Cherrypicked stories
Xion Island Zero: Chapter 33
Alan wakes up. He’s missed the best part, which I think is ungrateful of him. I need to poke him, or worse, but I don’t want him to leave me again...
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- 48 reads
Bound
You sing We are Bound I float in your wake. I’ve had a day of reprieves: My life sentence postponed, A deadweight drowned. The pearls asked of me...
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- 48 reads
Jasmine Tea
The call came early on a Saturday. My sister. Panicked. She’d rung our mother and found her breathless, confused, whispering in a voice that no...
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- 62 reads
To Tell You The Truth — Part 2/2
The next week, you leave the TV on for background noise and sit at the kitchen table, waiting. She’s late. You tell yourself it’s just traffic. Or...
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- 69 reads
To Tell You The Truth — Part 1/2
You were somebody once. Awards, panels. Interviews that felt more like coronations. You told other people’s life stories better than they could...
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- 70 reads
Dawn Waits for No Man
This is my latest work. I had some issues with the "Chorus," which I think might be a bit better in this written version. I've always panicked faster...
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- 4 comments
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- 79 reads
Whatever the weather …
Whether the weather suit you, or whether the weather suit me, whatever the weather we’ll weather the weather together … some blether and blather,...
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- 10 comments
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- 136 reads
Let Me Go Back
Dear diary...it's June 24 th 2025. Glastonbury festival has now arrived, surrounded by faces immersed in music. I fix eyes on knowledge of past,...
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- 11 comments
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- 129 reads
Xion Island Zero: Chapter 32
I am filled with hatred. But today it gives me clarity. He chokes, and I watch him die. He fights it. This man wants to live when he has nothing left...
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- 6 comments
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- 79 reads
Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (1)
Night sounds permeate woods, a nocturnal topography spot-lit silver by a diaphanous moon. Cumulus clouds drift silently, pregnant with seasonal...
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- 18 comments
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- 268 reads
Alien Species in the Garden Centre
I'm never sure if I'm in a goldfish bowl looking out, or if the world is a goldfish bowl and I'm looking in. The usual answer is both or either...
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- 103 reads
Party Fashions
My father had a gift for humour—sharp, innuendo-laced, and often just a little too pleased with itself. He came from a decent family, trained as a...
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- 204 reads
Dead Man: 6 (ii)
John thought back to that moment. It was the Christmas holidays, and he'd got a temporary job, helping out in the stock basement at a department...
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- 111 reads
Dead Man: 6 (i)
John discovers that he isn't alone after all... John opened his mouth to answer, but there was nothing. Instead he just sat there, gaping at this new...
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- 85 reads
The Vagaries of English Weather
Image from Wikimedia Commons by Heinz-Josef Lücking.
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- 6 comments
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- 152 reads
throwing bricks
If words were bricks, there's no building can hold my feelings, make today's News watertight so tears cannot get in; I'd hurl these at you Murderer!...
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- 16 comments
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- 307 reads
Pudding Detective - Chapter 4
Pudding's dreams were always weird. But since becoming a detective they had taken on a whole new level of weirdness.
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- 73 reads
Fifty-One Empty Places at the Dinner Table
Who can sleep while the genocide goes on in Gaza? Certainly not me.
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- 34 comments
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- 826 reads
Answer (Episode 14 - The Further Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid))
In which Aefelthrith provides an answer but it's not quite what Gwladys was expecting!
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- 4 comments
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- 111 reads
Xion Usland Zero: Chapter 31
Nash was behind Norton, and she was closing in on the Harley. Travis turned in his seat. They were right behind Norton on his tail, and for a second...
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- 4 comments
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- 76 reads