In his youth, Gilham could backflip like a circus performer.
These days he might pull a muscle simply getting out of bed.
“What did Dave say?” Brian asks. In his hand, a rock.
“I know what you did,” Gilham says.
“Shame.”
Gilham’s reaction is slow. The rock cracks his head.
…
This is the twenty-first in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 37. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
If he wasn’t so old, drunk, and beset with knee problems, Gilham might have considered fleeing.
But he’d never run away from danger before.
Why start now?
Brian was younger, fitter, less intoxicated than he.
But Gilham would fight if he had to.
He steps forward.
“What do you want?”
…
This is the twentieth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 35. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
There is, what at first looks like, a pile of clothes on the clifftop bench overlooking the ocean.
He squints.
A head pops out, gopher-like, from the bundle.
“Hello Gilham,” it says.
It takes his fuddled brain a moment.
“Brian.”
Gilham suddenly wishes he’d taken the long walk home.
…
This is the nineteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 35. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
Chloe is locking The Dye Pot door as Gilham stumbles past.
They chat for a minute before she heads home to Molly.
He meanders on.
The walk along the windswept clifftop path is sobering.
The waves crash against the rocks below.
He wonders what it would feel like to fall.
…
This is the eighteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published 6 stories on Hive (numbers 29-34). On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
According to Gilham, the world was created in an asylum for crazy gods.
“The universe makes sense,” he says. “When you realise it is simply the ravings of insane deities.”
“Drink up, foolish old man,” Molly chuckles. “Go home. Take that smelly coat with you.”
Gilham drains his pint, smiling.
…
This is the seventeenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 27. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
Chloe stands in the doorway holding Gilham’s old coat.
“No.”
“It smells like rotting flesh.”
“Put it back.”
Gilham loved that old coat.
“My grandmother killed this musk ox with her bare hands,” he’d boast.
Gilham was World Champion of Bullshit.
Molly misses him desperately.
…
This is the sixteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 27. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
Discovering she was also hemophobic she specialised in psychiatry.
After a patient slashed his wrists, a handsome psychiatrist suggested treating her fear of blood with hypnosis.
Cured, his powerful voice enraptured her.
…
This is the fifteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published number 26. On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
John’s old knee injury usually doesn’t bother him, but today he can barely walk.
From the window of the osteopath’s waiting room, he spies his boss kissing a woman.
It’s not Mrs Simmons.
John snaps a photo.
He feels guilty, uncomfortable.
But having something on Mayor Simmons might be useful.
…
This is the fourteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published 6 more Humpbuckle Tale there (so we are up to number 24). On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
At school, before The Incident, he was called The Gopher.
“Need something fetched? Dave’ll go for ya!”
It wasn’t a free service.
Brian befriended him when the enterprise made Dave rich and popular.
After the bridge, everything changed.
Dave lost friends, money and his mind.
Brian made sure of it.
…
This is the thirteenth in the series of Humpbuckle Tales. Each story is precisely 50 words long. They are meant to be independent stories, but if you read them all you will find each one adds another piece to the puzzle – there is a bigger story that is being told.
This story was first published on my Hive blog (@felt.buzz) and you can find all the stories on the @humbuckletales Hive account – at the time of posting this I have just published 6 more Humpbuckle Tale there (so we are up to number 24). On Hive I publish 12 stories per week (Monday to Saturday one story per day and then six 50-word stories in one post on a Sunday).
If you prefer the drip drip drip approach keep coming back here for one 50-word tale every day!
Welcome to Humpbuckle-on-sea! In this small coastal town there are many stories to tell. Humpbuckle Tales will tell them… 50 words at a time.
My name is Bruce, I’m also known as Felt.Buzz. One of my creative passions is writing and I really enjoy writing microfiction: very short stories.
Humpbuckle Tales are tiny stories, comprising only fifty words. They don’t take very long to read (around 10 to 20 seconds!) but they do take quite a long time to write (sometimes several hours).
Each fifty-word story is written to tell a tale independent of the others.
But, as they say, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Each fifty-word story is part of a bigger tale. The characters are linked. The stories are connected.
You’ll find a new fifty-word Humpbuckle Tale every day (Monday to Saturday) on the Hive blog and on Sunday there will be six new fifty word stories.
You will also find the stories here, at humpbuckletales.com, one story per day, 7 days a week.
If you are watching this on YouTube and like the video please give it a thumbs up (if you hate it feel free to give it a thumbs down).
Let me know in the comments what you liked and what you didn’t. Can you see how these stories may be linked? Let me know what you think is going on.
Humpbuckle Tales 