And coming in at Number One, it’s All the Birthdays by Moi! Ok, so it’s just that it’s the first up but admit it, you’d milk that Top Spot too wouldn’t you? Go and have a look – only 245-ish words so no time at all. And it’s a bit of a shocker. You’ll like that. Continue reading All the Birthdays – Lascaux flash competition
The Wild Rose and the China DollI am the oldest I have ever been, and the youngest. Saddled with Original Sin, so they say, but am I guilty of anything, except need?Jim and Eileen are newlyweds, embarking on a joined life that even the Catholic church could not discourage. He is back from the war. She is a machinist, escaping industrial drudgery and a household in which she is, like the furniture, utilitarian. It is 1946. Had it been 1986, we would not be here, in this place. But it is not. It is 1946 and much is pre-ordained.On a … Continue reading ‘The Wild Rose and the China Doll’
“Now you’ll stay in at night,” Joe told Houdini, the big, orange, cantankerous-looking tabby he was trying to stuff into a carrier. Not flippin’ likely, said Houdini, although of course he didn’t because he was a cat … On Every Day Fiction today. Continue reading ‘Cat Nav’ flash fiction on EDF
‘Jesus loves her, Jesus loves her, Jesus loves the murdering bitch.’ Emmy chuckles to herself in that private way only people whose heads are somewhere else can do. She hunches up on the bed and grabs her knees; pulling them up to her chin, and hugging them like babies. ‘Pretty boys,’ she says; and bites into her knee cap. On Ether Books September 2012 Continue reading ‘The Justice Box’
‘I keep thinking we should have left it to die, you know, rather than do what we did …’ on Read Short Fiction today. A tale of a personal road to hell paved with the best of intentions. What choices would you have made? Continue reading ‘Baby Bird’: new SF short story
If it ain’t broke …’ has been on This Personal Space since May 20th, 2012 and now I am very pleased to announce its availability as an iPhone/iPad download from Ether Books, 12/07/12. A brave decision by Ether – not everyone would take the risk of featuring a story whose main character is a man with Down’s Syndrome, especially one who doesn’t live up to the stereotype of happy, smiley but ultimately helpless dependent. The app and the download are free. If you felt so inclined, you could take a look and maybe even give it a star or two? Jolly good. Continue reading ‘If it ain’t broke …’ now an i/Phone/Pad/Pod/Thing download
I know, using ‘50 Shades’ in the header will pull in all sorts of innocents looking either for more clips of lascivious lustings or critiques of same. Sorry. I consider it payback for having searches on this book permanently in my internet history and available to David Cameron, should he feel moved to inspect my homework. Which is still better than having it in my library, and that was a close thing. ‘50 Shades of Grey’ (‘Gray’, if you have the US version. Lucky you) is selling by the forest-load and getting the film industry in a tizz so I went for a look. Well, you … Continue reading ‘50 Shades’ – the phantom menace?
I’m having a clear-out. Like my wardrobe, my short stories’ cupboard is stuffed with last season’s pieces which don’t match or have odd bits dangling off the hems. I’ll be starting my MA in October and it seems likely that the process begun with the Open University courses in 2009 and 2010 will re-frame my writing, how I think of it, and how I want it to appear. Not that I’m cringing about the stories that are already out in the wild (and still getting hits, thank you very much, opportunist passers-by!). I’m beyond embarrassment, having worked in the NHS for over 40 years … Continue reading Car boot giveaway – genuine articles, no tat, honest madam!
Last Man Standing They didn’t kill me, just made me wish they had, bastards. We were all there that day, lined up ringside waiting for the off. It was top billing and we were crackling with anticipation, the scent of victory already creeping up our noses and fuelling our self-belief. Our man was big. The biggest. I mean really big. So big their man couldn’t even reach him never mind hit him. So what, that it was barely a competition? All we cared about was winning. We had bets, we’d make a pile. We’d get the hell out of the … Continue reading ‘Last Man Standing’
Another Indie piece that’s just a little too quintessentially Brit for its own good. It started life as a 500 word entry in an Escape Pod competition and, while it didn’t get voted through to the next round, it acquitted itself very well considering the main character is a man with Down’s Syndrome. The aim was to write something the people I work with would see as positive, that has humour and authenticity, and doesn’t dissect their vulnerability. You may find the authenticity claim a bit hard to swallow but I can vouch for every bit of dialogue – some bloke with Down’s has uttered those lines to me … Continue reading ‘If it ain’t broke …’
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill 