Before we started The Rabbit Hole over at the Writers’ Co-op, I edited three anthologies called the Book a Break. They contained stories selected from submissions to a literary competition I ran, which attracted a…
The Book a Break short story competition is in its third year. From the outset, it was decided to donate the proceeds of the resulting anthology to charity, specifically the Against Malaria Foundation. Writers who…
I’ve always been something of a numbers nerd. I was once upbraided at school by Mr. McCartney, the maths teacher, for not doing his polynomial equation. In its place, based on a complex formula of…
At the end of last month, Sherry Morris came to stay with us, together with her partner Phil. I suppose you could say she came to collect her prize as winner of the 2017 Book…
Fancy a trip to Pluto? Or a fearful drive along a stretch of country road? Unless you prefer to go to church with a strange woman in green tights, her hair alive with electricity. Here…
One of my duties used to consist in making up vicious grammar exams. Students would have to translate a sentence like, ‘The prize-winning, short-tempered, recently divorced municipal employee, who was given a standing ovation at…
My mother, I recall, was reticent. ‘I really don’t think we should let him.’ She felt it her duty to protect me from the terrors inherent to existence. ‘He’ll have nightmares.’ ‘But I don’t want…
Many days since I posted – my apologies! The reason is, I’ve been busy with Various Things, so without further ado, a list, in no particular order: the new website: getting my mind round wordpress.org…
Apart from having a name that begins with X, Xavier isn’t an interesting person at all. But he does indirectly lead to Cat Tales, the anthology drawn from last year’s Book a Break short story…
Specifically, the VIP wheelie bin store where meetings are held every Monday night, attended by the Stealthy Six: Felix, Tom, Missy, Cinnamon, Bamboo and Tiger. In The Postal Code Cats, Olivia Templeton’s story in Cat Tales,…