The King of Banana Town by Francesca Astraea

Had a slightly... bananas... prompt. Wrote about racketeering. Enjoy!   It wasn’t known as Banana Town when Gus moved there. The town, that is. It wasn’t known as much – just a crossroads with some houses, a petrol station and one of those everything-and-anything grocery shops. If it had a name, Gus scrubbed it out …

Manifested by Francesca Astraea

Rosie's life as an up-and-coming YouTuber is hectic, filled with long days and hard work, fuelled by caffeine and desperation. When she starts to forget where she's been, she thinks she's pushed herself too far. But is something sinister at play? Content warnings: blood.   Rosie was late. She wasn’t sure how it happened; one …

Connection Error by Francesca Astraea

Ines' magic specialises in helping people communicate. Getting them to listen, on the other hand... A few of weeks ago you guys voted for 'poison' to be my next topic, so here it is! (An aside which none of you give a shit about: I nicked [character spoiler] from the Philosophy Tube YouTube channel, and …

Reset. by Francesca Astraea

  Take a deep breath and swap a truth for a truth. Rumour had it, the woman lived in a tree.   Rumour had it, she used to be a tree. Wait, no, she was still a tree.   Rumour had it, if you visited her on the right day, she would exchange a truth …

The Balanced Scales Agency by Francesca Astraea

The Balanced Scales Agency looked from the outside like every private investigator’s office in every film or TV show ever made about private investigators. Its shopfront was a faded green, tucked between two large, corporate, glassy buildings in London’s Square Mile. How it hadn’t been subsumed by developers yet, Bradley Henderson had no idea. Bradley’s …

Day Trip by Francesca Astraea

I wrote this little vignette as a response to a challenge my friend Tatchiana Michaela put on her Instagram. Essie didn’t love boats, but she had told herself she wouldn’t love hot-sun holidays either, so she knew she should give the boat trip a go. Half a day around the Mediterranean island she was staying …

Modern Loneliness by Francesca Astraea

This was inspired by Lauv's song, Modern Loneliness, and by a lot of things I've been thinking about lately. The Post Office Neville ‘Are you waiting to post an item or buy stamps?’ The girl at the post office was young, although everyone looked young to Neville these days. He housed a sneaking suspicion that …

The Thief in the Night by Francesca Astraea

This is a commission for my friend Robyn. Her prompt: What is the least convenient personal habit for a detective? Write about that detective. Quigley Thompson had only been Junior Security Guard at Meadowlark Conservation Park and Society for three weeks, so he really wasn’t sure what to do with the woman in the staffroom. …

The Queen of Stormhaven (a Three Kingdoms story) by Francesca Astraea

Oh, you’re looking for a prologue? To The Princess and the Dragon and Other Stories About Unlikely Heroes? You find it, along with the rest of the book, on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and various other retail and library services. BUY AND/OR BORROW HERE

Fraternising with the Enemy by Francesca Astraea

This is a commission for my patron Sarah, who sent me this prompt:  ‘So you’re saying that you want me, a villain, to help you catch another villain? That makes no sense.’ Two colleagues met in the second-worst greasy spoon in the downtown area. The other customers were an alcoholic ex-radio DJ and a family …