Mother is concerned about Bonn’s aloneness. He is acting like Mother’s son with Puter, as Mother’s mobile presence. Puter’s ambiance and ready assistance transfers to Bonn as a big brother; an assistant, perhaps even a mentor. But, when Bonn needs to discuss hard concepts, he sits in the Pod and speaks directly with Mother’s screens. Puter assists with concepts but Mother keeps Puter silent if Bonn speaks directly to the screens. Mother understands the nuances between Mot

‘You’re with Daddy today at work?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How are you enjoying it?’ ‘Very well thank you.’ ‘Oh, what beautiful manners. Who’s your favourite, Daddy or Mummy?’ ‘Daddy today but Mummy tomorrow.’ She always liked to be fair and not have just one favourite. ‘Oh, how sweet. What do you want to be when you grow up Kiki?’ ‘An architect’, Kiki said casually. ‘Wow, ok that will be terrific.’ She smiled and nodded at the man. ‘Can I play in the sand please Daddy?’ ‘Y

Someone once said 'It’s all about the dash'. Where or when you start is not important, ‘starting’ is. You wonder at tombstones of who you loved or knew or never heard of as you wander through a graveyard interested and ghoulish. You compare their time with your inevitability and are silently grateful that you’re still above ground. You imagine what their life was like; if/how they loved, laughed, soared, sunk or hated. But a part is NOT written in stone? Their story, the

Mother’s Pod Replicator produces most fruits, vegetables and living matter like Homeworld. But Mother is well aware Bonn needs indefinables only nature can produce for his DNA. So, it is with spices. She, by extension Puter, seeks planetary substances that very closely match her compounds. The tiny red berries contain a black stone that, when dried and crushed, have a spicy pungency that made Bonn sneeze but, more importantly, added to the flavour of the many foodstuffs s

The members gathered for the Annual General Meeting. Bored faces stared around the room. Scared faces looked down at their phone, by way of avoiding any eye contact which might lead to a role on the Board. Least seen the better. The overzealous Secretary started the meeting. Was this protocol? Who knew, and quite frankly, who cared. Nobody. At a very high decibel the meeting started, time taken, apologies given and minutes read. Boring. The Secretary started on about the

Dribble – drip drip dribble dribble. Everywhere there is dribble. I wake and the beard and pillow are wet with dribble. The top end and the bottom end – dribble. As I get older, no matter how I jump and dance there is dribble. Now I know why Mummy said “change your underwear every day dear”. There’s always dribble. They even make drinking soda ads promoting dribble, that and kayaks on rocks. You buy a hamburger and dribble down your arm. Take-away cups always dribble down

The encampment expands with each period (homeworld duration as used by all cosmic travellers for time progression). Because of the three suns’ influence on stabilizing climate, it is much harder to estimate seasons on this planet. Mother has quantified this planet is smaller than homeworld with way less gravity; hence Bonn’s ability to leap great distances; seeming to ‘fly’ off tall cliffs; having much greater strength than his body was designed to experience. He has, quit

“I want to help. Since we landed, when I was a little boy, I know you have made this as comfortable for me as you can. You Puter are Mother-roaming beyond the pod. You and Mother have built a very reasonable fort-home with laser protection, alarms; long-and-short-range armed defences plus exploratory and inventive initiatives. You’ve made gardens for food and process clothing from the ground’s chemicals, flora and fauna.” Bonn exploded in a swirl of arms. “I have done

1 March: Sorrento Writers Festival Creative Writing Prize Open to: Australian citizens or residents aged 18 and over, open theme, 2500-3000 words creative writing, entry FREE , prize $5,000 1 March: Liars’ League, ‘Illusion and Confusion’ Unpublished short stories 800-2000 words. Free to enter for this issue but £20 payment from March onwards. No prize, just your work read in a podcast and video, and printed online. 2 March: Mulga Bill: ‘Harvest’ Open to all, short st

“I want to help. Since we landed, when I was a little boy, I know you have made this as comfortable for me as you can. You Puter are Mother-roaming beyond the pod. You and Mother have built a very reasonable fort-home with laser protection, alarms; long-and-short-range armed defences plus exploratory and inventive initiatives. You’ve made gardens for food and process clothing from the ground’s chemicals, flora and fauna.” Bonn exploded in a swirl of arms. “I have done

