Sunday 19 May 2013

First Flash Fiction

 
I went to a writing workshop at No 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, the birthplace of Dylan Thomas on 27 October 1914. It will be his 100th birthday next year and parties are already planned in Swansea and afar to celebrate. The house has a special atmosphere and has been carefully restored to how it would have been when the Thomas family were the occupants in the 1920s.
 
The workshop was part of the Pili Pala Festival literature and music festival held in the Uplands over the last two days to raise money for a charity dealing with drug rehabilitation and alcohol abuse. As part of the workshop, we were given a black and white photograph and asked to apply what we had learnt and write a Flash Fiction. Here's my attempt :
 
The Car
 
The last flames were extinguished on the shell of the burnt out Ford Escort. "Lucky it didn't go over the cliff edge" said one of the two attending police officers. "Log book says registered in 1976. Drug dealers I'd say - don't think Mrs Hyacinth Fogarty would have been at the wheel" The officer took a close look at the twisted metal and pronounced "Insurance write-off, one for the knackers yard...there's stuff in the boot though, Harry." The four hands started sifting through an old Kia-Ora orange squash box full of photographs found underneath a beige duffel coat and an Marks and Spencer navy blue wool fisherman's sweater with a toggle missing. "Movie stars - I love these old black and white images". Harry picked up a faded and slightly soggy white card and read  "Edward Browning - a lifetime achievement award in film cinematography - presented by the British Film Institute 28 November 1980...I didn't expect to find that...wonder how it got here ?"