Your Challenges Archives
A Wolf in the Head by Gloria Varley
Snow, deep over my boots, over my knees, a feeling it will swallow me up. My parents are dragging supplies on a sled but there's no room for me to...
One for Murder by Deborah Whelan
My screams ricochet off the corridor walls and I scramble out of Barnaby’s room. I press my forehead against the window and choke back the bile. I don’t have the...
The Death Position by Elaine Bander
“Empty your mind,” said Rami, her voice like golden honey. “Let your thoughts float away like butterflies. Don’t try to control them. Breathe in through your nose, out through your...
Hanging in the Shadows by Susan Cross
As the shutter snapped picture after picture of the interplay of light and shadow in the old oak forest on the night of the full moon, Shawna suddenly dropped her...
Decontamination by Jack Ruttan
Decon Tech William Gibbs blanched at the scene inside the tenement front door. A drug deal gone bad, both sides down shooting. The TV was playing some random sports channel. Snack...
Dye Her In Red by Heidi Joffe
At seven am, only a few students prowled around Ribauld University campus, and as one of them, Anita felt studiously determined to finish her project before the weekend. So far...
Ashes and Dust by Gina MacArthur
Simply beautiful.They were the first words -the only words - that sprang to mind as he looked down at her face. The curve of her nose was perfect. Her eyelashes -wispy...
Such a Change of Fortunes by Deb Loughead
Nothing more satisfying than a fresh block of wood. As promising as a brand new day, awaiting him in its raw form to be transformed, given another chance in a...
Tell Me Not To by Megan Cavon
I click the clothespin open and shut. It's cheaply made and the metal spring is coated with rust. Still, it opens and closes with little complaint. Such an innocuous object,...
Autumn Descent by Diane Wallace
The cornucopia overflowed with mini pumpkins, rose-hips and polished apples. It was flanked on either end of the harvest table by chunky candles and pewter vases filled with wild asters....
Stanley Park by Travis McLean
1983It was a Sunday night and Penelope Lau took the lever in her small palms and began to work at it, triggering the gates that held in the saltwater of...
What's the Frequency Kenneth? by Todd Brown
The investigating officer already knew a lot.For example, he knew the victim had mass, but no energy. On the subject of mass, the Detective knew that the victim was a...
A Man Falls, Burning by Susan Ellis
A man falls, burning. He falls lightly, carelessly, faster than the snowflakes falling with him, streaming smoke. No one sees him fall, with the exception of a dog sleeping curled...
Missing Clayton by Bev Irwin
I don’t like it here. It’s dark. It’s cold. Why doesn’t Mommy come and get me? She knows I don’t like the dark.“Your mommy has to find you,” the man...
Optimist Road by MJ Snyder
The last time I saw my old man, his knuckles were bloody, his face spattered with red freckles. Blood on his mouth too, thanks to my one good punch. His...
Copper and Diamonds by Joanne Coish
I was too late. Blood spread over the floors and ceiling like paint, but in a colour and odour that no one would deliberately choose. Copper, always copper along with...
Scarlet by Jennifer Sterne-Pownall
The knife’s blade flashed as she pulled it from her mother’s chest. It slid out much easier than the child had thought it would, and she fell back against the...
Crimes Seen by Kevin Thornton
“The Problem with blood is that it sticks to your skin,” said Jonathan, in between the screams of the electric saw. Leila glanced down at her naked body, and then...
'Til Death Us Do Part by Karen Janigan
Paula Baker angled her sailboard slight downwind to skirt a ghostly white mass floating in the evening sunset in the middle of Mahone Bay. A sunken tender, she thought, as...
Halloween Taxi Ride by Barbara Baker
"How much further?” I question the driver. “We should be there by now.” “Soon,” his leather finger pokes my thigh. He laughs. I jerk my legs over to the door; press my...
Home Sweet Home by Elisa McRae
Officer Galos pulled into the driveway. He didn’t bother putting the park brake on. The dispatcher had been wrong. His house hadn’t been broken into, as she’d reported. This wasn’t...
Breakup Tweet Challenge: And the winner is...
Our judge, Tabatha Southey, has made her final decision. The winning tweet in the inaugural Breakup Tweet Challenge is......
By Jennifer Goddard
The winner of our first-ever Namedropping Nonfiction Challenge is Jennifer Goddard of Montreal.Entry: Jacqueline swallowed her saliva so she wouldn’t get dehydrated. Perhaps not the best decision, cutting hay alone. The John...
Hunter-Gatherer by Crystal Chan
Entry from the winner of our Edible Nonfiction Challenge, Crystal Chan.Hunter-Gathererby Crystal Chan Montreal, QC I was hunter and gatherer in one. I snarled as I pushed the screwdriver in and...
By Erin Dym
It's hard to believe that you could fall in love over a dense, 400-calorie bagel, but this is a true story. It happened to me and my husband when we...