Daniel twitched just slightly as he sat waiting for her. She was a bit late having to finish her chores on the family station. Penrose was the largest property in the area for her family had been in this region since the mid-30s. It had grown decidedly since her grandfather first posted as his squat with only a handful of sheep and sheer bloody-mindedness. His people had been here forever but the family spoke about how their grandfather had been a breaker on cattle propert

Last meeting For the inaugural meeting for 2026, we picked the theme ‘innocence’. As ever, the prompt elicited wildly differing takes from everyone, and demonstrated that one thing none of us are innocent of is a spur-of-the-moment quirky idea. Enjoy the stories and mini-prompts here . Member successes David Gairdner recently wrote and directed a short film, Hiccups , which we are looking forward to seeing soon! I hope to share a link in our next newsletter. In Decemb

Listed by closing date. 1 February: Stringybark Open Award 2026 Open themed, linked to Australia. Award pool of over $1420 in cash. Entry fee $15. 1 February: The Masters Review Winter Short Story Award for New Writers US based competition, no theme, 6,000 words, with a top prize of $3,000 USD. Entry fee $20 USD. For emerging writers, online publication and agency review. 3 February: 2026 Calibre Essay Prize Open to all essayists writing in English. AU$10,

The man peered over the edge of the station platform. The tracks stretched far away in either direction, converging at a distant horizon, eventually dissolving into a fog which seemed more like a memory than a mist. Everything was daubed in shades of grey, as if the world was bathed in ashen light. The air had a texture, almost palpable, settling on the palate with a thin, metallic zest. The atmosphere was eerie. Peaceful, yet hummed with mystery. A train rolled by with an un

Tiny creatures wriggle beneath Bonn’s feet. Brown; deep maroon; iridescent blue that turns invisible. “Puter, how does this happen?” “Its blue sheen/scales leave your visual range. It is well seen through ultra-violet. A mechanism to survive and hunt in the soil” Puter proposes. “There is so much loss with my senses that is there for you to see” Bonn quips. “Yes, I sense night waves I know you can’t see. Solar UV and IR radiation. There are creatures roaming this

1096 ‘Sister Magdalena is not back from her rounds. We cannot lock the outer gates.’ ‘There is no-one to watch them. They must be locked.’ ‘Sister…’ ‘They must be locked.’ You breathe deeper, reigning down the cries behind your ribs. ‘I will watch them. Give me the keys.’ The whites of the Abbess’s eyes appear around the winter blue. ‘Give you the keys?’ You bow, and stay bowed, praying that Humility will speak for you, for Magdalena. After a small eternity, y

‘I'm innocent,’ said little Timmy. ‘I don't think so’, said the teacher. ‘Yep it wasn't me’. ‘Wasn't you who did what?’ 'Stole the money out of your draw and pulled Jemma's hair’. ‘Look you little drop kick, it's time to own up to your bad behaviour.’ ‘But I don't have bad behaviour.’ ‘Ha! are you joking? But you're right it's not bad it's abysmal!’ The other five-year-olds looked on in amazement and stunned silence. ‘Look Timmy Johnson that money was mine.' ‘Mine too.' ‘No i

The circumstance of his predicament was judgier than his preoccupation for procrastination and protestation. Not knowing his own level of self-importance and ability to talk absolute bull shit, he looked upon the other occupants of the life raft with derision and disgust just as he struggled to understand their predicament. The land, just peeking over the horizon, was coming closer with every stroke of the oars as they pulled in unison. Well, one side pulled in unison whilst

May you not know fear Nor taint your heart to outweigh The truthful feather

When I was about 10 years old there were a number of different issues that I was learning to navigate. For adult women there was a preoccupation with feminism and equal treatment. For men there was an obsession with being known for ‘having a big one’, though, as a 10 year old in a conservative catholic family, I wasn’t completely sure about what it was a big one of. And for me, the big question was, what on earth was the Ford F150 supposed to be? The F150 was big by 1982 stan