The Short Stories

Here's a selection of my short stories. I hope you like them; I'll be adding more in due course. You can have them in html format, to read in your browser, in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, or in .PRC format for e-book readers. Follow the links after each story description, according to the format you want.

Billy's New Hill is literally a "five-minute tale". It won a prize at the "Cliffhanger Short Story Competition" at the 2010 Swindon Festival of Literature. The idea of the competition, arranged by Swindon Speakers (see the links page), was that the story should be five minutes long, but that it should reach a cliff-hanger at three minutes. We read our stories out loud, then were stopped at three minutes exactly. Then, the audience voted for which one they wanted to hear the rest of! HTML PDF PRC

Shopping was written for a WN "Crime Story" competition. I inflicted it upon the patient folk at the Swindon Writers' Cafe over the summer of 2009. Many thanks to them for listening! HTML PDF PRC

Facing the Cliffs won a "Sea Story" competition in Writing Magazine, and was published in the November 2005 issue. This makes me a published author!! HTML PDF PRC

The Sorrowful Mysteries is a really short short story. There was a thousand-word limit on the entries for the competition at the Swindon Festival of Literature in 2004, and this was my winning entry. Catholics will know what the title's about. HTML PDF PRC

Here are three that were shortlisted for competitions in Writing Magazine or Writers' News.

• The Spirit of the Game was an entry for a Summer Ghost Story competition. There aren't too many stories about cricketing ghosts. HTML PDF PRC
• Ultimate Combat 7 was a story for children, with the title inspired by the "Final" Fantasy series of games. HTML PDF PRC
• The Slot at the Bottom of the Door was shortlisted in a competition on the theme of kidnapping. I still don't know where the ending came from. HTML PDF PRC

The rather longer A Drop in Custom was written for the Bridport Short Story Competition. I took the idea from the terrorist attacks in London on 7th July 2005: I wanted to show how things like this can affect everyone. I'd like to think the upbeat ending isn't too far-fetched. HTML PDF PRC (Contains strong language.)

Two-minute Tale

The Boy with Wings is a really short short story for children, written in less than 250 words. It's about why we want to fly, I think. HTML PDF PRC

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