Whatcha Up To?:

• Shout out to subscribers (More Below).
• Pieces Publishing Soon (More Below).
• You may have noticed there were no rejection in October (More Below).

Subscriber Shout Out!

First, thank you all for being here. I appreciate you. It’s much more fun to shout into friendly faces than to shout out to the void…wait, that’s not what I meant. Whatever, you get it! I want to send a particular shout out to Andrew, a new subscriber who’s been consistently sending me his five-minute writing prompts and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying each one. Check these out:

“fish scales sparkled“:

It was warm on this day in 1990. The Burundian fish farmer was using my net to gather the tilapia in the pond I helped them build. It was the farmer’s first harvest and all his neighbours and family were there. After each pass through the pond we untangled the small fish – much too small, we were too high up for Tilapia, we threw the collected fish on the bank. Their scales sparkled in the sun as they flopped. By the end of the afternoon the scales were off and the fish were given away or eaten. And we started the cycle again.

“and then he“:

And then he said, quite suddenly – ”Look at the old buses!”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
”At the bus stop over there. He pointed across the park. Indeed, there were a couple of old buses at the stop. They looked like they were from the ’50, or ’60s. Maybe escapees from a museum.
”Some sort of parade or something. I’ll look it up.” Mark got his phone out and fumbled with it. He was terrible at such things. It took him forever to get anything out of it.
After a minute he practically shouted – it’s 106 heritage day!”
”What is that?”
”Dunno. But the buses are cool, innit?” For once there was a smile on his gace. It was worth the walk over o the stop to get a better look as they wound their way down the

“fourth word”:

I only heard every fourth word come through the scratchy radio. Hip, throat, foot. What linked them? Something about a body – but whose? For some reason only nouns came in clearly. Why not verbs? I suspected – what? They were so far away up there on the moon. I couldn’t help them even if I understood what was happening. And the company had no real evacuation plans anyway. All I could do was to give encouragement and in the worst case scenario call their loved ones on Earth and give the bad news. But the company didn’t care about any of this, as long as the money rolled in. I needed to get out of this business. HR for a lunar mining corp was maybe not my cup of tea, even if they paid pretty well. And the benefits – nothing to sneeze at. Another words came in – mouth. Then arm I heard a

Andrew Cunningham lives in London in the UK. He works in the humanitarian aid sector and dabbles in academia researching authoritarianism. He has stories out, or forthcoming, in Sci-Fi Lampoon, Amazing Stories, and Sci-Fi Shorts.

Pieces Publishing Soon!

Keep your eye out for my pieces coming on November 19 in LitMag News with Becky Tuch, Wonderings with Laura Munson on Substack (not positive on release date), NUNUM Done in a Hundred Anthology December 2026, and Permafrost sometime this month in their online issue.

Rejectionless in October?

No, I was not rejectionless in October, but pretty close. I only received one rejection in October, and it just seemed too lonely to send it out. At first, I thought I’d combine it with the two acceptances I got in October, but that felt wrong too. So now, I don’t know…maybe combine it with any November rejections I get? I’m just not sure. But here’s the rub: you only get rejections if you have things out on submission, and I don’t currently have much out on submission (only 14 pieces as of now) because I’ve been spending time 1) writing new stuff and 2) taking the old stuff and deciding what might be worth saving by bringing to my writing group for input.

November Timed Writing Prompt Available Now!

Want a chance to have your work featured on my website, social media, Patreon and Substack accounts? Send me your unedited, timed writing response for your chance to be featured! Find the latest prompt on Patreon or Substack.

Monthly Book Talks!

Love to read but never know what to pick up? Check out my monthly videos for my local Thompson Falls Public Library here. Remember to Subscribe for free so you never miss one. Book talks: like book club, but shorter.

Readings

Did you know I occasionally remember to record readings of my published pieces. You can check out the latest one here. Be sure to Subscribe so you don’t miss the next one!

Please forward this to those you think may enjoy it. As always, thanks for joining me. I appreciate you’re here.

NOTE: You can email me directly at sunday (at) sundaydutro (dot) com