This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 4, season 2, for Saturday the fourth of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

The Lemon Spectre

by Elizabeth Guilt

On Saturdays, Bill spent longer than usual polishing the countertop. The Lemon Spectres, exclusive to the hotel, looked their best against the black marble - that faint luminescence, that slight haze clinging to the rim of the glass. The glimmering cocktail was a nightmare to make, and it cost a fortune. But it was endlessly Instagrammable, and that kept the fashionable Saturday night crowds coming.

"Can't you change the recipe?" begged Evan, the only other person who knew the secret ingredient.

"Not without ruining business, no."

Evan grimaced, picked up his sack, and headed to the graveyard to collect the spectres.

---

I don't actually like cocktails all that much - I'm more of a beer person. But some of the drinks I've seen served in London bars have been really visually impressive. And I don't think the souls of the departed are one of the things you have to disclose in ingredients.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 5.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode4

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 3, season 2, for Friday the third of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

We Need To Increase The Budget For The School Water Feature

by Elizabeth Guilt

The three-field system was a way farmers grew food long ago.

Amelia, we don't do that here.

They used three fields: one for...

Amelia! Don't wave that about!

One for spring crops, one for autumn crops...

Amelia, I've warned you already.

One for spring crops, one for autumn crops and one to rest.

Amelia! Turn George back, immediately.

This helped the soil...

No, the bell is a signal for me, not for you.

This helped the soil stay healthy....

Class. Class! Amelia, come right back here. Class?

Ohh.

I'm sorry, George. Let's get you down to the pond for now.

---

I think I should acknowledge a debt to Joyce Grenfell here. I wasn't consciously thinking of her famous sketch when I wrote this, but I think one of the names gives it away.

If you've never heard "George, Don't Do That" I recommend looking it up.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 4.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode3

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 2, season 2, for Thursday the second of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

Choice

by Elizabeth Guilt

"Expect the unexpected," read Melissa. "What does yours say?"

"Happy news is on the way. Oh god, I hope so. Anna, you haven't opened yours."

Anna shrugged. "I don't like them much."

Melissa laughed. "Literally no-one likes them. They're just for the message inside."

They were watching her, so Anna cracked her cookie open.

"Oh my god, Anna, it's blank! Ask for another one!"

"I don't mind."

They were always blank. Tarot cards blurred. Tea leaves formed perfect grids. Once, at a fair, the teller's crystal ball had cracked in two.

Anna smiled. "It's fine. I choose my own fortune."

---

Recently, Graveside Press - the publishers of my novella, A Mortuary For Songs - asked if I had any promotional items for other projects. I made some Drabbletober stickers. Now I'm wondering if I should have made fortune cookies. I really like the idea of writing deeply sinister fortunes to put in them.

Oh, and let me now if you'd like a sticker!

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 3.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode2

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 1, for Wednesday the first of October 2025, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

Putting on the Razzle-Dazzle

by Elizabeth Guilt

"You do know what 'Resistance fighter' means?"

"Don't really need makeup, do we, lads?"

"Your eyeshadow's crap, anyway."

So she explained - skipping the details of light-reflecting concealers, shimmering contour powders, AI facial-recognition algorithms, and the limitations of Government surveillance systems.

"My camouflage makeup means cameras can't process my face."

They made her walk through the Authorised Zone and a camera pinged immediately. She was arrested, and imprisoned.

The Resistance fighters fell about laughing when she came back.

"You? Again?"

She stared them down.

"That was to make sure the Government believes it doesn't work. Now we do it for real."

---

If you've never heard of dazzle camouflage before, I strongly encourage you to look it up. It was used on ships and aircraft around WW1 and was designed not to hide them, but to make it hard to focus on them well enough to attack. Wikipedia has some great photos of lurid paint schemes.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 2.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode1

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of September, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Whispers

---

When my mother died, she gifted me a whisper. Her voice threads through my life.

You can do anything.

I inherited hers, too; the whisper she got from her mother.

A woman is as good as any man.

