventy snakes bare their fangs.
He knows they're not real. But Mara's snarl, haloed with furious snakes, freezes him rigid.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 27.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode2
Season 2, Episode 25: Oooh, Look, Breadcrumbs!
Sat, 25 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 25, season 2, for Saturday the twenty-fifth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Oooh, Look, Breadcrumbs!
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
I was jamming my earbud back in when the world stopped.
His cloak was grey, mostly, with a greasy green-purple sheen. His boney face was pointed. In his hand, a sharp... Well, I didn't want to think about that.
"You're lucky," he said, voice softly bubbling.
"Lucky?" My bike lay crushed under a taxi, one wheel spinning gently.
"You're in my kingdom: the City of London. You can choose: oblivion, or a second, tiny life."
Some choice. "Doesn't everyone choose life?"
His head bobbed. The world span behind me, buildings loomed taller.
I strutted away to peck with my flock.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 26.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode25
Season 2, Episode 24: Day's Orders
Fri, 24 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 24, season 2, for Friday the twenty-fourth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Day's Orders
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
"Sir!"
"What's that?"
"Sir, Duty Shitehawk reporting for orders, Sir!"
"More like it. Roost easy."
"Sir."
"Today's roster: harbour wall. Principal lookout, ten till three. Keep your eyes peeled, we've had reports of Morris dancers in the area. Our intel says there should be a line of them wearing dark colours around noon. Strafe at will.
"Three till five, surprise chip inspections. Toddlers have been underrepped recently, so try to take your samples from them.
"Final hour, unnecessary screaming. All clear?"
"Clear as sand."
"Less of your beak! For that, two early shifts: jumping up and down on roof tiles."
---
My family invariably refers to seagulls as shitehawks. You're not allowed to register boats with names that might be considered offensive, but when I was little there was a boat registered in Whitby harbour called Shy Talk. It's still one of my favourite boat names.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 25.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode24
Season 2, Episode 23: Ice Cubs
Thu, 23 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 23, season 2, for Thursday the twenty-third of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Ice Cubs
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Ice cubs crawled from the bay this morning. It's been a decade - we used to see them most years.
We've set up the perimeter. People will ignore it. Ice cubs are not bears - but they're not not bears, either. They glitter, like diamonds. They're really cute.
Scientists are the worst, all "pushing boundaries" and "furthering knowledge". Last time, one approached the cubs. Things were brief and very, very red.
The ice cubs will leave in a week or so. My grandfather always said they climb into the mountains and become glaciers.
Perhaps they do. We don't need to know everything.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 24.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode23
Season 2, Episode 22: Same Old, Same Old
Wed, 22 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 22, season 2, for Wednesday the twenty-second of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Same Old, Same Old
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Trudy wakes up on her birthday, and groans. Fifty! She makes her morning tea, and wonders how this happened. Fifty? She's never been to Venice. Never ridden a motorbike. Never eaten alfalfa sprouts.
What even is an alfalfa sprout? An hour later she is deep in articles about home sprouting, wondering whether she still has those old Mason jars and whether she would really need mesh lids. Some people recommended cotton instead...
Trudy slams her laptop shut. This. This is how it happened. She digs out the number she saved, months ago, and calls it. She books a motorbike lesson.
---
When, in the far future, schoolkids write essays about the decline of civilisation in the mid twenty-first century, I can't help feeling that our almost ubiquitous ability to waste time on the internet is going to be right up there in the "causes" section.
But for the record, I quite like alfalfa sprouts.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 23.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode22
Season 2, Episode 21: The Light of Your Life
Tue, 21 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 21, season 2, for Tuesday the twenty-first of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Light of your Life
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
I only remember two things from visiting my Auntie: her beautiful lamp and the way my uncle would sit, inert, mouth constantly twitching. A stroke, I guess, but no-one told kids anything back then.
Benny visited the day after I discovered Auntie left me the lamp.
"How does it work?"
"Dunno. I tried a candle, it turned the glass black. Coffee?"
"Please."
Minutes later, he had it shining.
"Wow, that's..."
Benny stared fixedly ahead, lips mumbling soundlessly.
Just like my uncle.
When I smashed the lamp, the glow leaked back into him.
Within minutes, he'd recovered enough to start screaming.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 22.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode21
Season 2, Episode 20: Small God
Mon, 20 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 20, season 2, for Monday the twentieth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Small God
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
The thing you remember about him isn't how he died. It isn't his bass-playing - did he play bass? - or his failed businesses. It certainly isn't the three lawsuits that were pending when his car spun off the road and over the cliff.
You remember the photograph of him, the one that won all the awards.
He holds his bare arms aloft, lasers glancing off his dark skin, dreadlocks swirling around him. You can almost feel the pounding beat, the roar of the crowd.
He stands; a warrior on the speaker stack.
Indomitable.
Powerful.
And that's what you will always remember.
---
Human memory is a weird and capricious thing. I find it fascinating the way we can sometimes latch onto a single image of a person, or an event, and forget almost every other detail.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 21.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode20
Season 2, Episode 19: The Way Forward Is Back
Sun, 19 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 19, season 2, for Sunday the nineteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Way Forward Is Back
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
The man stalks around, wand in hand. He stops and throws his arms wide.
"Here! I sense a foul presence."
Kimberley stares at her feet. She doesn't feel foul.
She leaves before the man has lit his candles. It was her house, once, but she's not welcome now.
Outside is bright, and noisy. She winces. It's been so long since she left the room where she was murdered.
She drifts, clinging to the shade of alleyways, following a half-forgotten route to somewhere safe, comforting.
She flies through concrete walls and settles into the quiet dark of the abandoned school library.
---
As you may know from previous episodes, when it comes to classic scare stories I'm usually Team Monster all the way. I do worry about where ghosts go when they get exorcised.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 20.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode19
Season 2, Episode 18: Journey To A New You
Sat, 18 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 18, season 2, for Saturday the eighteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Journey To A New You
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
The train screams in, and she grips her ticket. Passengers crane to read the station sign. It says Discombobulate. Only one person stumbles off, giggling, and the platform-crowd surges aboard.
