176 Stories (500-1000 words)

156 Highlights (50-100 words)

111 Authors, Writers & Poets

A great way to spend coffee breaks for weeks to come

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NZ65PMP

​US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P4M8LL5
​

All three Kindle editions of Travel Stories and Highlights will be available for only 99c/99p each during the next week (Tuesday 12th - Monday 18th February).

If you haven’t already got a copy of these fantastic compilations, now is your chance.

This is an offer that will not be repeated.

Follow the links below to get your copies:

2017 Edition: getbook.at/TravelStories2017
2018 Edition: getbook.at/TravelStories2018
2019 Edition: getbook.at/TravelStories2019

Buy all 3 and save $9.50/£6.50.

Please help support this promotion by sharing on social media.

​IMPORTANT: If you are voting on your phone, please scroll down to the bottom of the Blog page and click on Web view to activate the voting buttons.

AS AN ALTERNATIVE PLEASE USE THIS LINK TO VOTE: https://poll.fm/10165293

With just over an hour left in this year's competition, I have received an entry from Barbara Hunt in Australia. Best of luck in the competition Barbara.

Barbara says, 'I enjoy travelling, particularly to countries where the culture is vastly different to my own. I have had a few successes with flash fiction, short stories, memoir, and essay, but this is the first time I've written a travel piece.'

Flushed with Success 
 
Australian toilets are hotbeds for graffiti artists, so what a pleasant surprise it was when I used the pristine Japanese ‘loos’ at Narita Airport, Tokyo. What fascinated me was the selection of buttons on the handle to the right of the pedestal.

It had ‘spray’ and ‘bidet’ buttons, but the ‘flushing sound’ (dubbed ‘otohime’ – princess sound – after the Japanese folktale of Urashima Tarō) intrigued me.

Music makes white noise to help self-conscious women retain their dignity by masking those undesirable noises.

I did indeed feel like a princess when I emerged, head held high, my indiscretions disguised. 

Underground 

A baby lizard, slithering across the damp wall, froze in its tracks, as I shone my torch over it. The bat, however, decided to continue its meditation. 200 feet beneath the Earth’s surface, I was inside the murky realms of Onandaga Caves.

Reddish-brown stalactites, clung like unlit chandeliers, to the cave’s ceiling. One hollow after another, a hut here, a hermit there, Nature’s sculptures abounded and embellished. Constant drizzle suffused the musty air.
​
The door was the deformity. I pushed at it. Sunlight streamed. I stepped out.  It felt, nothing short, of a rebirth, from the Earth’s womb.