Flash fiction: “Mind Out of Time”

I’ve recently become fascinated with the phenomenon of “flash fiction,” that is, fiction that is ultra-short, anything from a single sentence to 1,500 words (although opinion on the upper limit varies). I’m presently enjoying reading an anthology of such stories called FlashSpec. Flash fiction is not to be confused with the notion of syphoning a [...]

Further adventures in the Chion-verse?

Chion has received numerous comments of praise, which you can read for yourself on the Chion page. One negative aspect that a few people have commented on it that it’s too short. The novel is just over 40,000 words long, which translates to 145 book pages. My friend Chris Winter pointed out that this attitude [...]

"Captain Curtis, The Untold Story" wins the League of Freemen contest

I’m thrilled to report that my story “Captain Curtis, The Untold Story” came first place in the annual competition at The League of Freemen (fan club for the TV series The Tripods). The photo shows one of the items I won. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but these posters are actually super-rare. I’ve searched [...]

Fiction podcast: "Captain Curtis, The Untold Story"

A couple of people have expressed interest in an audio version of my entry in the fiction competition at The League of Freemen (see previous post for more info). Well, here it is. It’s a hefty download, so if you’re still using dial-up, you might want to grab a lower quality version, which is only [...]

A short story for fans of The Tripods

On 11 October, I briefly mentioned that I would be entering a competition at The League of Freemen (the official fan club of the 1980s TV series The Tripods). The task is to write a piece of fan fiction on the subject “Captain Curtis, The Untold Story.” Curtis is a bitter, callous fellow who appears [...]

"Is There Anybody Out There?" – smaller dialup version also available

Just so nobody’s left out, here’s a 64 Kbps version of the story podcast, more suitable for dialup users. It’s half the filesize of the original (13 Mb).
Special thanks to ZombieMart and Homepage of the Dead for featuring the story on their websites. It’s great to have this publicity. Sadly, the only drawback is that [...]

Fiction podcast: "Is There Anybody Out There?"

I’m pleased to present my first short story podcast, a post-apocalyptic tale which I call “Is There Anybody Out There?” I’m hesitant to say it’s a zombie story (whoops! too late), because that’s going to make some people switch off and others perk their ears up with anticipation (the zombie sub-genre does have its undying [...]

Short story competition: The James White Award

I’ve just come across an excellent short story competition. The prize is a nice trophy and publication in Britian’s leading short story mag, Interzone. But the best thing about the contest is that it’s only open to non-professional writers. Talk about cutting down the competition!
I’ve licked my short story Calling All Time Travellers into shape [...]

Time travellers and zombies

I’ve been dabbling in a little short story writing lately. I shook the dust off my last written story, Calling All Time Travellers, and gave it a fine-tune (I can hardly believe it’s been two years since I wrote this one). My friend Earl gave it the red pen treatment, and as a result a [...]

First short story in four years

Yesterday I sat down at the computer and started writing my first short story in over four years. Every idea I’ve had since Terror on Tarthlogue Road (Christmas 1999) seems to want to expand itself into a novel, so it was an elating experience to finally put something short together. I used to be a [...]