Yorkshire Puddings and Saran Wrap by Dawn Ruddick
I was reared on TV dinners, and Twinkies. Once, my mom even sent me to school with a cheese sandwich; featuring a Kraft Single, with the plastic wrapper left on. So...
By Tiffany Morris
I've known people who can cook. My roommate would whip up the best soups I've ever eaten, going from sink to chopping board to stove with hummingbird intensity. One soup...
Cold Curry by Phedra Deonarine
She sits on the rough concrete ground outside her backdoor. The ground is uneven with milkweed growing from the cracks. She bunches her faded purple dress around her knees. Her...
How I Learned to Cook by Yutaka Dirks
On my meandering journey into adulthood, newly untethered from the comforts of my suburban family home, I ate a lot of garbage. My roommates and I found free meals around...
Perfection in a Shell by Mary Jane Grant
"Make sure the white part is solid," I instructed my grandfather as he placed the egg onto the over-sized silver spoon and lowered it into the simmering water. "But the...
Picky by Jacqueline Valencia
My ten year old has autism spectrum disorder. He needs to feel in control of his surroundings and a regular routine helps him with that. As he's grown older, he's...
By Kyla Hanington
It was like sex. I mean, drunken sex. I mean, sex with a stranger one night, home from the bar. His home or your home? Whichever is closer. It was,...
George, Neil, Two Chickens and Me by Signe Langford
I gave up meat at 13 as an act of hero worship. George Harrison was vegetarian, so I would be too.Dinner that night was Mother's boiled chicken - something I...
Les Petits Mitrons by Mylène St-Pierre
"You will go into les Abbesses and find Rue LePic. Then, up the street towards Basilique Sacré Cœur. Find a pastry shop called Les Petits Mitrons. Purchase a savory and...
Don't You Like Our Food? by Jorlene Thiessen
The bowl makes a complete circuit, no takers this time around. "What's wrong? Don't you like our food?" It's a standing joke in our family now, but it originated with...
Desperation Scones by Penelope Dewar
During those few fine years of my childhood when we lived in a thatched cottage near one of the oldest inhabited spots in England, I developed a fondness for scones....
Braai by Veronica Sharpe
We call it a Braai. It's the equivalent to a barbecue. The cost of meat is ridiculous in Zimbabwe and therefore, it's a treat. Family gather in the front yard...
Brotherly Reflex by Nina Kabatoff
Nina, help me put the food on the table, my chubby mama yells to my bedroom.I come out wearing a yellow happy face t-shirt, a bothersome training bra and wide-legged...
Lost and Found by Eleanor Thomas
My partner and I strode through the saloon door side by side and paused just inside. The buzz of conversation died like air escaping from a balloon, and dozens of...
Baba's Holopchi by Jo-Ann Samo
Christmas was always an extraordinary time when Baba was alive. My mother, aunt and I would gather a day in advance at the crack of dawn to make holpchi (cabbage...
Risotto by Danielle Gregoire
When we were in love he made me risotto. I was twenty years old and this was the only risotto I knew. He made it with Texas long grain rice....
Mango by Paul Mitchell
The mangoes glistened like gold bullion in the African sun on this desolate stretch of no man's land in Ethiopia. Weary, parched, hungry, in the waning afternoon we had not...
The Pantry by Glynis Sharpe
The Pantry was much bigger once you stepped inside. The enchanting smell of garlic escaped every time the door opened. Food in our home was mostly homemade. Homemade sauces, cookies and...
Maggie Panko's first job
Like many teenaged Canadians, my first job was at McDonald's. Unlike the majority of those same Canadians, I got fired. Back then I wouldn't talk about it. McDonald's was the...
Minted Sacrificial Lamb by Deborah Whelan
It's our third date and Malcolm has invited me to dinner at his apartment in downtown St. John's. I smell mint, rosemary, thyme as he opens the door. Bonus, I...
A Street Meet Food Adventure in Bangkok by Allen McAvoy
It's just past dusk as we round the corner on one of the narrow side streets off Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road and frantically scan the neon-filled, bustling soi for street meat.My...
Girls Versus Janitor by Katrina Johnston
During the winter of 1963, I joined a gang of grade-four girls who plotted schoolyard domination. We laid our sieges upon the ice and snow of Mount View Elementary in...
Inside Out Under a Winter Sky by Chris Nelson
It seemed a reasonable decision at the time. Never having worn skates, joining the company hockey team would be a good way to learn to skate. I thought it odd they'd even...
Marco Polo by Robert Christopher
It was cold at the top of that mountain. They called it the top of the world. My last hunter died and because of that we never got paid. Worse...
Christmas in Japan by Rhonda Collis
In Sendai, Japan, close to the epicentre of the most recent earthquake, winter is very similar to our own in southern Canada with temperatures dipping below freezing and snowfalls that...