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Short Story Challenge – Day 333-365

 Friday 14th Jan – Monday 14th Feb Lydia Davis – Break It Down I heard about Lydia Davis via coverage of the release of her Collected Stories her in the U.K. She is not a writer I had heard much about previously but it is clear from reading her first collection (her Collected Stories contains all of her collections) Break It Down that her reputation in the U.S. is well earned. In her debut collection, published in 1986, Davis moves between dark magical realism (The Brother-in-Law), the minutely observed slice-of-life tale (Mr Burdoff’s Visit To Germany), the semi-autobiographical short story (Visit to Her Husband, Five Signs of Disturbance and many…

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Back to Their Future

 It’s post like this one, Back to their Future, over at How to be a Retronaut that remind what is ace about the internet. Photographer, Irina Werning, explains the thinking behind the shots: “I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today. A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.” The thing about these…

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Driver and the Beautiful Highway

 Driver and the Beautiful Highway, my apocalyptic love story written in response to the classic Talking Heads track for the latest Literary Mix Tap, Nothing But Flowers, is up on the LMT website. The site is being updated regularly this Valentine’s with new apocalyptic love stories. Click here to read the latest Nothing But Flowers stories.

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Lovely Words

 It will come as no surprise to any of you that I love words. I particularly love these words, given to me in a finely framed, limited edition print by my lovely wife. Best Valentine’s Day gift ever.   Please ignore the slightly creepy reflection of me snapping this shot.

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Nothing But Flowers – launch

 Nothing But Flowers, is literally hours away from launch. From NBF/LMT editor Jodi Cleghorn’s blog: The 26 stories which make up the entire collection (24 will be published on the web and 25 will we published in the eBook and paperback, including stories by Paul Servini and myself)not seen on the web) run the full gamut of post apocalyptic life, both on terra firma and in space. The stories range from dealing with cancer to fleeing a fundamentalist government; there are floods, earthquakes, viruses, war, disappearing animals and the open road. Love takes the reader from a take-away coffee mug to a gun to the head, from a fortune cookie…

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Helmet therapy

 Some reading this will already be aware that my eight month old daughter has been undergoing physiotherapy since late August to correct an asymmetry in her skull. H was a bigger baby than both her brothers and it is thought that while in the womb she was cramped into a particular position that prevented her muscles in her neck and shoulders developing properly. This cramped position is also thought to be the cause for her asymmetry in her developing skull. Thankfully, after speaking to a doctor at our local medical centre about this and the fact she had trouble turning her head, we were sent to a consultant paediatrician who prescribed…

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Lose That Face – #fridayflash

 Thought I would post something a little different this week and at the same time pop my head round the door to see what was occurring with #fridayflash. The player below features a track I wrote as a member of The Terrapins (along with my mates Dave and Jim Newman), a band I sang and played a bit of guitar with from about 1997 to 2001. It’s a narrative song, which makes it one of my earliest surviving stories. It being a story song hopefully also excuses my posting it as part of #fridayflash. I think it qualifies as my first piece of flash fiction, especially as, at just over a…

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OmmWriter

 My brother, @everydayastory, tipped me off last week about this superb mac app. OmmWriter is part word processor, part virtual zen garden. In the words of the official site: ‘OmmWriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.’ What this means in reality is the app stops all notifications while opening the text editor  backed with a choice of relaxing wallpapers, a selection of calming music and sound loops and various key input sounds. While this all sounds a bit new agey, it is…

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The Short and Long of It

 Because, as my friend Rol says, you can never have to many places to hide on the internet, I’ve started posting links and such to a tumblr blog. The plan is that theshortandlongofit.tumblr.com will be a linkblog where I just reblog, link to, or babble about whatever great short fiction related stuff I find as I stumble my way across the internet. Posts will be short and very, very sweet. I’ll chuck the odd video up there too. It’s really just a way of me recording the stuff I have enjoyed on the web, while also sharing it with all of you. If you like it and check in to…

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The Skull

 You might remember that I am working with my old partner in crime, Chris Askham, on a comic project. I’ve previously shared the sketch of main character Johnny. Well here’s the latest character sketch for the project, one of the key villains of the piece, The Skull. Looking forward to revealing more stuff as we complete the ten page taster story and make a start on the first four-issue volume. Chris Askham blogs here.

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(Nothing But) Flowers

 Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. So too the next Literary Mix-tape: (Nothing But) Flowers, a collection of post-apocalyptic love stories by emerging writers, all inspired by the classic Talking Heads track. Having had a glimpse of the various apocalyptic scenarios the 24 writers have devised for their stories, you can look forward to 24 very different interpretations of the end of the world and what kinds of love blossom there. My own story, ‘Driver & The Beautiful Highway,’ is a love story between a man and the road he drives. From the Literary Mix Tape blog: The anthology will go live at 9am (AEST) on the 14th February and run online…

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Best writers’ beards – readers’ suggestions.

 Following my post last week on literary beards, a fair few readers posted suggestions in the comments. Here are the images from their links for those too lazy busy to check them out themselves. Thanks to all those who pointed me in the direction of writers’ beards I’d missed. William Empson Suggested by Anonymous with a link to Richard B’s blog goingfastgettingnowhere , Empson’s beard, it seems, reflects the unique nature of the man.  It takes a man who is very sure of himself to sport a beard like that. Nicholson Baker Suggested by Scott Underwood. I’ve actually read a Nicholson Baker book years ago. Had no idea he had…

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The best writers’ beards.

 The Guardian’s list of 10 best beards in literature, featuring the most impressive beards in fiction and poetry, got me to thinking about the great writers and their beards. Here, in no particular order, are a few of the best. Walt Whitman I’ve not read much if any of his poetry but his beard of biblical proportions makes me want to. This is exactly the kind of beard you want at the end of your life, something that makes you look as old as time itself. Fyodor Dostoevsky The giants of Russian literature have some of the greatest beards and few are greater than Dostoevsky’s classic tongue of bristle. Anton…

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Neon publish ‘Third Party, Fire & Theft’

 Neon has published my short story ‘Third Party, Fire & Theft’ in its 25th issue. ‘Neon is a UK-based literary magazine, published online and in print every quarter. We publish poetry and prose by authors from anywhere in the world. Our focus is on work that is beautifully written, cold and contemporary.’ This latest edition is available now, featuring a whole host of fiction and poetry, including my story. Neon is a top journal that has published some of my favourite short fiction by up and coming authors so I am super pleased to have a story published in its pages. You can read issue 25 for free online here…

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