Clan Destine Press Blog

A sneak book peek into Clan Destine Press' award-nominated Present Tense by Natalie Conyer. "The mountain didn’t care. It was there before they came and would be there after they left, long after the lights of the city it held in its arms had flickered and died. All they could do in the meantime was to live beneath it as best they knew how." Natalie Conyer: I like this quote because it tells me something special about Cape Town, where my book is set. One of the main features of the town is Table Mountain, and that mountain, it just...

Fidelia placed Samuel Johnson on the chair – a hard but utilitarian way to augment her height to desk level – plucked a sheet of parchment from the heavy desk drawer, struck a match to light the candle and loaded the pen with ink from the well. She had had the A, B, C, F and H sayings in her head most of the day and was eager to get them down on paper.She knew how to help the flustered man in Billings Bookstore. During the afternoon, while she sat on the rise of Parliament House, she had gazed down...

By Narrelle M Harris Any skill improves when you practise it, and we've all discovered that in non-writing ways. Writing is exactly like knitting, painting, ju-jitsu, public speaking, riding horses, driving cars, mathematics, running marathons, learning computer code, becoming a doctor (they call it 'practising medicine' for a reason!). If you're like me, you probably made wonky things in woodwork and crochet before getting the knack. And the knack was just making enough time to practise skills, perhaps with a little guidance, before making a cupboard, or a scarf. We even learned to read through practise: we begin with Dr...

By Stephen Johnson My first murder. Thinking of sneaky ways to kill, without being caught, was a weird experience for a television news and sports producer. During my career, I encountered a few candidates for justifiable homicide – TV executives, politicians, businessmen – but no thoughts beyond that. The daily news bulletins I produced regularly dealt with death: wars, famines, murders, accidents. It was at a distance, seen via the camera lens. Did I have the killer instinct to take a human life? In a literary sense. My hitman skills didn’t extend beyond swatting flies and squashing mozzies. The speed...

Truly, if you don't come back here every week to see what others have written for a prompt, you're missing gold. Each week I see them (both here and later in the week at Improbable Press), and each week I'm grinning like a fool at the magic made with a few words. It takes so little to imagine so much and whether the stories are 50 words or in the case of last wee 580 perfect jewels, they're proof positive again and again and again how unique and precious is creativity. We can all hear the words pride parade and...