Doors hiss closed. Her stomach drops as they shoot into sunshine, gliding round bends, wheels springy over complicated junctions.
She reads the name of the next station, Unfurling , and wonders if she likes it. There is no map. People alight, others swirl into the carriage. The stations roll by: Brilliant. Lightning. Indolence . At each she wonders: is this mine?
The train halts at Inspiration. She knows. This is her stop.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 19.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode18
Season 2, Episode 17: The Long Viewing
Fri, 17 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 17, season 2, for Friday the seventeenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Long Viewing
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
"I'm freezing."
"Yeah."
"And my feet are soaked. Can you light a fire?"
"Not in wet woodland, in a foot of snow. No."
"But you're outdoorsy, don't you have waterproof matches or something?"
"Sure, when I know I'm going hiking. Today, I've got some gum, a paperclip, and a slimline volume of Seamus Heaney."
"Poetry? Were you trying to impress a girl?"
"Shut up."
"Anyway, I'm freezing."
"So, turn round. Go back to that shitty flatshare in Croydon."
"No way! This is an adventure. One thing, though."
"What?"
"Do you think the estate agent is still waiting outside that wardrobe?"
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 18.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode17
Thu, 16 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 16, season 2, for Thursday the sixteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Two Recipes Found in my Grandmother's Cupboard After Her Death, South Coast of Cornwall, England
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
The Lighthouse
One measure of good brandy. If unavailable, substitute whisky. But not rum. Never rum.
Add chopped fruit - strawberries if you can find them. Or raspberries. They will have had enough of lime juice.
Raise to the light. Let it shine, so that the glow will call them home.
Swirl, and serve.
The Siren
As above, but omit the fruit.
Add instead honey, all sweetness, and sing to them from the darkest cliff. Comb out your hair, until your reflection gleams in the surface.
Double the brandy, if you want them to abandon their senses.
Serve.
On the rocks.
---
Today is the sixteenth, so I thought we'd mark the halfway-point of Drabbletober with a slightly unusual drabble. Let me know what your favourite story is so far!
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 17.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode16
Season 2, Episode 15: You Do What You Have To To Get By
Wed, 15 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 15, season 2, for Wednesday the fifteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
You Do What You Have To To Get By
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Bella put the remains of the ham in the cellar, and tidied crumbs from the table. Life was easier, now, and she was grateful.
The man who came to the door had a kind smile, but guilty eyes.
"Anthony?"
"Don't you remember me?"
"You left years ago. The money ran out. I was starving."
He looked round the room - modest, but comfortable - and his face fell.
"Oh, Bella, you didn't... Did you hate me that much?"
"Don't be foolish. You know the Grey Merchants don't buy unhappiness. My memories of you were the only valuable thing I had to sell."
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 16.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode15
Season 2, Episode 14: What Fools These Mortals Be
Tue, 14 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 14, season 2, for Tuesday the fourteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
What Fools These Mortals Be
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Hersh's eyelids flutter, hands clenching and twisting. Hersh is - allegedly - the best, a hot-shot consultant, but it's been hours since he passed wetware security and jammed cables into his spine.
And the systems are still down. Heda checks, repeatedly, feeling like he's missing something.
"Hey... new boy. Err... Ike? Get coffee."
Down at street-level, Ike hugs himself and grins. He's grinned like that since he teased sabre-tooth tigers, since he baited centurions. He throws away the name Ike. He grinned before people gave him names.
"You know the best bit?" he asks the barista. "These days, no-one believes I exist.'
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 15.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode14
Season 2, Episode 13: Grandmother's Legacy
Mon, 13 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 13, season 2, for Monday the thirteenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Grandmother's Legacy
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
"Should get a few for the table..."
"Think that might be Chippendale..."
The lump in Amy's throat swells. She hides, where she always did, in the dining room - though they'll be in here soon enough, bickering over the silver.
She opens the cabinet, and smiles through tears. Forks - a dozen large, a dozen small - nestle in rows. Amy strokes their blue velvet, enjoying their beautiful orderliness. The way she always did. She admires the polished knives, then slides the panel to reveal soup spoons - and an envelope.
"Darling Amy,
I know you will find this..."
She hugs the letter tightly.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 14.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode13
Season 2, Episode 12: It’s Not Just About Your DNA
Sun, 12 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 12, season 2, for Sunday the twelfth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
It's Not Just About Your DNA
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
I peer into the shaving mirror. That spot's got larger; it's now an angry red dash across my forehead. I poke at it. The skin breaks, with a thin, hard glint.
This used to happen to Dad. A bar fight, he said. Someone shoved him headfirst into a stack of pint jugs. Years later, when I was born, splinters of glass were still working their way out.
They always said I was my father's son. I have his quick temper, his broad fists.
The tiny scratch of glass falls into the sink. I wash it away, just like he did.
---
Little splinters of this story are true. When I was a kid, glass really did come out of my Dad's forehead occasionally. He's the nicest man in the world, and he ended up with a faceful of glass in a car accident. One of the things he passed on to me is a lifelong belief in seatbelts.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 13.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode12
Season 2, Episode 11: The Eater of Secrets
Sat, 11 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 11, season 2, for Saturday the eleventh of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Eater of Secrets
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Mrs Tindall makes them stay behind, because no-one will admit breaking the window. When Hannah gets home the house is shaking.
Her mum slumps, despairing. "I've nothing left. You go up."
Hannah climbs the attic stairs, slowly, and whispers through the hatch.
"Jamie kicked his football through the window."
Now everyone will know about Jamie. She's used to the guilt.
The shaking doesn't stop. She tries again.
"Lily isn't really Sarah's friend."
Everything shakes so hard the roof screeches.
"When Daddy's working late, he actually goes to Auntie Helen's."
The house settles immediately. From the kitchen comes a single scream.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 12.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode11
Season 2, Episode 10: I'm Bigger Than You
Fri, 10 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 10, season 2, for Friday the tenth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
I'm Bigger Than You
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
As a kid, it was always her brother. The threat was explicit - and followed up with physical demonstrations.
The same threat hid, discreetly, behind her teachers' words. Later, it threaded through drunken conversations in bars, in unwanted offers of help or a lift home.
