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Book club for lovers of the novella-in-flash. Monthly meetings online.

ALT: a penguin sits at a desk with a stack of books and a pencil in its mouth

As the back end of the 32 bus recedes down the Edgware Road, a breathless Prince Charming straightens his crown and curses. Fairy-Tale-Character Academy didn’t warn them about public transport.  ‘Always Stay in Character’ was the only Learning Objective. ‘Be your destiny’  his tutors stressed. Destiny. That’s a laugh! Seems a golden crown, luxuriant curls and direct lineage from a land-grabbing warlord don’t guarantee eternal happiness these days. Or even satisfaction. Destiny should mean dwelling in a palace in Disneyland, looking down on the hoi-polloi from the saddle of a white stallion. Instead he’s teaching ballroom dancing to lumpen minor baronets before bussing it home to a bedsit in Dollis Hill and a doe-eyed wife who sings to mice.  If only he hadn’t had that ridiculous glass slipper fetish once-upon-a-time. What was he thinking? He’d be better off with one of the stepsisters. At least they had an edge to them. Like they’d seen the bottom of a few Jack Daniels bottles. Rolled their own smokes with their toes. Enjoyed a good Rave…  But no, he’d been obsessed by an undersized foot!  A  wolf in a crocheted bedjacket joins the bus queue, followed by a genie, a giant, and three piglets whinging about London house prices. Oh, to be that ordinary! Anonymous... Free… A woodcutter whistles at him, then turns and stalks into Starbucks, his silken stockings showcasing an exquisite pair of buttocks. Prince Charming blushes. Fairy-Tale-Character Academy never warned him about lumberjacks and Merry Men. Never mentioned the constant propositioning in hostelries, forests and changing-rooms. Never explained why he has to stay in character when everything in him that’s real strains to fling off his crown, run into Starbucks and buy two iced lavender lattes, shake out his monogrammed handkerchief, dab at the froth on the woodcutter’s waiting lips.   --- S.A. Greene writes short fiction featuring capybaras, wombats, tables (kitchen, picnic, dining), a moray eel, a musical vagina, a foetus with a dodgy political agenda, whales, and a blue kitchen sponge. Her work has appeared in lovely places like Flash Flood, trampset, Mslexia, Janus, New Flash Fiction, Fictive Dream, The Phare, Reflex, Free Flash Fiction, Maudlin House and a number of anthologies.

