Tag: fiction

live reading, SWAG2 Comments

Going live with a SWAGger

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There can’t be too many more daunting things to do for a more-or-less beginner writer than reading your work out loud. Oh wait, there’s reading it out loud as part of a group that doesn’t know you yet, to other groups of writers and performers, at an Oscars night for a local arts and theatre group. On stage. With a swan-neck microphone that had gone dipping for weed during an earlier dramatic reading. No sweat then! The evening was the occasion of the Sunny Worthing Arts Group ‘Oscar’s Oscars’ honouring winners of  their poetry and short story competitions and including, by invitation, readers representing local … Continue reading Going live with a SWAGger

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‘An older tide, touched’ – #nffd

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

An older tide, touched So they walk; ancient crystals of silicon counting the millennia between their toes. For the moment, they are silent. All that could be said has spun away to echo across time in infrasonic broadcast, pulsing its message  from the inferno of inception to the deep, dark, thundering conclusion. But then: Where did we come from? The beginning. Where are we going? The end. Those are our questions too, or would be if we had any place in this way-station. What lies between? I don’t know. What is ‘I’?   Older than the seeds of life carried … Continue reading ‘An older tide, touched’ – #nffd

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‘Yesterday was the best day ever’ – #nffd

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Yesterday was the best day ever It was the day mum and me had just been to the big shop in town to get my senior school uniform and even the smell of it was thrilling. I couldn’t wait to wear the dark green winter skirt, scratchy or not; and the satchel – well that was glorious! All shiny leather with new, stiff straps and brass buckles. We hurried off down the high street towards the bus stop, mum putting her purse away and me thinking about the bubblegum in one pocket and the thirteenth birthday lipstick Gillian had given … Continue reading ‘Yesterday was the best day ever’ – #nffd

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‘Kitchen Forensics’ #nffd

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Kitchen forensics Her resolve faltered as she reached the kitchen door. It would be huge and offensive. It would require a delicate touch. It would be hers to deal with – yuk! As she approached, an advance scouting party of flies lifted off and dispersed itself across less appetising surfaces to wait, she imagined, for the all-clear. Well, not for a while and not here she told them. She regarded the agglutinated mass forensically, put on gloves and aimed a squirt of surfactant at the festering heap. Then, dissecting out two small bones and a piece of cartilage, she wondered for … Continue reading ‘Kitchen Forensics’ #nffd

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short story writing1 Comment

‘Fete Accomplice’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Some stories are just too British to compete well in the predominately US market and so this one is out as an Indie. ‘Stop it right now, you dizzy tart!’ Marissa Nalletamby is giving herself a telling-off in front of the mirror. ‘He’s married, you’re married, and you barely know him.’ She pokes at her hair with the end of a comb, ‘And did I mention, you barely know him?’ read on?   Continue reading ‘Fete Accomplice’

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Ollie, The Doctor, and The Dead Banana

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Ollie is the ten year old son of a friend. He’s a massive Dr Who fan, and this story was a very risky Christmas present. He’s letting me post it here so presumably it didn’t embarrass the socks off him, even though I’m pretty sure his mother really IS River Song. You never see the two of them in the same room together anyway, and that’s proof, right? Bad Apple Ollie was sitting on the sofa, watching TV, when he first noticed his hand disappear. He was about to scratch his nose when there it was. Or rather, there it wasn’t. Right up to his elbow, … Continue reading Ollie, The Doctor, and The Dead Banana

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You wait ages …

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

  … and three come along at once. Well, five, if you count ‘Lovely Girls‘ and ‘No Arrests‘. In the last few days, Full of Crow have taken ‘Arthur’s Stone’ and expect to publish it in October; Read Short Fiction took ‘Baby Bird’ to put up in the Spring; and Zouche Magazine & Miscellany have picked up my essay, ‘A Tale of Two Sixties’ and scheduled it for some time in the next 5-6 weeks. All a little bit wonderful. Continue reading You wait ages …

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I Don’t Like Mondays

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I Don’t Like Mondays I was reminded of this by Sabrina Ogden’s piece ‘Excuse me, have you seen my shirt?‘ in Pure Slush this week. What our minds get up to when we’re not fully a-hold of the reins! I’d gone to work as usual but changed my route slightly with a view to using the outdoor parking area. So, tootling gently along and preparing to turn right at the appointed moment, I was mildly irritated to find that there was an obstruction accompanied by a degree of ill-disciplined vehicular negotiation (bad tempered spat) which conspired to prevent my egress onto the … Continue reading I Don’t Like Mondays

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sci fi, virtual reality4 Comments

‘No Arrests in 2039’: you might prefer to walk home …

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Out on Every Day Fiction today. Suddenly, I want to know where my council tax goes! There is actually some science behind this piece of fiction. The Google research car has travelled thousands of miles without incident (see TED talk by Sebastian Thrun), and other vehicles have been driven remotely, including one by Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury in a race against an F1 driver. Both cars were live on the track. This set the scene, in my fevered mind at any rate, for a virtual cab company whose ‘drivers’ operate passenger pods from call centres. Then came the idea about what … Continue reading ‘No Arrests in 2039’: you might prefer to walk home …

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