Laura Besley
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laurabesley.bsky.social
Laura Besley
@laurabesley.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.9K following 920 posts
Lover of coffee, chocolate, reading & writing
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Laura Besley @laurabesley.bsky.social · Nov 7
I am absolutely delighted to have a new story out - Love (a journey) - with Fictive Dream. Huge thanks to editor Laura whose dedication to short fiction is phenomenal.
#fiction #flashfiction #amwriting #writingcommunity
fictivedream.bsky.social Fictive Dream @fictivedream.bsky.social · Nov 7
"After we sign the divorce papers, my soon-to-be ex-husband and I decide to go for lunch." Love (a journey) by Laura Besley @laurabesley.bsky.social #flashfiction #readingcommunity #writingcommunity. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/07/l...
fictivedream.com
laurabesley.bsky.social
The last sunrise of 2025 over a frosty wintery scene. May you all have a wonderful 2026 full of health, happiness, and peace.
#HappyNewYear #2026
December 31, 2025 at 10:17 AM
laurabesley.bsky.social
I just sent off my last submission for 2025. Good luck to everyone winging their words out there today, or any day - it's an act of love & rebellion!
#amwriting #writingcommunity #2025 #words
December 31, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
zenith-and-blade.bsky.social
Presenting some of my favorite reads in 2025! (Including awesome indies by @moewanders.bsky.social, @nicksnapeauthor.bsky.social, @luketarzian.bsky.social & @barrykgregory.bsky.social) Very satisfied with 2025.💙📚

zenandblade.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/m...
My Bests Of 2025
I read 75 stories this year (including manga, short stories, novellas, etc.) There were a lot of great, unexpected finds in 2025! Here’s a roundup of some of my favorites. Everything is Epic …
zenandblade.wordpress.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
paintbuywords.bsky.social
#vss365 #prompt for 

December 31, 2025

is #Dream

Because of course it is

I think it’s THE most critical word & concept of human creativity.

Yes dogs dream too and cats & pigs & ants, bacteria?

The point is art

Without dreams, thoughts, feelings

Is there art?
December 31, 2025 at 8:03 AM
laurabesley.bsky.social
Woo - I got my entry into the Welkin Mini ✨ Huge thanks, as always, to the wonderful @mattkendrick.bsky.social for running such a great competition! And to anyone who's not yet entered, the deadline is: 2nd Jan, stories up to 100 words. Go, go, go!
www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-prize...
December 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
gonelawn.bsky.social
Four days to submit your micro-excerpt (≤200 words) from your novel-in-progress or wayside-novel (or novella)!

Yes, it's difficult, yes it's on purpose, na nah!

gonelawn.net/journal/glj_...
Gone Lawn : Submission Guidelines
gonelawn.net
December 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
laurabesley.bsky.social
Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating! ✨️
December 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
How disruptive could a talking parrot possibly be on Christmas day? Read on to find out!
#fiction #flashfiction #christmas
Die Hard with a Parrot
open.substack.com/pub/westword...
Die Hard with a Parrot
A Flash Fiction by Louise Johnston
open.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
adamcsharp.bsky.social
I once heard a cutting assessment of someone’s intellect in Argentinian Spanish that went jugas al tetris y giras el cuadradito. It means “you spin the square tile on Tetris.”
December 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
'Fancy Wu watches her daughter head towards the climbing frame.' A wonderful exploration of memory, altered memory, and mirroring by @drhannahstevens.bsky.social @fictivedream.bsky.social
#fiction #microfiction #writingcommunity
fictivedream.com/2025/10/13/m...
MicroMonday #28
A Micro-Second of Silence by Hannah Stevens  Fancy Wu watches her daughter head towards the climbing frame. The play park is busy. She watches as her daughter clambers up the metal ladder, run…
fictivedream.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
grantamag.bsky.social
Granta magazine is now on Substack. Follow to receive exclusive material, starting with Granta staff’s recommendations on the best books they read this year.

grantamag.substack.com/p/a-year-in-...
A Year in Reading, Granta Staff Picks
Granta Staff looks back on what we've read in 2025.
grantamag.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
adamcsharp.bsky.social
The most brutal way of telling someone they’re a few sandwiches short of a picnic that I’ve heard in French is t’es pas la truite la plus oxygénée de la rivière. It means “you’re not the most oxygenated trout in the river.”

* read on for similar insults from around the world (a thread)…
December 19, 2025 at 12:28 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
'A few flakes fall slowly through the sky as the green Outback pulls into the lot.'
Such an interesting story full of intrigue and hidden depths, as if the snow muffles words as well as footsteps.
By Stuart Ziarnik @retreatwest.bsky.social
#fiction #flashfiction
open.substack.com/pub/westword...
Douglas Fir
A Flash Fiction by Stuart Ziarnik
open.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:37 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
'I’m fixing to cash out at the Casino in Wetumpka when a two-for-one from Ancestry.com bleeps on my phone.'
Unexpected, but inevitable twists in this cracker by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social
#fiction #flashfiction
Striking it lucky at the Wind Creek Casino
open.substack.com/pub/westword...
Striking it lucky at the Wind Creek Casino
A Flash Fiction by Cole Beauchamp
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
sanjar.bsky.social
📣 On my penultimate day at the helm of #vss365, I’m aware of what a privilege this has been.

From 16–31 December, the talented @paintbuywords.bsky.social will take the prompts forward, posting daily at 8 AM GMT.

Thank you for meeting the prompts so generously! It’s been a joy to read along.✨🪶
December 14, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
nomad-sw18.bsky.social
Well that was so much fun, I wish we could do it all over again!

