Announcement: Book deal & a new website

I can hardly believe this day is here, but I'm winding down this blogsite as of today. No more posts or updates will be going out.

New publication: DUST (a poem)

Grace to the mother says the emphysemic, but this is not the garden where all loves end—this is just the house where all doors close and journeys die.

New Publication: This Song Is Dedicated To the End of the World

This story took almost 6 months of picking on to finish writing, and another entire year to finally sell. At nearly 7k words, it was too long for most genre fiction zines, and its saleability was probably not helped by my choice to use Second Person perspective. Also, it's more of a character study than …

Love Curse 2.0

The following short story (satirical fairytale) was read out on BBC Radio Leeds on April 7th, 2020.  You can find a clip of that audio recording here: Otherwise, the text of the story is below. ### LOVE CURSE 2.0 The prince fell asleep on the second day of spring, after returning from his honeymoon. At …

King Far

I will not live in silent rooms
where all my mothers died;
forgotten women lost in time
feet bound by cultural pride.

A Possible Serenity reprint

This is the only other story I'll "reprint" on here at present, as it's the only other story which was been locked into a print-only magazine. A Possible Serenity https://nycteris.com/publications/short-fiction/a-possible-serenity/

Deserted Lies the City reprint

Feel silly listing this as a Publications but here we are anyway 🙂 I've put up an older short story whose publication rights have expired elsewhere. You can read it here, where it will remain permafree. As more of my shorts become available, I'll probably put them up here as reprints with links to the …

Best of British Science Fiction 2018 Anthology

"--Good." has been selected for the BBSF 2018 Anthology this year. It's a small thing in the scheme of things--just one story in a reprint market--but I'm still quietly happy and very honored to sneak on the list 🙂 Flash is sometimes a hard sell for big anthologies, and many flat-out don't accept fiction of …

Examples of Successful Query Letters

via Examples of Successful Query Letters Original article by Ellen Brock, featuring an (older) version of my ANCHOR query, and the successful version of Essa Hansen's NOPHEK query.

Leeds Writer Circle “Anything Goes” competition

I participated in my local Leeds Writer Circle “Anything Goes” competition this summer. Results are below!

Leeds Writers Circle

Monday, Sept 10th saw the adjudcation for our own “Anything Goes” competition. Judge Andy Humphrey gave excellent feedback on all the entered pieces of writing, which was much valued by everyone attending. The winner was Sunyi Dean for her story “Ice Cream and English Summers”. Since entering the piece for this competition she has succeeded in getting a version of it published by Flash Fiction Online. Read it here. Double congratulations are therefore in order. In second was Jason Heppell, also winner of the Annavation Prize. Third was Peter Richardson. Full details on the Competitions Page.

Sunyi will be a familiar face to those in the Novelist’s Group. Members will be delighted to know that she’s on something of a roll at the moment, having just secured an agent for her adult speculative fiction novel “Anchor (To Your Other Self)”. There is an online interview here that gives…

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New publication: Ice Cream and English Summers

A new publication of mine in FFO: Ice Cream and English Summers I wrote a little bit about this on Twitter but basically, this story has a Dramatic History. The short version: I wrote this, got some feedback that burned because I was oversensitive about the content of the story itself, and I nearly trashed …

Querytracker Interview

My form interview with Querytracker

New publication: John Kills Jenny

New publication of JOHN KILLS JENNY via Sub-Q, a magazine of Interactive Fiction.   Every choice matters, so pick your options carefully. A convicted murderer must play through a "rehabilitation game" to earn his own release.