She sits in the boardroom, and feels it oozing - again, still - from the investors, from the chairman, even from the junior insurance guy. She clinches the deal anyway. She wins. It doesn't help. She is so tired.
She books the appointments: bone expansion, femur and spine extensions, muscle bulking. Under "goals", she writes impossibly high numbers.
---
In my day job, I work in a very male-dominated environment. I'm also very lucky: I have smart colleagues to whom gender is not an issue. But despite - in this country - decades of legislation, equality is not a done deal. My hot take is that size and physical strength is a big part of this.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 11.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode10
Season 2, Episode 9: First Time At Supper
Thu, 09 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 9, season 2, for Thursday the ninth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
First Time At Supper
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
"Where is your tray?"
I didn't know I was supposed to have one. Everyone else is already eating.
She points, furiously. I scurry to the counter.
I pick up a bowl. A spoon.
The server stares at me, and I don't know what to say.
"Please?"
A grey ladleful lands in my bowl. Tentacles reach out from the thin soup, questing towards my hands.
I shriek, bowl sliding on the tray, liquid slopping over my sleeves, and stumble to a free seat.
Everyone watches me, spoons of broth writhing towards their mouths.
My supper heaves and frets at the bowl.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 10
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode9
Season 2, Episode 8: It's Amazing What They Pick Up
Wed, 08 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 8, season 2, for Wednesday the eighth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
It's Amazing What They Pick Up
by Elizabeth Guilt
---
Grandmother always gave interviews from her chaise longue. She reclined gracefully, surrounded by framed playbills and photographs, hands stroking the sleek, velvet upholstery.
When the local vicar called, grandmother received him, tight-lipped, at her desk. He took one look at the chaise's brownish stains and threadbare patches and stood, awkwardly, while she lectured him.
I sneaked in for a story, and clambered onto the chaise.
"It looks different," I said, prodding the luxurious, puffy, pink cushions.
Grandmother laughed, and patted the wooden armrest.
"Oh, I took this chaise from the old Theatre Royal. It can play any part you like."
---
Today's story is dedicated to a chaise that lives at my local theatre. Last time I saw it, it was playing a sofa in a young woman's sitting room, in 1974 Sri Lannka. Next time I see it - if I recognise it - it will be something quite different.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 9.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode8
Season 2, Episode 7: Heart. Beat.
Tue, 07 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 7, season 2, for Tuesday the seventh of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Heart. Beat.
by Elizabeth Guilt
I'll make coffee before I reply to that email.
No, we won't consider a reunion. Granger is still dead.
They used to suggest getting some up-and-coming kid to fill in, or using drum machines. Now it's AI-powered avatars of Granger.
The band was the four of us and it meant everything. We can't replace him.
Most Friday nights, I pick up my guitar and head round to Jonno's. Billy brings his bass, when he can get away.
We sit round the piano with a bottle of whisky, jamming, playing our old songs.
Late at night, we still hear the drums.
---
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 8.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode7
Season 2, Episode 6: Safety Catch
Mon, 06 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 6, season 2, for Monday the sixth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Safety Catch
by Elizabeth Guilt
When the invasion came, we ran. We tried to settle, we ran further, we hid, we fought through snow, and ran again. Most of us survived. We tried to help each other, tried to reassure ourselves we'd be safe one day.
"What even is safe?" asked Asha, bitterly, as we watched the patrols get closer to the caves we'd huddled in for a week.
"Stories," said Mimi.
Asha's eyes blazed. "Stories?"
"Yes. One day, we will talk of something other than survival, and have room in our hearts to care about people we don't know. Only safe people share stories."
---
I am lucky: in my lifetime, my home has not been threatened by invasion. I've never been a refugee. Perhaps it is not like this at all.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 7.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode6
Season 2, Episode 5: The Choir of the Lost
Sun, 05 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 5, season 2, for Sunday the fifth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Choir of the Lost
by Elizabeth Guilt
When Kate ran, she ran hard, leaving behind husband, job, Friday yoga, and Bach cantatas on Wednesdays. Eventually, there was almost no land left and she slumped on a bench. Her tears blurred the poster advertising a singing group.
Kate - with nowhere else, with her voice that the Bach choirmaster described as "fair" - went to the community hall.
"Tea, love?" called a man, lifting a kettle.
"New, are ye?" asked another, spooning ravioli straight from the can.
She nodded nervously, seeing no piano, no sheet music.
Eventually, a song started. Everyone straggled into the chorus and Kate joined in, smiling.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 6.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode5
Season 2, Episode 4: The Lemon Spectre
Sat, 04 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 4, season 2, for Saturday the fourth of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
The Lemon Spectre
by Elizabeth Guilt
On Saturdays, Bill spent longer than usual polishing the countertop. The Lemon Spectres, exclusive to the hotel, looked their best against the black marble - that faint luminescence, that slight haze clinging to the rim of the glass. The glimmering cocktail was a nightmare to make, and it cost a fortune. But it was endlessly Instagrammable, and that kept the fashionable Saturday night crowds coming.
"Can't you change the recipe?" begged Evan, the only other person who knew the secret ingredient.
"Not without ruining business, no."
Evan grimaced, picked up his sack, and headed to the graveyard to collect the spectres.
---
I don't actually like cocktails all that much - I'm more of a beer person. But some of the drinks I've seen served in London bars have been really visually impressive. And I don't think the souls of the departed are one of the things you have to disclose in ingredients.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 5.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode4
Season 2, Episode 3: We Need to Increase the Budget for the School Water Feature
Fri, 03 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 3, season 2, for Friday the third of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
We Need To Increase The Budget For The School Water Feature
by Elizabeth Guilt
The three-field system was a way farmers grew food long ago.
Amelia, we don't do that here.
They used three fields: one for...
Amelia! Don't wave that about!
One for spring crops, one for autumn crops...
Amelia, I've warned you already.
One for spring crops, one for autumn crops and one to rest.
Amelia! Turn George back, immediately.
This helped the soil...
No, the bell is a signal for me, not for you.
This helped the soil stay healthy....