Brilliant to see all you lovely flash people, meet @pleomorphic2.bsky.social's family, hear the most touching mother-daughter duet ever, celebrate my writing bestie 👏🏼👏🏼 and hear her fantastic NiF MOTHER KARMA. Order link below ⏬️
pleomorphic2.bsky.social Sumitra Singam, your friendly local Dragon-Scorpion @pleomorphic2.bsky.social · Nov 28
Hey hi what might you be doing on Saturday Dec 13 3pm EST/8pm BST? Want to launch a NiF with me? Hosted by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social and featuring @kathrynreese.bsky.social (and yes also me). It’ll be fun!

Preorder phx (US only) and ebook: jakethemag.com/books/

us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Picture of the cover of my novella-in-flash Mother Karma. Ochre yellow background with a line drawing of a woman with a bindi and her hair in a bun holding a baby. The lettering is “Mother Karma a Novella-in-flash” above the picture and below the picture Sumitra Singam (which is me, that is my name. On the cover of an actual BOOK)
December 14, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
pleomorphic2.bsky.social
Hey hi what might you be doing on Saturday Dec 13 3pm EST/8pm BST? Want to launch a NiF with me? Hosted by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social and featuring @kathrynreese.bsky.social (and yes also me). It’ll be fun!

Preorder phx (US only) and ebook: jakethemag.com/books/

us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Picture of the cover of my novella-in-flash Mother Karma. Ochre yellow background with a line drawing of a woman with a bindi and her hair in a bun holding a baby. The lettering is “Mother Karma a Novella-in-flash” above the picture and below the picture Sumitra Singam (which is me, that is my name. On the cover of an actual BOOK)
November 28, 2025 at 10:19 AM
laurabesley.bsky.social
What a lovely idea, Matt! Thanks, as always, for being such a wonderful supporter/inspiration in the Writing Community.
I'd like to nominate (if I'm not too late) @ruthabrandt.bsky.social @jupiterjonz.bsky.social & @chriscottom.bsky.social
#fiction #flashfiction #writingcommunity
mattkendrick.bsky.social Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · 24d
Who wants something nice for a weary Wednesday? Quote post this post & tag 1, 2 or 3 other writers who inspire you / support you / are amazing human beings. I'll pick a winner at random. Poster + nominees win a free recording of one one of my workshops: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/workshop-rec...
Workshop-recordings (List) | MattKendrick.co.uk
www.mattkendrick.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Reposted by Laura Besley
sanjar.bsky.social
At vespertine hour, when tired feet find shelter & the routine mask slips away, we become afterlight seekers. Dusk nudges the tongue, letting slivers of inner weather thicken into ink. There, the mind at last has room to say what it has carried all day.

#vss365 #prompt December 4 #vespertine
December 4, 2025 at 8:01 AM
laurabesley.bsky.social
There is so much going on in this story, so many threads, so many people, but all of it driving driving to that ultimate inevitable conclusion that simply roars.
Fantastic work by @sagetyrtle.bsky.social
#fiction #flashfiction #writingcommunity
yourimpossiblevoice.com/a-list-of-th...
A List of the Reasons Women Feel Shame | Your Impossible Voice
By Sage Tyrtle — "The bus driver brakes hard and I stumble, my 37 weeks pregnant belly stumbles, my whole big self stumbles into a woman in a baseball hat who mutters fat bitch and I open my mouth to ...
yourimpossiblevoice.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
'Apparently Andy’s hungry and the heart-to-heart is over. I’m fine with this. We’re practical people.
“Why not?” I say. “Getting your heart broken’s hungry work.”'

Great moment of connection between these characters.
#fiction #flashfiction

Hash Browns flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2025/12...
Hash Browns
I’ve slept in some badly made places but this building is next-level flimsy. This is where you stay when the girl in the band (that’s me) wants her own room for once and Motel 6 is too expensive. B…
flashfictionmagazine.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
laurabesley.bsky.social
This story travels physically as well as through hearts and minds. Beautiful, surprising, heartbreaking.
Ọbáfẹ́mi Thanni in Flash Fiction Magazine
#fiction #flashfiction #writingcommunity #readingcommunity

Dreams flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2025/12...
Dreams
I see my grandmother twice every year. New Year and Salah.  Her house is a plain, single-story building in Akobo with gray screeded walls. Colors left the house when my grandfather died. Cream…
flashfictionmagazine.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
flashfrog.bsky.social
We are SO excited to announce the details for our 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize! And thrilled and honored to welcome @camilleuadams.bsky.social 💙🐸

flash-frog.com/contest/
A blue flier announcing contest details: The 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize. Theme: “Family”. Guest Judge: Camille U. Adams. Jan 1st - 31st. $5 per story. $700 in prizes. On the left is a picture of Camille U Adams surrounded by trees with yellow leaves. Below the photo is the Flash Frog logo (a frog with glasses trying on a typewriter)
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
ericscottryon.bsky.social
‼️ Contest details are up!! 👇🏼👇🏼
flashfrog.bsky.social Flash Frog @flashfrog.bsky.social · Dec 2
We are SO excited to announce the details for our 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize! And thrilled and honored to welcome @camilleuadams.bsky.social 💙🐸

flash-frog.com/contest/
A blue flier announcing contest details: The 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize. Theme: “Family”. Guest Judge: Camille U. Adams. Jan 1st - 31st. $5 per story. $700 in prizes. On the left is a picture of Camille U Adams surrounded by trees with yellow leaves. Below the photo is the Flash Frog logo (a frog with glasses trying on a typewriter)
December 2, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Laura Besley
stewartbint.bsky.social
“Thank you, Marie. You’ve given me Christmas.”
Check out my December magazine column, which is a little heartwarming Christmas story.
December 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM