Jane Jago's Blog, page 8

Darkling Drabble 2

A darkling drabble offers a shiver of horror in a hundred words…

The girls got off the school bus, twittering like a flock of brightly plumaged birds. Watcher remained in the shadows, waiting for a sign. It came, when a head of gleaming copper braids left the pack and walked into the shadowy quiet of the park.

Watcher followed, closing up where the ground was soft with leafmould and running feet made no sound.

Even the high inhuman sound of the single scream failed to attract attention....

Word of the Day – Procrastination

In an effort to educate the nominally literate and inform those with sufficient humility to understand their own lack of comprehension, Esme offers the correct definition of misunderstood words…

Procrastination (noun – pronunciation note: pro crass donation) Giving to charity with a very poor grace. Example: It is noticeable that the charitable donations of billionaires are always marked by loud procrastination (noun – pronunciation note: pro crusty nation) Members of right-wing poli...

Dai and Julia – Augusta Arena

In a modern-day Britain where the Roman Empire never left, Dai and Julia solve murder mysteries, whilst still having to manage family, friendship and domestic crises…

“Notebook entry. Confirm date, Post Ides, Maius. Time, night watch, at two twenty three, and location Augusta Arena, Londinium, Britannia Maxima. Looks like the report of a murder was not wrong. He seems pretty deceased to me.”
Under the brilliant lights of the pitch, which turned night into day, the body would have looked grueso...

How To Be Old – A Beginner’s Guide! (10)

Advice on growing old disgracefully from an elderly delinquent with many years of expertise in the art – plus free optional snark…

You are old and the fast passing years
Should fill you with sorrow and fears
It shouldn’t be you
With a camera crew
And a blog about sex and craft beers

© jane jago

September is…

Season of mists and mellow
The return of the school master’s bellow
And the post-summer holidays ‘Hello!’
As now life resumes again.

Time to start wearing a sweater
Time to feel cooler and wetter
September’s climate is better
Than summer’s hard blazing heat.

Apples on trees ripen brightly
Brambles grow blackberries rightly
Beech nuts and cobnuts fall nightly
September’s own proffered feast.

The sense of well-being is assuring
With this month the year is maturing
And winter we’re not yet enduring
In...

Roguing Thieves: Part Nine

A sci-fi story of love, betrayal and Space Pirates!

Ironically, Tolin chose Mulligan’s Reach to begin their run. It was a trade-hub for the sector and many of the freetraders there would be picking up cargoes bound for the edge of civilised space. The perfect killing ground for Dekker and his crew.
Painting on the same brave smile she had worn when leaving Mulligan’s Reach nearly six years before, Pan joined Tolin in the task of sorting themselves some cargo and then talking to the freetraders...

The Chronicles of Nanny Bee – Love Philtre

They called her Nanny Bee, although as far as anyone knew she had never been a wife or a mother, let alone a grandmother. But she was popularly believed to be a witch – so Nanny it was. She lived in a pink-walled thatched cottage that crouched between the village green and the vicarage. The Reverend Alphonso Scoggins (a person of peculiarly mixed heritage and a fondness for large dinners) joked that between him and Nanny they could see the villagers from birth to burial.
Nanny’s garden was the mo...

Darkling Drabble 1

A darkling drabble offers a shiver of horror in a hundred words…

“A hundred lashes”, the old man with the dead eyes intoned. The accused woman swayed in the dock. 

Her court-appointed lawyer studied his knotted hands in silence. He had just heard an effective death sentence, but he accounted his skin of more worth than hers.

Shocked silence hung like a shredded sail, broken only by the sound of the heavy footfalls of the execution squad. 

Ten masked men, armed to the teeth, into whos...

Word of the Day – Encore

In an effort to educate the nominally literate and inform those with sufficient humility to understand their own lack of comprehension, Esme offers the correct definition of misunderstood words…

Encore(noun – pronunciation note: in core) Dwelling of any one of various apple-eating insect larvae. Example: When she cut open the rosy red apple the encore was positively writhing with virulent green caterpillars. (noun – pronunciation note: E N C ore) The raw material from which certain e...

Dai and Julia – Healing Sanctuary

In a modern-day Britain where the Roman Empire never left, Dai and Julia solve murder mysteries, whilst still having to manage family, friendship and domestic crises…

In the space before the small temple – so small it had been considered a mere shrine just a few years before – the crowds had gathered as usual for the chance to be chosen. They sat in their wheelchairs, or stood, faces drawn with pain and fatigue. All had given up just about everything,  to make the journey here on the off chan...