Class. Class! Amelia, come right back here. Class?
Ohh.
I'm sorry, George. Let's get you down to the pond for now.
---
I think I should acknowledge a debt to Joyce Grenfell here. I wasn't consciously thinking of her famous sketch when I wrote this, but I think one of the names gives it away.
If you've never heard "George, Don't Do That" I recommend looking it up.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 4.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode3
Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 2, season 2, for Thursday the second of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Choice
by Elizabeth Guilt
"Expect the unexpected," read Melissa. "What does yours say?"
"Happy news is on the way. Oh god, I hope so. Anna, you haven't opened yours."
Anna shrugged. "I don't like them much."
Melissa laughed. "Literally no-one likes them. They're just for the message inside."
They were watching her, so Anna cracked her cookie open.
"Oh my god, Anna, it's blank! Ask for another one!"
"I don't mind."
They were always blank. Tarot cards blurred. Tea leaves formed perfect grids. Once, at a fair, the teller's crystal ball had cracked in two.
Anna smiled. "It's fine. I choose my own fortune."
---
Recently, Graveside Press - the publishers of my novella, A Mortuary For Songs - asked if I had any promotional items for other projects. I made some Drabbletober stickers. Now I'm wondering if I should have made fortune cookies. I really like the idea of writing deeply sinister fortunes to put in them.
Oh, and let me now if you'd like a sticker!
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 3.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode2
Season 2, Episode 1: Putting on the Razzle-Dazzle
Wed, 01 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 1, for Wednesday the first of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Putting on the Razzle-Dazzle
by Elizabeth Guilt
"You do know what 'Resistance fighter' means?"
"Don't really need makeup, do we, lads?"
"Your eyeshadow's crap, anyway."
So she explained - skipping the details of light-reflecting concealers, shimmering contour powders, AI facial-recognition algorithms, and the limitations of Government surveillance systems.
"My camouflage makeup means cameras can't process my face."
They made her walk through the Authorised Zone and a camera pinged immediately. She was arrested, and imprisoned.
The Resistance fighters fell about laughing when she came back.
"You? Again?"
She stared them down.
"That was to make sure the Government believes it doesn't work. Now we do it for real."
---
If you've never heard of dazzle camouflage before, I strongly encourage you to look it up. It was used on ships and aircraft around WW1 and was designed not to hide them, but to make it hard to focus on them well enough to attack. Wikipedia has some great photos of lurid paint schemes.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 2.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode1
Mon, 01 Sep 2025 06:10:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of September, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Whispers
---
When my mother died, she gifted me a whisper. Her voice threads through my life.
You can do anything.
I inherited hers, too; the whisper she got from her mother.
A woman is as good as any man.
You can do anything.
They raised me after my father left. They were relieved when I finally grew tired of his bullshit and refused to see him again.
A woman is as good as any man.
My father also gifted me a whisper.
Are you sure?
My mother raised me strong. I can do anything.
You can do anything.
Are you sure?
---
Drabbletober will return to daily episodes for the month of October. If you enjoy these tiny stories, please tell a friend about the podcast - or leave a review, wherever you listen to them.
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you on October the first.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/september1bonus
Bonus Episode 5: "Living on the Face"
Fri, 01 Aug 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of August, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Living on the Face
---
I stumbled blearily down to the water's edge. Which wasn't there.
My eyes snapped open. There should be... shoreline. Waves. A line of uneven wooden posts. We tied our boat up there. So did every other family. The lake couldn't be... gone.
I ran.
"Don't be ridiculous." Mum pointed, and there were the posts, and the lake, just as usual. And a mess of smashed wood swirling in the current. She dropped the teapot, hands flying to her mouth.
"The boat!"
My grandfather lit his pipe and shrugged. "You never listen. My stories are true. And the giant just blinked."
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/august1bonus
Bonus Episode 4: “Rapprochement”
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of July, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Rapprochement
---
Everyone remembers Gracie Carousel's wartime radio broadcasts. They cheered us, gave us heart. Even when her husband disappeared, she kept us hoping. Every day.
When Occupation ended, Gracie emerged from hiding, to universal acclaim. Then a newspaper finally found her husband.
They met, grasping each other's hands after twenty years. In front of a thousand reporters. she whispered to him.
"You're not my husband. You're taller. Who are you?"
"A resistance fighter who saw the real Gracie Carousel executed before the war ended. Are you going to rob our country of this happy ending?"
Together, they smiled for the cameras.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
Bonus Episode 3: "How I Live My Life According To My Friend Simon's Advice"
Sun, 01 Jun 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of June, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: How I Live My Life According To My Friend Simon's Advice
Simon once told me that you forget things when you walk through doors. I laughed, but he was right.
I started writing grocery lists in the kitchen. When travelling, I packed toiletries in the bathroom.
At work, I preferred to talk to colleagues at my desk so information didn't fall into meeting-room doorways. Eventually, I found it easier to work from home; catch up with friends over Zoom; order my food online.
I pulled my bed into the living room. Then my wardrobe, then a camping stove. A hose. A bucket. I sit at the centre.
And I remember everything.
---
Simon is a real person, by the way, although I don't think he listens to this podcast. He really did tell me about what's known as the Doorway Effect. I haven't quite reached the extremes in this story. Not yet.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/june1bonus
Bonus Episode 2: "Tea for the Dawn"
Thu, 01 May 2025 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of May, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Tea for the Dawn.
Dorothy opens the front door, and sighs. The other cottages - new thatch, smart paint, tightly-locked gates - are all dark at the windows. The village green is empty, and quiet.
Seventy years ago, there'd been crowds; everyone singing and cheering.
Sixty years ago, she'd stayed up all night, and stood swaying and laughing to watch the dancers.
Fifty years. She'd wondered if she'd ever get Annie to sleep with all that racket outside. Forty. She'd woken Annie up and they'd watched together. Thirty, twenty... People move on. Times change.
Dorothy smiles. raises her mug to the dawn, and welcomes the May.
---
It's the first of May. Across the UK, ritual dancers of all kinds will have been up at dawn to dance up the sun, making sure summer returns for another year. Don't forget to say thank you to your local morris team.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/may1bonus
Fri, 28 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, released because I felt like it. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Bruisetown.
