‘Spectacular Flights of Whales’ in Coast Line, West Sussex Writers 80th Anniversary anthology, July 2017, Rumian Publishing. ‘Whether it was the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning, or something else entirely turned out to be immaterial. After a short interlude during which astronomers reported a slight increase in background radiation and sunsets appeared rather more purple than usual, the sky turned green and filled up with fish.’ 1947 words.

‘The Spooking of Einstein‘, Urban Fantasist’s Grievous Angel, 18/11/15. “If you walk on the cracks, the bears will get you.”
“No, they won’t.”
But they did. Not bears exactly, more trans-dimensional, multi-versal, quantum-coherents with no sense of humour. 290 words, free to read.

‘When Gliese Met Glasgow (and Muira made a mint)’, Pen2Paper – Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, 24/10/15. The aliens were not diplomats; they were traders-bordering-on-pirates because that was how their society worked. Find something everybody wanted and everybody was happy. They had no First Contact rules beyond haggling, although some of the preliminaries were not unlike the Glasgow Kiss and would come in handy later when they discovered football. 860 words

‘When Gliese* Met Glasgow (and Muira made a mint)’  If you had to choose Earth’s representative for First Contact with aliens, it probably wouldn’t be a 3’6″ Black Glaswegian with no diplomatic experience, would it? Finalist, Pen2Paper, competition, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. 860 words. * Gliese exists. It was the first star system found to have at least one potentially habitable planet in its orbit.

‘The Collector’, Grievous Angel webzine 23/6/15. Only Art is immortal,’ she says, her arms umber-stippled ribbons, lithe in the firelight. ‘Humans are not’ 489 words

‘Spirits of the freeze-Sea’ Cut A Long Story 21/02/201. Updated versions of Dance to the Wild Ice and All the Birthdays and a brand new story Shalla’s First Ice Shatter. This is a 99p download. 1478 words

Sequenced Heir, Nipped Rind’ Scribd, August 2014. “The ambient light is the colour of swamp fog; I am suspended from the ceiling in a net like a balloon at a solstice party; and there is a worm in my mouth. This has to be the mother of all hangovers.”  1882 words.

How the Fat Fairies Saved the World’ Zouch Magazine, May 26th, 2014. Coincidentally – or maybe not – published at the exact GMT time of the event: Then, at about half past seven on a Monday morning (Greenwich Meantime, naturally), a huge invisible energy net, formed of particles so exotic they hadn’t even been assigned their own letter of the Greek alphabet, swept around the world, gathering up large moving objects and scanning them as it went, as if they all had bar codes. 1257 words

‘Frozen Fireworks’, Readwave, February 6th, 2014. The last real day is bright and brilliant with a sky full of clotted clouds that tumble along like cream puffs in the thickening air. When the storms break, they cast scaled and feathered flying things down onto the sand, and the sand begins to swim like wet concrete around them. 292 words

‘Level Playing’, Readwave, February 6th, 2014. ‘Lag messing with the rendering, that’s what’s doing it. Power diversions to the SinCity sim, I’ll bet.’ 682 words

‘No Animals Were Harmed‘, Every Day Fiction, November 21st, 2013. “Thank you for disengaging sensory dampers and keeping your emotional reactivity processors operational; the audience is paying to experience your dysfunction. The first episode will go live in 5 – 4 – 3 …”. 997 words

‘Speckles in the Sky‘, This Personal Space, May 11th, 2013. The man was coming into view feet first: trainers, track suit bottoms, and finally a T shirt with Grey Power printed across the front. The rest of him was rather blurred, and what’s more she could see dark speckles in the sky. Written for a friend’s retirement, Speckles is published  with her permission. 803 words 

‘Puddles like Pillows’,  Zouche Magazine, August 28th, 2013. After a while, with the streets and parks getting less cluttered, it started to look as if some cosmic recycler had dropped by to tidy us up. So then people stopped using the bins and just hung about with their cameras waiting for their banana skin or whatever to take off. 984 words. Finalist in the 2014 Lascaux Short Story competition and now in the anthology Wonderful!

‘Dance to the Wild Ice’. In Lancaster university MA programme anthology, June 25th, 2013. Set in the same world as ‘All the Birthdays’. When Izzy’s eyelids got burned off, she had to watch all the time without blinking – apart from the frog-lick that slides across side-to-side, but you can see through that so there’s no escape and she’s been watching since Jinty started making the dance. 788 words

‘All the Birthdays’, Lascaux Flash Competition, March 6th 2013. Also in FlashFlood, April 19th, 2013 When the spirits dance, you have to dodge out of the way and cover your head so they don’t hiss sharp into your ears or quick-grab your tongue. Mostly though, you have to keep your eyes open … 245 words

‘Red is for Go’, Originally on Roadside Attractions – 22nd October, 2012, now on Sribd. “‘Which one of us died?’  ‘He did. Back then.’ ‘And now?’ She looked up at the ceiling, at the bright carriage lights that cast unforgiving shadows under the sleep deprived eyes of its hot-desking passengers … ”  2619 words

‘Baby Bird’ Read Short Fiction – September 4th, 2012. I keep thinking we should have left it to die, you know, rather than do what we did. Seal it back up, let it go wherever it was going, let someone else find it, not us. 1500 words

‘A very particular view’, out on Roadside Attractions, July 23rd, 2012. Ever wondered how the universe works? Here’s your answer. 677 words

‘If it ain’t broke …’ another Indie on This Personal Space, May 20th, 2012 and now very pleased to announce its availability as an iPhone/iPod download from Ether Books, 12/07/12. There’s a great deal of effort going into the prevention of disabilities, including Down’s Syndrome. But not everyone with DS sees that as a benefit so what would happen if you had the choice to go back and change your own DNA? Robert has to make up his mind. 1362 words

‘No Arrests in 2039′  Every Day Fiction, 7th September 2011. A bit of SF here but with some extraordinary science in the offing that makes it a chilling possibility. 851 words

‘Promotion’, PowFastFiction, October 2010. Now on the blog. First proper publication; thanks Karen [*!] Sadly, Pow Fast is no longer publishing. 485 words