You can do anything.

They raised me after my father left. They were relieved when I finally grew tired of his bullshit and refused to see him again.

A woman is as good as any man.

My father also gifted me a whisper.

Are you sure?

My mother raised me strong. I can do anything.

You can do anything.

Are you sure?

---

Drabbletober will return to daily episodes for the month of October. If you enjoy these tiny stories, please tell a friend about the podcast - or leave a review, wherever you listen to them.

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you on October the first.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/september1bonus

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of August, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Living on the Face

---

I stumbled blearily down to the water's edge. Which wasn't there.

My eyes snapped open. There should be... shoreline. Waves. A line of uneven wooden posts. We tied our boat up there. So did every other family. The lake couldn't be... gone.

I ran.

"Don't be ridiculous." Mum pointed, and there were the posts, and the lake, just as usual. And a mess of smashed wood swirling in the current. She dropped the teapot, hands flying to her mouth.

"The boat!"

My grandfather lit his pipe and shrugged. "You never listen. My stories are true. And the giant just blinked."

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/august1bonus

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of July, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Rapprochement

---

Everyone remembers Gracie Carousel's wartime radio broadcasts. They cheered us, gave us heart. Even when her husband disappeared, she kept us hoping. Every day.

When Occupation ended, Gracie emerged from hiding, to universal acclaim. Then a newspaper finally found her husband.

They met, grasping each other's hands after twenty years. In front of a thousand reporters. she whispered to him.

"You're not my husband. You're taller. Who are you?"

"A resistance fighter who saw the real Gracie Carousel executed before the war ended. Are you going to rob our country of this happy ending?"

Together, they smiled for the cameras.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of June, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: How I Live My Life According To My Friend Simon's Advice

Simon once told me that you forget things when you walk through doors. I laughed, but he was right.

I started writing grocery lists in the kitchen. When travelling, I packed toiletries in the bathroom.

At work, I preferred to talk to colleagues at my desk so information didn't fall into meeting-room doorways. Eventually, I found it easier to work from home; catch up with friends over Zoom; order my food online.

I pulled my bed into the living room. Then my wardrobe, then a camping stove. A hose. A bucket. I sit at the centre.

And I remember everything.

---

Simon is a real person, by the way, although I don't think he listens to this podcast. He really did tell me about what's known as the Doorway Effect. I haven't quite reached the extremes in this story. Not yet.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/june1bonus

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of May, 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Tea for the Dawn.

Dorothy opens the front door, and sighs. The other cottages - new thatch, smart paint, tightly-locked gates - are all dark at the windows. The village green is empty, and quiet.

Seventy years ago, there'd been crowds; everyone singing and cheering.

Sixty years ago, she'd stayed up all night, and stood swaying and laughing to watch the dancers.

Fifty years. She'd wondered if she'd ever get Annie to sleep with all that racket outside. Forty. She'd woken Annie up and they'd watched together. Thirty, twenty... People move on. Times change.

Dorothy smiles. raises her mug to the dawn, and welcomes the May.

---

It's the first of May. Across the UK, ritual dancers of all kinds will have been up at dawn to dance up the sun, making sure summer returns for another year. Don't forget to say thank you to your local morris team.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/may1bonus

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, released because I felt like it. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Bruisetown.

The town probably had a name on the map, but everyone called it Bruisetown. Its residents were pallid; blue stains across their cheeks, bruises ringing their necks and wrists and sullen eyes. Linger too long on the road, and mottled grey crept across the backs of your hands. Even the sea had a stewed, purple-green tinge.

Occasionally, someone made it out. They would win every bareknuckle fight for miles, taking punch after punch, then collect their prizes and go right back to Bruisetown.

Even stumbling from the ring, they'd stare at our unmarked faces, eyes full of nothing but pity.

---

Recently, I had to do some audio editing, and discovered I couldn't remember how to do even the basics. I thought I'd better put together a Drabbletober episode, just to check I could remember how. If you're listening to this, I guess I did?

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/march28bonus