The town probably had a name on the map, but everyone called it Bruisetown. Its residents were pallid; blue stains across their cheeks, bruises ringing their necks and wrists and sullen eyes. Linger too long on the road, and mottled grey crept across the backs of your hands. Even the sea had a stewed, purple-green tinge.
Occasionally, someone made it out. They would win every bareknuckle fight for miles, taking punch after punch, then collect their prizes and go right back to Bruisetown.
Even stumbling from the ring, they'd stare at our unmarked faces, eyes full of nothing but pity.
---
Recently, I had to do some audio editing, and discovered I couldn't remember how to do even the basics. I thought I'd better put together a Drabbletober episode, just to check I could remember how. If you're listening to this, I guess I did?
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/march28bonus
Episode 31: "The Ghost of the Future"
Thu, 31 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 31, for Thursday the 31st of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: The Ghost of the Future
Peter shucks off the hated school trousers and shirt, and takes more comfortable clothes from the very back of the wardrobe. A double bedsheet, with neat eyeholes, completes the outfit.
Arms raised, the ghost checks carefully in the bathroom mirror.
"Going to the party?" asks Mum.
"Wooooo!"
"Very scary, Pete. Enjoy yourself. Be a good boy."
"Nooooooo!"
In the village hall, vampires and witches are already eating cake.
"Who are you?" demands Frankenstein's monster.
"I am the ghost of Sarah."
They laugh, and shrug, and call the ghost Sarah all night.
Under the bedsheet, she smooths her dress and smiles.
---
And that's it for Drabbletober 2024. If you've been listening for the whole of October, then thanks for coming along for the ride.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode31
Wed, 30 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 30, for Wednesday the 30th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: The Gauntlet
"Don't put that on, love. Nana says it's cursed. Or bad luck, anyway."
"Don't be such a fusspot! It's just an old glove."
She pulled the tatty old leather over her fingers. Her hand shot to her throat, pinning her to the wall.
I screamed, leaping to my feet and reaching for her wrists.
She spluttered with laughter.
"Oh, mum, your face! I can't believe you thought that was real."
She slid slowly down the wall, laughing until her face turned red and her eyes watered.
She was still laughing when her hand, still around her throat, began to squeeze.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 31.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode30
Episode 29: "Security, in a Tuxedo"
Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 29, for Tuesday the 29th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Security, in a Tuxedo
They roared into the city. Literally - the cheapest transport in from the airport was on lion-back.
The bars were raucous. Sinuous snake dancers, monkeys pouring drinks with hands and feet, bunnies lounging lasciviously across laps. Bears kept the tourists under control. Just.
Only one spot in the busy centre was calm. Smart black-and-white waiters waddled, cocktail trays on flippers, up to marble tables. You could hear the ice clink as they set the glasses down.
"Why so quiet?" whispered one punter.
"Never underestimate these guys. And no-one wants to admit they were thrown out of a bar by a penguin."
---
One of the reasons I find penguins so delightful is that they always manage to look exactly like pictures of themselves - something they share with tigers, and pints of Guinness. It is a very satisfactory quality.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 30.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode29
Episode 28: "Breaking the Rainbow"
Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 28, for Monday the 28th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Breaking the Rainbow
I remember him in kindergarten, throwing stones at the sky. Toddlers are all, at heart, destructive. But he asked strange questions when I taught weather systems in first-year science, and again when we covered refraction in GCSE physics.
He was seventeen when I caught him vandalising the gym.
"What is this?" I demanded.
He shrugged, sigils dribbling paint down the wall. "Weather magic."
I raised concerns with the school counsellor.
It rained this morning. I heard his voice, then I saw the sky shatter. His face drifted past my lab's second floor window as he ascended, blissfully, into multicoloured brilliance.
---
Rainbows are one of my favourite natural phenomena, and understanding refraction does not make them any less magical or mysterious.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 29.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode28
Sun, 27 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 27, for Sunday the 27th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Flamingo Bread
Whenever she talked about her childhood, Gran always mentioned flamingo bread, the best cake in the world. When she died, we found the recipe tucked away in
her bookshelf. It had been a treat, when eggs were rationed; a wartime cake made with mayonnaise and baking soda and red food colouring. When we baked it, it was every bit as vile as it sounded.
Heraclitus said you can never step in the same river twice. Gran knew that. She kept her flamingo bread in her head her whole life, as bright, and pink, and delicious as it always had been.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 28.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode27
Sat, 26 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 26, for Saturday the 26th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: The Handler
I could hear the fighting from outside. It was one of the hard cases, a small one. It always is, all entitlement and "I shouldn't be in here" attitude.
There were snarls and filthy language as I pulled him off a terrified sporty type.
"Zip it," I snapped, flinging him out through the door. "Get going, the rest of you."
A polite cough sounded behind me.
"Could you help me up? Not as young as I was."
Seventies, I guessed. No wheels, and worn straps.
"Of course, sir."
I picked him up, and placed him gently on the baggage carousel.
---
Have you ever noticed? If you check multiple bags in for a flight, they come out miles apart at the other end. I've always wondered what they get up to, and whether they had a falling-out in between.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 27.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode26
Fri, 25 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 25, for Friday the 25th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is: 5 Phoenix Court
As Mara leaves the station, she can smell smoke. She hears the sirens before she's halfway up the hill.
She checks the little group huddled on the pavement. The Barries, the Patels. The old man from 2 is sitting on the wall, the new couple are holding their screaming baby. Mrs Delamere is still in Egypt.
Everything she owns is burning. Piles of unread books, cupboards full of childhood treasures she can't give away, wardrobes stuffed with vintage clothes. Letters from old lovers, inherited paintings, paperwork, electronics, furniture...
In the flickering light, Mara dances. She has never felt so free.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 26.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode25
Thu, 24 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 24, for Thursday the 24th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Recognition
My neighbour was always odd. Harmless, but odd; staring with a strange intensity whenever we crossed paths. Until he started screaming. Every night, for hours, his howls drilled into my skull.
