1. Pride

Tyson leaned against the bar, waiting for his cocktail and staring at his reflection in the mirror above the drinks display. A late-thirties sales manager on the rise, he wore a few smile lines and flecks of grey, but thankfully, there was no sign of a receding hairline. Tyson winked at himself. With luck, he wouldn’t leave the singles bar alone tonight.

This is the opening paragraph from The Seven Deadly Sins, a short story I shared on the Tall And True writers’ website in February 2025.

Please note: There are spoilers in the Story Insight below.

Story Insight

I wrote The Seven Deadly Sins for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly Furious Fiction writing challenge in February 2025. The brief for our 500-word stories was:

• They had to feature SEVEN of something
• Include a character who opens a box
• Contain the words LADDER, BLANK and CHILL.

I tossed about ideas for seven of this and seven of that before the phrase “the seven deadly sins” popped into my head. And while I wouldn’t describe them as “deadly”, I imagined a story with a protagonist who exhibits the seven sins in one night at a singles bar.

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Monthly Showcase

According to the Writers’ Centre, stories featuring the “Seven Deadly Sins” proved popular in February’s Furious Fiction challenge, though only one made the monthly showcase … and it wasn’t my story!

However, I enjoyed writing The Seven Deadly Sins, playing with the form, and pontificating at the end that most of us are guilty of them, to some extent.

And my story was longlisted, which allowed me to bask in the sin of Pride!

© 2025 Robert Fairhead

Thanks to Seo_Seungwon for sharing the blood-red cocktail image on Pixabay.

N.B. You might like to read my first longlisted Furious Fiction story from March 2022 on Tall And True, Stuck in Time.