Deanne Adams
Bio
I love stories. Stories which make me laugh, cry, wince or get angry. Stories which make me care. Most of all, I love helping others tell stories that captivate. Reach me at bestbookyoucan.com or follow me on Facebook.
Stories (13/0)
Think a Teacher's Job Is Easy?
Alright, everyone, settle down! Eyes front. Now. Jade? Now. Phone away. Ben, that chair has four legs: use them all before you fall off again. You were unconscious for a worryingly long time last lesson, remember? No, I know you don't remember. You were unconscious, yes. I was being rhetorical, Ben. Just sit properly, will you?
By Deanne Adams5 years ago in Education
Joker in the Pack
John-Paul was famous for his jokes. One-liners, witty ripostes, impersonations, slapstick, anecdotes, observations—John-Paul had mastered them all. His problem was that his ability to behave appropriately in any given social context was hit and miss, so while he caused a merry riot at his best friend’s wedding, his actions at his great-uncle’s wake resulted in several family members refusing to answer his texts for a month.
By Deanne Adams5 years ago in Humans
Why the World Does Not Owe Your Story an Audience (and How to Find One Anyway)
I want you to ask yourself how many messages you've been bombarded with since you woke up this morning. The first one was probably your alarm, giving you the signal to start your day. If you're like me, you had to receive this message several times before you took action on it. Then your bare feet may have received a message in the form of that autumnal nip, and you knew it would be a 'proper shoes' kind of day.
By Deanne Adams5 years ago in Journal
Old Woman in the Woods
I saw the woman's cat before I saw her, so I knew I’d found the right place. A small, greyish thing that animal was, with glass-green eyes, matted fur and half its right ear missing. Whenever Mother or any of the other women spotted it hanging around the village, they would whistle a few stones past its ears to send it running. Some of the older boys once tried to catch it and put it in the well, but without success, only bitten hands and clawed faces.
By Deanne Adams6 years ago in Futurism
The Best Pie In London
The woman seated at table 12 screamed. She leapt to her feet and dropped her cutlery onto her plate. The fork spattered dark gravy over the crisp table linen. The knife slid off and clattered on the floor. Her high-backed chair teetered for a moment on two legs then toppled backwards. It crashed against the striped floorboards. Every other diner fell silent and turned to look, but she continued screaming. Her husband, fork frozen halfway to his mouth, stared at her.
By Deanne Adams6 years ago in Horror
Footnote on the Lunacy of Public Services
I do not, of course, mean that to have public services is lunatic, I merely wish to comment on the bizarre structures and unwritten operational rules which undermine the smooth running of these services. It is foolish to assume that there is any joined up thinking in such institutions. Heaven forbid that an employee or service user should expect one aspect of the running of a school, for example, to marry up with the running of another aspect of that same school. And of course, every employee should know exactly how the winding and contradictory systems work, without ever having had it explained to them. I must have missed the training which taught us how to absorb this knowledge by osmosis.
By Deanne Adams6 years ago in Education
Postcard Perfect
Sarah closed the door briskly behind her. Heating the house was expensive, Phil kept telling her. It's not like she didn't realise that—she could see the figures on the quarterly bills just as well as he could—Phil just seemed to gain some odd kind of anxious comfort from saying it out loud.
By Deanne Adams6 years ago in Humans