Brisbane Writers Festival celebrates stories of all shapes and sizes. With the help of Twitter and a brilliant collection of 50 writers from around the globe, the Many Writers, One Story project hopes to put together a very Brisbane tale told in 140 character bite-sized pieces. Where will the story go? What twists will it take? Follow its progress from Tuesday 17 July below or on Twitter by following the hashtag #BWF50. Once upon a time...

Tweet 1, Tuesday 17 July - Nick Earls 

It had been coriander between her teeth or maybe rocket. It was his mother who had told him you should always point those things out. 

Tweet 2, Wednesday 18 July - Marieke Hardy

Then again, Mother's advice could be patchy. Was it not she who had once said 'Oh, but women *love* men who imitate Ricky Gervais'?

The last time he'd stated 'I've sort of fused Flashdance with MC Hammer shit' Irene threw a glass of rose in his face.

Tweet 3, Thursday 19 July - Mark Watson

More damagingly still, his mother advised him against setting up a site exactly like Facebook, four years before Zuckerberg did.

AND she'd made him become a train driver because 'cars had had their day.' Yes. Everything was his mother's fault. Today: revenge.

Tweet 4, Friday 20 July - Joanne Harris

But how do you exact revenge on one who knows you inside-out? How, in a lifetime of failure, could he pull off the perfect murder?

Tweet 5, Saturday 21 July - Chris Cleave

He mulled it over for a minute, drank two glasses of milk, and resolved to send her a really brisk email instead.

Tweet 6, Sunday 22 July - Dave Graney

 the milk and the email got some blood to it.He ran down to the beach and lay on the hot sand,burying it
 

Tweet 7, Monday 23 July - Eowyn Ivey

Seagulls reeled & cried overhead. Blood, sand, milk be damned! Mother be damned. What of love? He thought of coriander & remembered
 
Lily would be alone tonight w/ her plate of gingered carrots & coriander seeds, like every Monday. But this night would be different.  

Tweet 8, Tuesday 24 July - Jeff Sparrow

'What complements coriander?' he muttered. 'Hemlock, of course! But where to find a deadly poison?' Naturally, he turned to Twitter.

Where to buy hemlock?' he typed, adding the hashtags #murder, #shemustdie and #bwf50. Then he froze. Oh, noes Mother was following him!

Tweet 9, Wednesday 25 July - Kate Forsyth

He had to act fast! No time for hemlock. Rat Poison? Aha! Of course. the humble oleander, rampant in his mother's garden

He stirred his mother's hot cocoa with an oleander twig, again & again & again, then, smiling, he took it in to the old tyrant

Tweet 10, Thursday 26 July - Michaela McGuire 

He found her in the bedroom, her plate of gingered carrots nowhere to be seen. She was swaddled in her bedsheets. The room was dark.

He set the mug down by her bedside and leaned closer. 'Why Mother, what big teeth you have.' 

Tweet 11, Friday 27 July - Paul Gilding

She awoke, sipped cocoa. Then snarled. "You stupid boy. This is 2045. Oleander's evolved to be harmless since the 2025 climate crash"

His heart sank. Even a failure at murder, like at uni when he chaired the climate sceptics club, in pointless pursuit of attention.

Tweet 12, Saturday 28 July - Patrick Gale

So he did what he should have done all along. The riskiest thing. He called Magda. Down the bad line from Moist Gusset he could hear
 
the creak of her ancient biking leathers & the wheeze of her French bulldog before she said simply, "I thought we weren't speaking.

Tweet 13, Sunday 29 July - Michael Robotham

She had never been one for pleasantries. At 6'7'' & 320lbs, her leather-clad buttocks embraced the stool. I knew you'd come looking 
 
for a little chocolate with your milk. Magda had a gleam in her eye. I can sort out your Mama.Does it have to be an open casket? 

Tweet 14, Monday 30 July - Krissy Kneen

She unzipped her voluminous leather bustier & there they were, twin barrels of smoking metal soldered right into her breasts.

The visual impact was lost over the phone so she clenched her bosoms & fired one off against the wall to give him the general idea.

Tweet 15, Tuesday 31 July - John Boyne

He cried out, deafened in his left ear by the sound of the gun shot. Through the pain he wondered how Magda had become such a violent

creature. After all, when they were children there was nothing she enjoyed more than 

Tweet 16, Wednesday 1 August - Emilie Zoey Baker

drawing pictures of dolphins & unicorns. He did however rather swiftly upon gazing at her smoking bosom recall that 

the dolphins were often, rather horribly impaled on the unicorns horns. Other memories started flooding in, like the time she

Tweet 17, Thursday 2 August - Claire Bidwell Smith

stole a neighbor's sleeping baby right out of its bassinet just to show their mother that she could harness the power of matriarchy. 