Then, suddenly, he was gone. Dead, I think. His flat was larger, so I gave notice and moved across the hall.
When a new tenant took my old flat, he looked familiar. Very familiar, but for years, no matter how I tried, I couldn't place his face. Without warning, it struck me in the middle of the night. I knew exactly who he was.
And I started to scream.
---
Jeffrey Lewis is a New York antifolk hero, famous for his songs and his hand-drawn "low-budget videos". I've been going to see his gigs for probably more than twenty years now. Today's drabble was directly inspired by his song Sad Screaming Old Man. I'll pop a link to the song in the shownotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQgVRGvLkQ
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 25.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode24
Wed, 23 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 23, for Wednesday the 23rd of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Unicorns
When the barriers crumbled between our worlds, everyone went exploring. Especially the motorcyclists. On whining two-strokes and beefy Harleys, they tore through the winding roads of Fairyland.
The King of the Fairies met the King of the Bikers at the Border, and begged him to stop them.
The Biker King laughed.
"I will send unicorns to guard the border," said the Fairy.
The Biker King laughed harder, and on Sunday morning he lead the roaring engines down the road.
The unicorns waited, bigger than shirehorses. Bull-necked and wild-eyed; jagged metal battering rams bound at their brows.
Heads down, they charged.
---
If, like me, you've lived in towns and cities all your life, it's always a bit of a surprise how large and intimidating horses can be. I've never quite believed that adding a huge, spiralling horn would make them into gentle and compassionate creatures.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 24.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode23
Tue, 22 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 22, for Tuesday the 22nd of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Yo Ho Ho
The last visitor trudged reluctantly into the lashing rain, and Nigel rolled down the shutters. He rested his forehead against the window, enjoying the brief moments of peace.
There was a crash from the main exhibition hall, then muffled swearing.
He drew a deep breath.
"It's ok," he shouted, "they've gone".
Stormy nights were always the loudest. By the time he'd turned the corner, he could hear at least three shanties and a concertina.
The preserved fishing smack rocked on its hydraulic supports, grey figures spilling from the decks.
Nigel sighed, and went to the museum store room for rum.
---
In my head, this is how all museums work.
If you're a museum curator, please don't write in!
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 23.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode22
Mon, 21 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 21, for Monday the 21st of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Great New Ones
There'd been trouble at Mill 3 for weeks. Rumours, mutterings, machine operators thinking they could bargain with me for an extra penny or another break.
I sent men to break up their meeting. They found the operators chanting, fleshy horror already half-materialised in the circle.
I interviewed one of the survivors, fresh blood over old scars of missing fingers.
"How could you be so stupid?"
He stared through swollen eyes. "We worship Him."
"He cares for nothing. He will consume you, grind through everything around him, and never be satisfied."
He laughed bitterly. "And yet you chose to worship capitalism."
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 22.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode21
Sun, 20 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 20, for Sunday the 20th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Afternoon Out
"Oh my god, oh my god, Bob's gone!"
"What?"
"He's gone! Just like that! Gone! Oh my god!" Harry snapped his pincers frantically.
"Calm down, calm down. He'll be back."
"He's gone! He saw a bit of food, and then just... Gone! Whisked away!"
"Stop panicking! This is always happening!"
Harry scuttled away in distress.
There was a distant splash, and Bob sidled nonchalantly over.
"Hey!"
"You OK?"
"Me? Oh, fine. Had a great afternoon. Lovely snack, then hung out in a bucket for a while with a couple of ladies. Beautiful shell, one of them. Did I miss anything?"
---
I was recently walking along the harbourfront in Whitby with a friend. Half a
dozen families were dangling lines over the side, hauling up little crabs. The
crabs aren't edible, and will eventually be tipped back into the harbour.
We spent our walk wondering what the crabs thought of the whole business.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 21.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode20
Sat, 19 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 19, for Saturday the 19th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Skirmish
The war ended, and neither side truly won. The farmers brought in the harvest, and worshipped the Autumn God, just as they always had done. The colonists stayed. They settled in the rocky places, and thanked Arhayun for the good food they could buy.
The farmers threw water on Arhayun's bonfires; in return, the colonists toppled The Autumn God's cairns. Amid smoke, and screams, and sliding rocks, the war flashed back into life
The two gods shared a flagon of mead and shook their heads.
"How do we stop them?" asked Arhayun.
The Autumn God shrugged. "I don't know, brother."
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 20.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode19
Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 18, for Friday the 18th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Jump!
"Jump!"
She clambered onto the windowsill, her small fingers clutching the frame. When she looked down, she whimpered.
"I don't want to, Billy."
"Hold my hand. We'll jump together."
Billy's strings trailed from his wooden arm.
"It's so far down. I'll die."
"You're going to jump, Judy."
"But I'm scared."
His painted black eyes grew darker.
"Jump. Now."
She stared, dazed, at the people screaming below.
"Jump."
Sobbing, she grabbed Billy and stepped into empty air.
Judy landed in the net the firefighters held, and loving parents scooped her up.
"Judy! You're so brave! And you even saved your puppet!"
---
I think puppets and dolls get a really raw deal in horror stories. Painted porcelain faces or wooden joints are invariably cast as creepy. But sometimes, your childhood toy is urging you throw yourself from a high window with the best of intentions.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 19.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode18
Thu, 17 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 17, for Thursday the 17th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Sudden Autumn
Lily loved the oak tree in their new house's garden. After a day of customer complaints swamping her optical feeds, connecting with nature was so important.
Stepping outside, she almost dropped her tea. The oak's branches were bare against the June sky, drifts of leaves piled brown on the grass.
She yelled up the stairs.
"Jase! Have you split up with your girlfriend again?"
A low moan, almost a sob, echoed back down. She sighed. Jase was so selfish.
Outside, Lily ran her fingers over the rough bark until the control panel popped. She wrenched the dial back to midsummer.
---
I've only just realised that this is the second drabble this October to feature a Lily. This Lily is, of course, not the Lily from "Don't Let Go", she just has the same name.