2025 Prompts *   NFFD 2025 Prompt #1: Two Seasons  *   NFFD 2025 Prompt #2: Hunting Season  *   NFFD 2025 Prompt #3: Seasons of Love  *   NFFD 2025 Prompt #4: Off Season  *   NFFD 2025 Prompt #5: Open Season     2025 Responses  * 'A Misunderstanding' by Liz Barclay  * 'The Season of Balsam Flower Dyeing' by Heain Joung  * 'Riches' by Emily Macdonald  * 'If it Ain't Right, it Must Be Left' by Lisa H. Owens  * 'Diary Entries from 2025' by Mina Otsuka  * 'Seven-Foot Bicentenarian Yearns for his Ticker' by David Lewis  * 'The Price of Bread' by Jane Claire Jackson  * 'Mr September through December. Mr January to March' by Karen Walker  * 'Finding Fire' by Alice Monro  * 'Old Spice' by Rachel Burrows  * 'Cocktails at the end of the world hotel' by Jack Morris  * 'All The Warm Things' by Chloe Paige  * 'From way back in 1970' by Karen Walker  * 'One Resort, Two Seasons' by Jane Claire Jackson  * 'Maze' by Abida Akram  * 'Lonely No More' by Jean Feingold  * 'A nimble light' by Mizuki Yamagen  * 'Bright, Stubborn Things' by Cate McGowan  * 'Big Game Hunter' by Scott MacLeod  * 'Skin Flicks, Voted Best Tattoo Parlor in Town' by Debra A. Daniel  * 'A pocketful of quiet' by Alice Monro  * 'Scar Tissue' by Melissa Flores Anderson  * 'Yes Yes Yes' by Sarah Freligh  * 'Time flies' by Scott MacLeod  * 'Dressed for the weather' by Melissa Flores Anderson  * 'Two seasons' by Maria Sanger  * 'The day of the cats' by Jules Goodlet-Rowley  * 'All the way' by Jeremy Boyce  * 'Isaac Newton saw an apple fall' by Jack Morris  * 'Gower Street Bookshop closes at 9pm' by Judy Darley  * 'Wisdom in a Teacup' by Faye Brinsmead  * 'Papas and Beers' by Melissa Flores Anderson  * 'A Huckster’s How-To of Hustling Gulls' by Jude Potts  * 'Skipped' by Bailey Scroggins  * 'To The Person Who Kept My Amazon Package' by Suzanne Hicks  * 'Sealed Envelopes' by Allison Renner  * 'Not Based on a True Story' by Lucienne Cummings  * 'Down and Up' by Michael Pettit  * 'A Nimby Fails to Console Himself with Fake Flowers from Ikea' by D. X. Lewis * 'Scuppered' by Emily Macdonald  * 'Purchase Partners with One Year Warranty' by Marzia Rahman  * 'She Was No Wellspring of Ideas' by Sravanthi Challapalli  * 'Cake Walk' by Scott MacLeod  * 'Home' by Jackie Hales  * 'Calida and Frigida' by Lucienne Cummings  * 'Tis the season of not asking him his name' by Roopa Raveendra  * 'Claude' by Cate McGowan  * 'Fiat Lux' by Willow Woo  * 'A Hunt Reaches a Climax' by Sravanthi Challapalli  * 'The Last Poppy' by Jackie Hales  * 'Rainbow Road' by Alice Monro  * 'You, Change, Me' by Madeleine Armstrong  * 'Protection' by Patricia Bender  * 'The Fifth Son' by Birgit K. Gaiser  * 'My Wife Saw Santa' by Mileva Anastasiadou  * 'Unlevel Playing Field' by Jim Parisi  * 'Bert’s Bus' by Joyce Bingham  * 'One Day, I will Climb a Mountain' by Marzia Rahman  * 'Offerings' by Karin Hedetniemi  * 'The Mystery of the Missing Last Nerve' by Athena Law  * 'Summer of T.V. Dinners for One' by Lisa H. Owens  * 'Pressing Clouds' by Cate McGowan  * 'Thirty seconds after you get on the train' by Philippa Bowe  * 'Dust to Dust' by Emily MacDonald  * 'Crystal Healing' by Julie Cunningham  * 'Fred Number Three' by Bronwen Griffiths  * 'Scattering' by Cate McGowan  * 'Holding Harry' by Jane Claire Jackson  * 'A Trace Of Her' by Abida Akram  * 'Hallowe’en Ball' by Birgit K. Gaiser * 'It’s My Destiny' by Allison Renner  * 'The Waterpark in Winter' by Jane Claire Jackson  * ‘Laughter Between the Lines’ by Alice Monro  * 'Perditus' by Lynda McMahon  * 'Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)' by Chloe Paige  * 'Captain Molasses' by Athena Law  * 'Playing the Boy Scout Outside Aldi in 1975' by D. X. Lewis  * 'Angel wings, boxed. As new.' by Jack Morris  * 'The Empty Slot' by Ida Keogh  * ‘Minus One and Beautiful’ by Alice Monro  * 'Sheila’s Mysterious Gap' by Jane Claire Jackson  * 'What would you do?' by Madeleine Armstrong  * 'When Agatha rediscovered her own love story' by D. X. Lewis  * 'The Perfect Season' by Abida Akram  * 'Fall and Spring Semesters' by Jean Feingold  * 'Sudden Season Change' by Meshv Patel  * 'Mrs Murdoch' by Madeleine Armstrong  * 'Homing instinct' by Jeremy Boyce  * 'Street art of a fox catching a bus at sunrise' by Ida Keogh  * 'When They Walked Out One Winter’s Morning' by Lynda McMahon  * 'Lost, Maybe Forever' by Jean Feingold  * 'The Vixen' by Abida Akram  * 'The Moon in June' by Madeleine Armstrong  * 'The Deepest Part' by Cate McGowan  * 'Joey’s looking for a table' by Katie Willow  * 'When Life Gives You Bitter Hellas Planitia Fruit...' by Lisa H. Owens  * 'A Visit to St Nick' by Lucienne Cummings  * 'Monsoon Season' by Abida Akram  * 'Unknown Overdressed Man Discovered' by Jean Feingold  * 'Let’s Pretend We Didn’t See Each Other' by Gargi Mehra  * 'Drive' by Michele Catalano  * 'An intervention' by Birgit K. Gaiser  * 'Resignation' by Chloe Cook  * 'Four Years' by Allison Renner  * 'Bianca is Happy All the Time' by Jean Feingold  * 'Unclear Cache' by Scaramanga Silk  * 'Never ignore a flashing light' by Alison Wassell  * 'No one sings carols any more' by Chloe Cook  * 'Seasons of sound and silence' by Sarah Oakes * 'Lost and Found' by Jack Morris  * 'Amusement Parked' by John F King  * 'Meditating about a Carp' by Anne Howkins  * 'Lost' by Michele Catalano  * 'Amanita Sapientia' by Birgit K. Gaiser  * 'Got Lucky' by Michael Pettit  * 'A Day In The Life' by Suzanne Hicks  * 'What’s For Dinner?' by Lucienne Cummings  * 'Time Killer' by Dimitra Fimi * 'On the Bench Nearest the Disabled Parking' by Rachel Burrows  * 'Persephone in the Forest' by Birgit K. Gaiser  * 'Fresh Canvas' by Lenny Eusebi  * 'The Last Hunt Before Winter' by Noah McWilliam  * 'Seasonal Defiance Reorder' by Adele Gallogly  * 'Home for Christmas' by Allison Renner  * 'Bitter and Sweet' by Suzanne Hicks  * 'Teddy Bear Picnic' by Melissa Flores Anderson  * 'The Gift of Gab' by Lisa H. Owens  * 'Ria, Ria, Ria' by Vijayalakshmi Sridhar  * 'Would You Rather…?' by Scaramanga Silk  * 'Man’s Best Friend' by Allison Renner  * 'Long Gone, Living On' by Scaramanga Silk  * 'Elapse' by Willow Woo  * 'They Need to Clack' by Philippa Bowe  * 'The News Anchor Read the News, but No One Watched it' by Marzia Rahman  * 'Behind you!' by Jeremy Boyce  * 'Shantay, You Stay' by Elisa Dominique Rivera * 'Missing Note: Wanted' by Kate Axeford * 'August' by Angela James  * 'Check Mate' by Scott MacLeod * 'Suds for Duds' by Lenny Eusebi * 'P.E.' by Melissa Flores Anderson * 'Cleopatra' by Madeleine Armstrong