Magda had never been afraid of Mother and that's why he was calling. I'm ready, he whispered, referring to a childhood plan to

Tweet 18, Friday 3 August - Andy Griffiths

kill their parents and get married. But seeing their father cop the fury of Magda's full metal breasts had freaked him out and 

to her disgust he'd refused to proceed any further in the bloody business & they'd never spoken since. Until now.

Tweet 19, Saturday 4 August - a.rawlings

Into the phone, he screamed, "I'm ready! I'm now! I'm teeth, love, train! I'm milk, sand, twig, again & again! UNICORN!" Magda'd hung

up; Mother'd fled. His earblood pulsed with tinnitus, psychosis. He croaked, "I'm ready, I'm now." Suddenly, ambulances

 

Tweet 20, Sunday 5 August - Linda Sue Park

roared into the cul-de-sac, lights screaming, siren glaring. His heart nearly burst: Could his desire alone have killed Mother?

 

Tweet 21, Monday 6 August - Phil Kafcaloudes

Through the window he watched a man, in fishnets, get out of the lead ambulance, & signal to paramedics in fatigues from the convoy.
 
They ran to position behind the roses, and in the strong sun he could see the semi-automatic hypodermics pointed right at him.

Tweet 22, Tuesday 7 August - Tanveer Ahmed

Was it coriander induced hallucinations, aka "cilantro catatonia"? He was reassured by the flood of pethidine into his lounge room.

Tweet 23, Wednesday 8 August - Jon Doust

There is only a certain amount of pethidine a lounge room can take before the metabolism of furniture begins to

alter, to evolve, to become something other.Oh yeah,and him too.Man is this a chair? Or am I a chair? He no longer knew.

Tweet 24, Thursday 9 August - Gina Perry

He thought, it's me, I'm the chair. Why else would the ambo in fishnets be sitting on my lap? He tried to wriggle out from under the

paramedic but he felt an arm tighten around his neck. The ambo hissed, "How many times have I told you? How many times do I have to

Tweet 25, Friday 10 August - Chris Turney

...' The words drifted away, disappearing into the recesses of the room. Time was of the essence. He had to clear his head; fast. 

Tweet 26, Saturday 11 August - Martin Chatterton

'That's enough,' said Kernaghan. 'We're losing him.' The white-coated technician stepped forward and released the clamp holding the

syringe. Bonfiglioli slumped forward, a thin trickle of blood snaking from his left ear. Kernaghan turned to the Professor. 'Ideas?'

Tweet 27, Sunday 12 August - Tony Cavanaugh

His mother warned us against this', said the Professor. 'We might have to shut him down. Either that or send

... him back to the plateau.' Kernaghan looked shocked. 'But that's where the

Tweet 28, Monday 13 August - Tara Moss

whole thing started.' It's the end of the line, he thought. You either pick up the gun, or you might as well just cop yourself out.

Tweet 29, Tuesday 14 August - Susan Johnson

Mother. The plateau. He heard words, far away. He saw his mother, standing victorious, alive, over his dead father...

...and he knew he would see the plateau again. The ambo in the fishnets was dragging him away....

Tweet 30, Wednesday 15 August - Rebecca Sparrow

His eyelids sandbagged shut. The smell of Brut33 wafted under his nose. And somewhere a male voice whined ... 

..."For God's sake Bernard, could we hurry this up? You know I have that audition at three ..."

Tweet 31, Thursday 16 August - Mandy Beaumont

He slowly opened his eyes.His hands shaking in monstrous anticipation. This, he thought, is my hate for her becoming my own madness

Tweet 32, Friday 17 August - Sean M Whelan

Bonfiglioli struggled to rise above the swell of sorrow and pethedine rushing through his head. Inside became outside, the trees

patchworked against the wallpaper, clouds obscured the ceiling,then parted to reveal the ceiling rose blooming vicious red and green

Tweet 33, Saturday 18 August - Belinda Jeffrey

'A rose by any other name' he said, or thought he said. 'he knows' the male voice whined again. He knows'

And Bonfiglioli did know. The rose above his head, the pethadene in his blood, and Shakespeare just might save him.

Tweet 34, Sunday 19 August - Katherine Battersby

He woke, skin broken by sun. Plovers circled overhead. He was prone in the rose bush. Again
Lily sprawled amongst the coriander at his feet, knawing on her hind leg. She'd always had a taste for...
 

Tweet 35, Monday 20 August - Sophie Hamley

that cortisone cream the vet had told him to smear over her skin eruptions on twice-daily basis. It was her only flaw. Apart from ...

the fact that she belonged to his mother. And he was round there twice a day, smearing on that cream. There was no escape from ...