Years ago, I accidentally wrote a 10,000 word story in which two main characters had the same name. I did wonder why my beta-readers kept getting confused.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 18.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode17
Wed, 16 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 16, for Wednesday the 16th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Firedogs
The feast-frenzied guests waited restlessly for the firedogs to dance against the midsummer sky. My lord, fury covering his fear, sent us to the cave.
"Prick them out!"
No red glow flickered, and I blundered in assuming it deserted. A hissing bulk loomed above me, then slumped to the floor.
I crept closer: lanternlight bounced back from a dull eye. One scaled beast coiled around the silent other, sweet breath gusting out like sobs. The odour was choking but, without its mate to blow bitter tar, stone cold.
My lord's pikemen would be useless. A firedog could not dance alone.
---
This story began its life as an 1000-word flash fiction, which contained a lot more detail about my lord's political situation. Decimating it - literally - to make it into a drabble was a very interesting exercise in working out which pieces were actually vital to the story.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 17.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode16
Episode 15: "Gunpowder and Wine"
Tue, 15 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 15, for Tuesday the 15th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story, which today contains a minor swear, is:
Gunpowder and Wine
My grandfather refused to go near the bar. "Too many damn idiots," he said, of the tourists who poured in. They bought overpriced jugs of gritty cocktails to toast the revolution 'in gunpowder and wine'.
"Better off with beer," he grumbled.
"Mrs McClusky told us in history that it was just a metaphor, anyway."
"Well, your Mrs McClusky doesn't know shit, either."
"Did you? Really?"
"Wine was too expensive. We drank shots of rum with a teaspoon of gunpowder. Once."
"Why?"
"It tasted foul. But we thought we were going to die that night, and stupid gestures gave us courage."
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 16.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode15
Mon, 14 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 14, for Monday the 14th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Like a Bear
Good morning, welcome to Sicut Urso. You're right on time.
You've been eating well, I take it? What's that? Pasta for every meal? Ideal, sir, glad to hear it. Ha ha, yes, I'm sure you enjoyed it. But you took plenty of lemon juice too? Great.
Leave your things here, we'll keep them safe. There are fleecy pyjamas in your room.
Ah, I see you've found the bed. Another blanket? Of course. I'll pop a couple of spare pillows over here.
Ready?
Just one sharp scratch.
There, that's the shot done.
Comfy?
Excellent, sir.
We'll wake you in the spring.
---
I am not a summer person. I really enjoy snow, and frosts, and the lovely dark blue skies you get in the UK on winter afternoons. I actually look forward to winter, and the days when the air stings your lungs.
But I appreciate that's not for everybody.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 15.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode14
Sun, 13 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 13, for Sunday the 13th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Duty of Care
Adam always wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to help anyone who was in trouble. His teachers laughed, given his grades and his slow reading. Then the apocalypse came, and suddenly careers didn't matter any more. Very few things mattered.
"Get inside, love."
Adam gave his daughter a gentle push. She toddled through the door, oblivious to the groaning wails coming closer up the road.
The undead thing shambled across the farmyard, one arm torn almost away. Adam patted its good shoulder, and led it into the barn. It sat patiently, and he began to sew up the rips.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 14.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode13
Episode 12: "We're Adults Now"
Sat, 12 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 12, for Saturday the 12th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
We're Adults Now
We were around ten, I guess. The summer was hot, bakingly hot, and no-one noticed us building a spaceship behind the greenhouse. We used old plywood, the gears from Emily's bike, and a car battery, and blasted off for the Moon.
We were back in time for tea, of course.
Years later, worn by a messy divorce, I bumped into Emily. We went for a drink, then another. She remembered!
"Want to build another spaceship?" I asked. "Revisit the Moon?"
She shook her head. "We're adults, now."
I nodded, stupid with disappointment.
She smiled. "This time, let's aim for Mars."
---
Did you build a spaceship when you were little? We did. And we dug a treasure mine in the front garden, and figured out a machine for talking to aliens.
I think we could all do with a little more of that energy in our adult lives.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 13.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode12
Episode 11: "These Bills Don't Pay Themselves"
Fri, 11 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 11, for Friday the 11th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
These Bills Don't Pay Themselves
Cursing people is easy. Anyone can do it. Removing curses, now. That's a skill. Learned it from my grandmother and I'm good at it.
No-one who comes through that door and pays up leaves with any kind of curse on them. Those who won't pay, mind, that's another story.
Trouble is, people are boring. A curse for a woman: losing her looks. A man? Usually someone's hoping, you know, something will drop off.
Past couple of weeks, mind. Wow. There's been some... yeah. Creative curses. I'm impressed.
It's intricate work, too. Looks ingtriguing. Looks... profitable.
I'm in the wrong business.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 12.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode11
Episode 10: "Would You Like a Flake With That?"
Thu, 10 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 10, for Thursday the 10th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Would You Like A Flake With That?
The kids tumbled giddily from the car.
"Let's get ice creams!"
Dad bought 99s for the family, and they raced onto the beach.
Elderly ladies strolled along the promenade, nibbling at melting vanilla. Teenagers dared each other into waves that washed off the last streaks of chocolate.
"No, thanks," said Henry.
His date stared. "But... We're at the seaside!"
He eyed the jagged purple rocks, and the seething yellow-grey sea.
"I don't like it here."
"Because you haven't had an ice cream, silly!"
Sweet cherry slid down his throat, so cold it numbed.
He smiled, and walked towards golden sands.
---
If you live in the UK, a trip to the beach can often be a collective delusion. I've eaten ice cream on days when I've had to shield it to stop the wind whipping my flake away, and also when I've had to race the tiny pits that formed as raindrops splattered into my scoop of vanilla.
There's got to be some kind of explanation.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 11.
https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode10
Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 9, for Wednesday the 9th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Set Fair
Ella turned her back.
"I'm not a child any more. I'm not stupid!"
Steve laid gentle hands on her six-year-old shoulders. "I know, love."
He stared at the horizon. In the milky light from the silica skymesh, the
podhouses soon shimmered into misty distance.
"It's true, though."
"It's not true! How would it get to the hydroponics?"
Ella kicked the polymer ducting, hard enough that the vibrations risked tripping alarms at the recyc. plant.
"Don't do that, Ella."
