S&S: Thursday 16/10/25

Our Thursday Surgery & Social sessions at the Letsxcape café (worth coming along just to see the board-gamers in action!) are more informal meetings. We talk about where we are with our various WIPs and some of us might read an excerpt of something we’re working on. Some of us might read a piece of flash fiction as framed by the latest prompt. As well as tucking into writing (and reading) conversations, we drink beverages, eat cake, and wonder whether Nick is miraculously going to turn up from his home in France (he did this week!).

So here’s just a snippet of some of the action (in time-stamp order) from the Surgery & Social of 16th October 2025. Present were Lynn, Linda, Brennig, Alice, Mark, Isaac and – all the way from France – Nick!

There were some random conversations about a squirrel, the French for a ball-joint, the Slider subredit (it’s r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix – I had to check). Then we got around to talking about where we are with things.

Mark. completed the 1st draft of novel No 1 (a great-sounding fictitious collection of people in a peculiar village), and is working on a draft of novel No 2 (a historical piece very much based in the real world)

Linda. IoW (you had to be there for the joke to land) and stuff getting in the way of writing

Brennig. Airfield campaign, building websites (inc this one), the pornographic novel is on hold, the romcom novel is progressing, the fantasy-world novel is progressing now the dog character has been sorted

Alice. Gigs! Some ice-hockey dude. Duckworld inspiration

Lynn. Visit to London (a mythical place I don’t believe exists in the real world). Victorian murder mystery

Isaac. Musical/album podcast (sounded really interesting!). Did the Manchester half marathon (congrats). Has written a piece of flash based on the last prompt (The Wrong Thursday)

Readings:

Nick read ‘Items Found In An Envelope Belonging To Cadaver (reference number)’ Isaac read his flash fiction inspired by the ‘The Wrong Thursday’ prompt. Linda read her ‘The Wrong Thursday’ flash fiction. Alice read another excerpt from her fantasy-world WIP.

If you’re interested in coming along to the next Surgery & Social, it is at Letsxcape Café, on 20th November at 7.30pm – or 19.30 if you prefer. The prompt. if flash fiction is your thing is: ‘in bocca al lupo‘ OR ‘into the wolf’s mouth’. It’s an Italian phrase which literally means (Lynn says) something like ‘break a leg’, a way to wish someone good luck when doing something tricky. Feel free to write your flash in English or Italian.

We’ll be down in the basement of Letsxcape Café (not as gloomy as it sounds!).