"You have to want to do it. It won't just come to you."
I sat in my seat, trying not to be noticed. The seats were plastic, linked together in rows of about forty. How had I ended up right in the middle of the room?
"If you don't have the drive to get what you want in life, how do you think it will happen?"
He was about fifty, lights shining off his bald head, stalking back and forth over the stage. His energy was obviously meant to be catching, but… seriously?
Read MoreI love twisting these, but this one twisted itself; what would happen if, in the future, to be innocent was a crime in itself?
008 – Innocence
“You have been found innocent of your crime.”
I broke down in tears, suddenly, like the Justice Lord had just punched me in the stomach. I almost couldn’t hear him carrying on.
Read MoreIt was a cold day in Hell, and Uriel could feel it. Fallen only lately, punished for staring down human women’s tops, he was shivering so much that feathers were drifting from his wings to land on the snow.
He hugged his knees to his chest, his night-dress gown not holding the heat in at all; a thin dribble of snot worked its way down his pointy nose, mingling with the residue of many tears.
The crunching of feet on the snow brought him back to reality, and, wiping his face, he stood up. A demon was coming. It was short and round, a hooked bird’s beak with tentacles for hair. It stopped in front of him and coughed, politely covering its mouth with one fin.
Read MoreThis has always amused me :D I've often wondered why the Gherkin looks that way, and this is the answer. Pfft, yeah.
006 – Break Away
The day that London took to the stars in search of a new planet to colonise began much like any other. The sun rose, bringing life to the city, and people shook cereal into bowls in hundreds of hungry households. The Underground, the clogged arteries of a dying corpse, were crammed with bored commuters, fanning themselves with ragged copies of free newspapers. The smell of coffee brewed fresh in a hundred different imitations rose to the heavens.
Read MoreAnother piece of writing. Not enough work being done on the editing at the moment, but I'm up to Chapter 15, over two-thirds of the way through. I've also just been offered a full time job from the place I'm currently contracted to and I hope to start with them soon :D
Here's another piece of flash-fiction to tide everyone over.
005 – Seeking Solace
“Damn it, where are ya?”
I run desperately through the shopping centre; what was it with people, couldn’t they see that I was in a rush? Fat Americans and old-timers suddenly deciding that now, NOW was the moment to stop, to stand and stare and check their phone and chat with other sheep. I bring myself up short in front of a thick knot of people, all the while looking around.
Read More“Bah,” Joe moaned, “there’s only dark chocolate in the cupboard. I hate dark chocolate.” I tried to hold my serious face as I watched this six-year old screw his face up and stick his tongue out. His freckles stood out on his pale face, rapidly blending in as the blood rushed to his cheeks.
“Joe, you’re going to have to put up with it. That’s life; we can’t always have what we want, and sometimes we have to make do with second best.”
“Did you do that with Daddy?”
Just like that, the whole conversation changed. Children have a habit of doing things like that, I guess.
Read MoreI take perverse pleasure in twisting the themes' meaning.
Not much writing this week, I've got full-time work and it's knackering. Tremendously rewarding though!
003 - Light
“Large coffee please. Light.”
“Light?” The barista looked confused.
“Light. Skimmed milk.”
Read More
Another piece to warm up with. I enjoyed playing Portal, and Portal 2; there's a comic called Lab Rat which is well worth reading through. Not very long, and can be found here.
"I suppose this is what love is."
"How do you mean?" I asked.
I walked down the corridor, you on my back. My pace was weak, thready, weaving from side to side.
Read MoreI've decided to make use of a writing thing to help me warm up into my writing. It's one of the 100 Themes Challenges from deviantArt, and I'll be posting them here. It's not edited or anything, barely even checked through. Just something to warm up with.
001 - Introduction
“My name is Valerie Carr; you can call me Val.”
The woman was about my height; that was what struck me first. I’m quite tall for a woman, and it’s strange enough to make mention of it.
Read MoreI've moved to this blog for my writing, as the previous one was focussed entirely on one project, whereas I've produced a lot more than that over the last year and a bit. So this blog will be dedicated to all my writing, and also for typing up things I've learned through writing.
To get things going, here's a short story that I'm trying to get published. It starts in a decidedly rural setting, but soon descends into a mix of sci-fi, mild horror and a keen thread of black comedy.
The Grass is Always Greener
It all began when Gerald Merryhew discovered that intelligent cows tasted better...