He didn't blame her. Even he struggled to believe that, when he was her age, water had sometimes fallen from the sky.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 10.
Tue, 08 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 8, for Tuesday the 8th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Wrath
"And Henry rode up with the head on his lance..."
"Don't be stupid."
"He did! Though he must have stopped at the ford to stick it there, just to show off. It'd be too heavy to ride far..."
"He wouldn't even be able to pick the lance up."
"Are you saying my brother didn't slay the dragon? I saw the head!"
"You liar."
"I'm not. It was the size of Farmer Brod's sow."
"What?"
"I've told you, he's killed..."
"Oh, gods. We're doomed."
"Henry's saved us!"
"That size? Henry killed a baby. We're not going to survive the mother's anger."
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 9.
Mon, 07 Oct 2024 06:00:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 7, for Monday the 7th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Don't Let Go
When Lily slipped, I caught her and we fell screaming together. Snow tore our faces until I slammed into rock, and she disappeared over the edge.
Pain stretched the seconds, and spun the sky dark. I clung to my grip on her wrist, hers on mine.
Eventually, help arrived.
"Save Lily!" I begged, her weight dragging my arm numb.
"Who's Lily?" they asked.
When I woke in hospital, her hand was a comforting bracelet. We held on to each other through the surgery, through the long rehab.
Each day I wake, face down and arm outstretched, still holding Lily safe.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 8.
Sun, 06 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 6, for Sunday the 6th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Titration
After the earthquake, shorn power conduits shook and writhed until downtown was flooded with electric. Dirty, unaligned electric - no use to anyone, and lethal. The council set up cordons, and tried to explain they couldn't clean up yet. Couldn't plan operations until they knew the Wattage.
Which is where I come in, with my suitcase of ghosts. It works, and science guys hate it. Electric and ghosts don't mix - lit rooms give spectres no corner to hide. So I just let 'em out, one at a time, until there's enough to be visible.
37 ghosts. That's 14 TeraWatts.
You're welcome.
---
There is an idea, which I've heard a few times though I haven't been able to find out whose it was originally, that electricity killed ghost stories. Once rooms were well lit, people stopped seeing ghosts.
I like the idea that the ghosts are fighting back.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 7.
Episode 5: "It's Not The Labour, It's The Parts"
Sat, 05 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 5, for Saturday the fifth of
October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
It's Not The Labour, It's The Parts
I waved as he disappeared. I held my breath.
He didn't come back.
I waited a couple of hours, but still no cheerful creak as he shouldered open the door, brimming with stories.
Perhaps things weren't as predictable as we'd thought. Maybe our calculations were off.
After a year, I had to know the worst. I thrust a spade between the roots of our old oak tree, riving the ground apart until I found the metal box, rusted after a century in soil. It was stuffed with letters. He loved me, missed me, but could not repair our time machine.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 6.
Fri, 04 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
New Tricks
Girls love a boy who's spliced in dog DNA. They can't wait to ruffle Hugo's fur, fondle his ears. Sylvie doesn't notice that the hand curled around the glass is too much paw these days. Doesn't see him when his money's run out, snapping and snarling over bones in the gutter.
"You'd look cute with a tail," she says.
"That's not for me," I murmur.
My changes are minute, easily hidden. Fly DNA for reflexes. Tarantula and scorpion for stealth and defence. Enough to pull off the deals to pay for more splices.
This isn't about girls. It's about survival.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 5.
Thu, 03 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 3, for Thuresday the 3rd of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Destiny
She was born, red-haired and screaming, on the third full moon. The priests took up their chanting.
Her siblings, whom she never met, worked the fields; she was taught to read the scrolls.
They starved and huddled by the hearth; she ate banquets and slept on silk.
They fought among themselves; the priests waited for her to fulfil the Prophecy.
They laughed, and shouted, and danced, and ran; the priests waited for her to fulfil the Prophecy.
And yet, the priests were surprised beyond belief when she escaped out the window, and ran away with a band of strolling players.
---
It's amazing how many books start with a kid hearing about a prophecy and, lo and behold, by chapter ten there they are, growing into their own and fulfilling it.
I honestly think we need more books about people who hear a prophecy, and run rapidly in the opposite direction.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 4.
Wed, 02 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.
Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 2, for Wednesday the second of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Becalmed
by Elizabeth Guilt
He stared across the turquoise waves. Something wasn't right.
"Braithwaite!"
"Cap'n?" The First Mate came running.
"I don't like it. The seas are too quiet."
Braithwaite gazed for a long minute. Not one of the rolling, foam-topped wave crests moved. At all.
"And not a breath of wind either."
They both looked up to the sails, which bellied round with wind. A wind that did not blow.
Braithwaite ran towards the wheel. Then the rudder. Then the mast, then the side again.
He stared at the waves.
And the ship, in the tiny glass bottle, on the shelf, sailed on.
---
Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 3.
Episode 1: "Part of the Furniture"
Tue, 01 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000
Your one-hundred word story for the day is:
Part of the Furniture
by Elizabeth Guilt
The sofa was the softest leather I'd ever touched, and I relaxed into its warm embrace. I had never sat anywhere so comfortable.
"Curl up, get cosy," encouraged the sales assistant. "You'll find it needs very little care."
"Uh-huh." I wasn't really listening.
"You won't see any behavioural problems with this model."
"Really?" I was struggling not to doze off.
"The central nervous system is completely minimal."
I sat up hurriedly. "What?"
"The brainstem has been..."
"This thing is alive?"
I leapt to my feet. The cushions slid slowly away, as if they could hardly bear to let me go.
---
Are you sitting comfortably? Were you sitting comfortably? When I first shared this drabble with some friends, one of them reported that it caused her to jump up and stare suspiciously at the chair she had been sitting on.
And that's just the kind of effect I like my stories to have.
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 20:28:14 +0000
For October 2024, I'll be trying to post an episode every day, featuring a brand new 100-word story.
I've done this in written form the past two Octobers: you can find all 2023 stories at https://www.elizabethguilt.com/blog/tag/drabbletober23, or 2022's at https://www.elizabethguilt.com/blog/tag/drabbletober.