Recently I submitted a drabble* to a SpecFicNZ** Halloween drabble competition.
* For those who aren’t familiar with the term ‘drabble’ it refers to a very short story (a piece of ‘flash fiction’ even – there’s another term for you) of exactly 100 words.
** For those who aren’t familiar with SpecFicNZ you can check them out here: http://www.specficnz.org/
Yesterday the winners were announced, and I learned I was runner up. I feel quite chuffed.
My story is called Old Trick, are here it is:
Hallow knelt by the grate and watched the paper burn, the words written in careful cursive script turning to ash. As the kindling caught he heard a knock at the door. Damn kids always came too early. He waved a hand and the front door swung inwards.
“Give us the trick, mist -” the smallest began, words freezing solid.
Hallow unfurled himself – thankfully his peers were too dead to see how slow he’d gotten – and held up a bony hand. Flame leaped towards his body in a fiery arc, then fizzled out. Hallow sighed.
“TRICK!” he shouted, and the kids scampered.
I. K. Paterson 
Cool Immi. I dig. Must be hard to be so precise.