Short Stories

News, Short Stories

RE: Our Last Year Published at Flash Fiction North

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RE: Our Last Year has been published at Flash Fiction North. You can head over to their Recently Published page to read it.

RE: Our Last Year is a is a satirical piece in the form of an email, sent by the head of a company that’s about to make some big changes.

It takes a look at work culture and late-stage capitalism by ramping up the “cost-cutting measures” and corporate double speak to 11. It’s familiar – a little too familiar.

Anybody who has ever had a boss has seen an email like this. There’s the faux cheeriness, the “camaraderie” that only goes one way. There’s the business plans that seem so destructive you wonder how you’ll ever come back.

You don’t come back. Then another email arrives.

It’s fantastic to see RE: Our Last Year published, and it’s sitting along some really cool stories in the August batch. Take a look, and read some of the others on your way.

For information about some of my other shorts, click across to the Prose page.

News, Short Stories

Not the One

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A new short – Not the One – has been finished and submitted for publication elsewhere.

Not the One is about a terrible date. He’s talking endlessly about real ale, football and household appliances. Just when you think you’re over it, he reminds you why you’re there. But then something happens that changes everything.

Not the One is a 1780 word comic literary short about love, dating and difficult decisions. It’s what happens when the Rom Com goes wrong.

There’s not a lot else in the way of updates except to say I’ve not worked on the novel as much as I should have done this week. Still making progress, but these shorts are addictive. I’m aiming to write one a week – this week I’ve written three. Me and Mam at the End of the World, RE: Our Last Year and now this one. And in fact, Boudoir was last Saturday, so count that too if you want.

The hope is that by writing enough shorts, there will come a time when there’s a constant roll of rejections and acceptances. That way, in theory, there’s never a gap where stories aren’t moving. One of my problems in the past has been emphasizing individual stories, and burning out on the wait. This is a way to get over this and, if the last week is anything to go by, so far so good. I’ve looked at the Prose page more than once and been surprised by something there!

News, Short Stories

RE: Our Last Year

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Two updates in one day – don’t get used it! I’ve completed another flash fiction story – RE: Our Last Year. It’s a satirical piece in the form of an email, sent by the head of a company that’s about to make some big changes.

It takes a look at work culture and late-stage capitalism by ramping up the “cost-cutting measures” and corporate double speak to 11. It’s familiar – a little too familiar.

RE: Our Last Year is already in the submission pipeline, so watch out for it in the near future.

If you’d like to see what else is going on today, here’s the post from this morning.

News, Short Stories

Me and Mam at the End of the World

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A new short story this week, and accidentally the longest short story I’ve written so far. Me and Mam at the End of the World is a dark comedy about family, love and the space between the important moments of life.

When the world ends, what happens if you’ve only got your mother for company? The story is wry, voice driven, funny and heart breaking. It’s a genre blending, surreal voice driven adventure through an apocalypse like no other.

It comes in at just under 4,000 words, and it’s already been submitted for publication elsewhere. Me and Mam at the End of the World will hopefully be available to read in the coming months.

Boudoir, the short from my last update, has been submitted for the Bournemouth Writing Prize. It’s a long process, with the final result being announced in January, but it’ll be a lot of fun to see how it does.

Positive feedback continues to come in for Nepo Baby, my novel. From the middle of August, I’ll be focussing on prepping that for submission. And after that, on actually handling submissions.

And finally, the next novel continues to come along slowly but surely. It’s not going at quite the speed Nepo Baby did – it’s a harder write, emotionally and technically. But the work is good and the pace is worth it. There’s a sense of location to it that’s very different to my previous work. I think people are going to enjoy it.

Writing stories like Me and Mam at the End of the World has been great. Getting in and out of a character or a set of characters is such a tight space is an enjoyable challenge.

Film, News, Short Stories

Childbirth (For Men) and a new short story

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Childbirth (For Men) – my short script built about a man who is suddenly thrust into fatherhood – has been polished, given its own page and is ready to download. It’s a fun adventure, layering a man’s impending parenthood with the traditional structure of the hero’s journey. It’s a quality story, with some laughs and a lot of heart.

I’ve finished a new short, Boudoir, which I’ll be submitting for publication over the coming week. It’ll ultimately be part of my anthology, Leak.

The story follows a woman who books herself a boudoir photoshoot after being called sir on the bus. The 1700-word story deals with themes of body image, privacy and confidence.

Another story – Lie for Me – is about half way done. There may be an update on that soon.

Progress on the next novel is steady. The writing is good, the story is hitting the right emotional beats – it feels inevitable in all the right ways. I can’t wait to talk about it.

Finally, I’ll begin the submission process on Nepo Baby in the next month. I finished the polish draft on June 28th, and I’ve been dying to get back to it since.

As well as a Childbirth update, the website has seen some other minor polish. It’s all coming together – slowly, but surely.

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