Tweet 36, Tuesday 21 August - Christopher Currie

the unmistakable smell of dog leg and medicine, a smell that took him back to the battlefield, that previous life. Bomb-hunters ...

but really just loyal animals, trained to run under tanks, a switch on their backs ready to detonate any unseen explosives.

Tweet 37, Wednesday 22 August - Kristina Schulz

But how to defuse this now? With only Lily and her scabby leg by his side, it was almost too late.

Sighing, he knew he needed his room, his writing journals and his 'do not disturb me, mother' sign on the door but...  

Tweet 38, Thursday 23 August - Terry Whidborne

this had to end, and now. He rolls over, only to come face to face with a dropped semi-auto hypodermic gun

Image

Tweet 39, Friday 24 August - Anna Campbell

Just like his mother to needle him like this! She made a mockery of maternal love. In mockery lay madness. Or a mocca latte? He stood

Tweet 40, Saturday 25 August - Chris Somerville

and it felt like he was filled with air. He imagined himself floating. The sky above him was clear and blue. "Lily, now," he yelled

Tweet 41, Sunday 26 August - Tristan Bancks

and he filled the hound with a full magazine of hypodermics. But as he gazed upon his work he was struck by a realisation.

Tweet 42, Monday 27 August - Stilts

The dog was the only one who knew where the diamonds were! Back in 2000 his father had implanted the animal with a chip

imprinted with his personality. And since Magda's mammary arsenal had send their father to an early grave...

Tweet 43, Tuesday 28 August - Chris Uhlmann

Lily was his only link to that fortune. Think! He roused the ambo in fishnets, "Wake up buddy, this is an emergency!"

Tweet 44, Wednesday 29 August - Trent Jamieson

'Dog's fine,' the ambo said. 'Thing we have to worry about is zombies. Project Coriander's gone haywire. Zombies everywhere.'

Magda! They needed her guns. Lily growled, her eyes glowing. 'Hmm, your dog been near any zombies?'

Tweet 45, Thursday 30 August - Jack Vening

Lilly was shaking. The growl got louder. Then, all at once, she rose on her hind legs. 'Son,' she barked sadly. 'I feel unwell.' He

grabbed the ambo. 'Did the drugs awake my dad's dormant personality?' 'I'm no scientist,' the ambo said. 'But yes.'

Tweet 46, Friday 31 August - James Butler

'Who's the bitch now?' He turned and it was his mother. She was leaning against the ambulance, her lips curled around a cigarette...

and the packet rolled up in her t-shirt sleeve. Lily growled, angered by such a terrible pun, and approached her.

Tweet 47, Saturday 1 September - David 'Ghostboy' Stavanger

Mother reached into her alligator purse. Hey eyes small rifles. She pulled out the papers before Lilly could talk to her agent

Mother spat the words. "Here's the proof. I'm not your mother. Lily's not a dog. You are the zombie spawn of ...

Tweet 48, Sunday 2 September - Jane O'Hara

Xaviera Hollander and her Alsatian GoBoy. At that Bonfigliol's mother (and father) withered and died and were NEVER heard from again.

Tweet 49, Monday 3 September - Toni Jordan

The next thing Bonfigliol felt was a wet tongue rasping the space where his left ear had been, rousing him to consciousness. It was

Tweet 50, Tuesday 4 September - Benjamin Law

... not quite a dream / but not quite as it seemed / He woke in the half-light / with the smell of cordite

the sound of bird-call / a dog licking his balls

"Lily! Bad dog!" he said, but thought of his Mum / And as he took another hit, he thought, "Man drugs are fun."

Writers

Nick Earls, Marieke Hardy, Mark Watson, Joanne Harris, Chris Cleave, Dave Graney, Eowyn Ivey, Jeff Sparrow, Kate Forsyth, Michaela McGuire, Paul Gilding, Patrick Gale, Michael Robotham, Krissy Kneen, John Boyne, Emilie Zoey Baker, Claire Bidwell Smith, Andy Griffiths, a.rawlings, Linda Sue Park, Phil Kafcaloudes, Tanveer Ahmed, Jon Doust, Gina Perry, Chris Turney, Martin Chatterton, Tony Cavanaugh, Tara Moss, Susan Johnson, Rebecca Sparrow, Mandy Beaumont, Sean M Whelan, Belinda Jeffrey, Katherine Battersby, Sophie Hamley, Christopher Currie, Kristina Schulz, Terry Whidborne, Anna Campbell, Chris Somerville, Tristan Bancks, Toni Jordan, Benjamin Law and more!

Twitter Feed
 

Brisbane Writers Festival Partners

Brisbane Writers Festival acknowledges the assistance of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Department of Education and Training, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.