National Association of Writers
and Groups

Here is the winner of our spooky ghost / horror story NAWG 2025 Autumn 250-word Flash Fiction competition . It ran from Friday 3rd to Friday 31st October, First, second, and third place entries will also be published in Link magazine. See the website HERE The prize of £25 for the winning entry goes to SUSAN KING for her story: RUSSIAN ROULETTE. I dread this day. Pumpkins with grinning faces and kids running about dressed as ghosts. Ghosts don’t wear costumes, they’d know that if they’d seen one. I can cope with all that – it’s the knocking on doors blackmailing adults into giving them treats that frightens me. Don’t they know how dangerous this is? Agnes has a bucket of Cadbury Heroes by the door. Her children have grown up and left home which is a relief to me, I can tell you I want to yell at the little ones who stand with expectant faces when she opens the door. Bugger off, I want to shout. But of course, I can’t. You can’t imagine the horror of watching her fill her syringe and pierce the wrapper of a chocolate bar, plunging the needle into the gooey inside and withdrawing it empty. You don’t know what it’s like to watch helpless as she smiles and hands out the sweets. She’s not daft enough to poison each one. For her it’s a game of Russian roulette. She waits for the post on the village Facebook page. She reads the hundreds of messages of sympathy with glee, scrolls slowly through emojis of crying faces, pink hearts and praying hands. She notes the date of the funeral and gets out her dark clothes. It’s the same black dress and coat she wore my cremation. A human black widow spider, she dispensed with me after our children were born. It’s just other people’s children she dislikes.

(Friday 19th December 8PM online) 

Tuesday 30th December 7PM online 

(copyright BBC) The BBC 500 Words Competition is open for entries. Make sure you submit your stories before 9pm, Friday 7 November. There are two age categories: 5-7 and 8-11 year-olds and spelling, punctuation and grammar are not marked - as has always been the case for 500 Words, it's all about our writers' brilliant creativity! There are prizes to be won - each winner will take home a bundle of books and the gold winners will also win 500 books for their school library. All the details on the BBC Bitesize website here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/topics/ce5jljmy5ljt

We're sad to hear that one of our patrons dies, aged 88

Members can go to the Members Only page (you'll need the password) and read stories that were a little too long to fit in the normal Link magazine - see the section marked 'Fiction Special' --> HERE

The 30th AGM is on Saturday 6th September at 2:00 pm.