Anna Tizard

What's new in the Brainstoryum #podcast & what do YOU think?

* Short story publishing call-outs

* New webpage (coming soon!) to showcase YOUR stories

* New categories of interpretation for the 2nd round of story brainstorms, delving deeper into the randomised #writing prompts👀⬇️

My published works. From time to time, a poem or story finds a home beyond this site. I keep track of those moments here. This space also holds what’s next, from ebooks to limited edition print projects. Limited Edition ...

The Last Smuggle
Limited to 30 signed and numbered copies.

26 copies remaining.
$20 shipped in the U.S.

International: See my author site for details.

Details → www.madp03t.org/published/

#selfpublished #indieauthor #scifi #shortstory #limitedrun #writing

Technically, this is not free verse. Oops. :)

Bare mattress, cracked pane
Overdue notices in heat
Hunger posing as romance
Exile packaged for tourists
Meaning warped by money
Ink before steady pay
Accident never, choice this is
Nomad heart in the street

#freeversefebruary #poetry #bohemian

Good grief, today was UNBELIEVABLY TEDIOUS.

Anyone else??

The highlight of my day: misreading "sustainability goals" as "sustainability goats". 😆🤔

My brain desperately reaching for something more interesting...

What does a sustainability goat look like, anyway?

Stunning! Speckled just like the snow. 😍🦉

What better way to begin this weekend then with our Writing Better Beginnings panel? Thanks to @hannafordjenny.bsky.social, @philspeculates.bsky.social, @alethearlyons.bsky.social and @annatizard.bsky.social! #writingcommunity #writingadvice #writerslife #writingcraft youtu.be/VCNa34-3-c8

Right, it is time for a new #writing prompt - if you would like your writing to be featured on the next (101st!) Brainstoryum show!

Can you imagine a story (max 250 words) on:

"the mirrored ifrit"?

Either comment or use my "submit" page (see profile for 🔗) Full shout-out included. 🤗✍️

I love writing prompts, so I decided to create one that fits my style. Presenting #AmpersandAfterDark.

Expect phrases, ideas, directions, even things not to do.

New challenges drop Sundays & Wednesdays at 6am Pacific Time.

#writingprompt #poetryprompt #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #writing

#AmpersandAfterDark /:\ Challenge 001 for Feb 15, 2026

Your piece must include two dogs and one parrot.

The parrot must be a menace.

#prompt #writingprompt #poetryprompt #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

The Big Indie Weekend runs between 20th and 22nd February - panels and live chats, plus daily giveaways and the launch of our Patreon. #writingcommunity #indieauthors #readingcommunity @hannafordjenny.bsky.social @alethearlyons.bsky.social @annatizard.bsky.social @philspeculates.bsky.social

Looking out the plane window at white and grey puffy clouds seeping into a blue sky.

layering textures
significance into light
seemingly lucid

#haiku #upintheair ✈️ 🎭

As the Brainstoryum podcast for writers hits its 100th show, a big thank you to everyone who listens, shares and collaborates with me on this weird and wonderful journey we call inspiration. 🙏🥰✍️

annatizard.com/brainstoryum

I just looked her up.

12 feet and 6 heads?

Yep, I'd say that's pretty terrifying!

I need to know... What's your favourite monster in fiction?

Me: The Hollowgasts in The Peculiar Children series give me the heebie jeebies.

(Didn't care for the movie, fairly obsessed with the books.)

You?

#WritingCommunity #Reading

Tomorrow is the 100th episode of my story brainstorming podcast, Brainstoryum. So the choice is between the two pics above, for the logo. 🥰

Which one? Which one?

#writingcommunity #podcast

I can't believe it was an item on BBC Radio 4 this evening that the sun came out "for a few minutes" in Aberdeen today.

🫢🤪

I mean, seriously?

True, many of us Brits have forgotten what sunlight looks like by now, but they make it sound like yhe Scots haven't had any daylight since 2021.

This is so true!

On reflection, if we've been keeping this attitude alive, berating ourselves (I think I have, at least subconsciously), then it means that if we keep learning, we will always be kicking ourselves.

I mean, how crazy is that?!

At work, I'm corresponding with a company who keeps using a grocer's apostrophe (sets my teeth on edge!). They've now just mistyped "altercation" instead of "alteration".

Steady on! 🫢😆

The next Big Indie Weekend takes place 20th to 22nd February on Spotlight Indie. Here's a rundown of the panel line up for day one: Friday 20th February #writingcommunity #writingcraft #indieauthors #authorevent #writersevent

ICYMI Fictive Dream is open for submissions of contemporary #shortstories #flashfiction #microfiction and #translations #callforsubmissions. Please click on the link below for our guidelines... fictivedream.com/submission-g...

My enemy lives in the attic,
his clogs a constant static

I hide in my fancy’s basement,
letting music rise and flow

to blur the echo
of the mind’s
“I told you so.”

#FreeVerseFebruary #enemy #writing #writingcommunity
@daveashleypoet.bsky.social

wistful for lost love
craving the many lost lives
life never refunds love

#Emoetry #Wistful #Senryu #Haiku #Poetry #Micropoetry

Right, folks!

24 hours left to be part of this.

Write, folks! 😁✍️⚡️

#writingcommunity #vss

Whoop whoop! Getting ready for some real story magic as @madp03t.bsky.social writes for the next Brainstoryum...🥰✍️

(Which is the 100the episode, btw! 🤯)

#vss #writing

a woman is standing in a doorway surrounded by smoke and fog . ALT: a woman is standing in a doorway surrounded by smoke and fog .

Writing prompt option no. 3:

"The long-clawed banshee."

(Right, this one sounds like it could get ugly!)

Whichever you choose, either reply in the comments or go to annatizard.com/submit (no swearing or gore please).

Be creative, flex your imagination & show off yr talent!

a field of yellow flowers with butterflies flying around ALT: a field of yellow flowers with butterflies flying around

Writing prompt option no. 2:

"The drunken flowerbed."

(OK, so this IS weird... but that's what you get when you use a surrealist word game to generate prompts! How stretchy is your imagination? Can you yoga this word combo into an idea?)

OR try a third & final option ⬇️⬇️

a person is holding a piece of paper in their hand . ALT: a person is holding a piece of paper in their hand .

Writing prompt option no. 1:

"The hungry handkerchief."

(Yes, it's bonkers, and extremely random! That's the point of the show 😉. The question is, can your imagination take this somewhere, into a story idea?)

Give it some thought... OR try another option... ⬇️⬇️

#vss

Would you like your flash fiction to be a part of the 100th episode of Brainstoryum (story brainstorming podcast)?

I'll read it out in my English accent😁 with a full shout-out too (so listeners can find you).😉

Just write max 250 words on your choice of 3 #writing prompts.⬇️⬇️

I am shortly coming up to the 100th episode of Brainstoryum! 🤯(Cannot believe it.)

Has Brainstoryum inspired you? Given you any writing tips that have stuck with you, and helped you along the way?

Any feedback welcome. Please comment here or on my contact page *by Fri 6th Feb*