(Edited to add spiffy new cover design!) At 3.30am this morning, while putting the finishing touches to the edited and expanded second draft of my first completed work of fiction, my laptop froze, and I lost 5,000 words of creative frenzy. Half an hour of despair followed until, predictably, a youngster rescued me and found […]
Tag: Writing
Planning for your Writing Goals in 2017 and Creating A Personal Writing Contract
It’s January, dear reader, so of course, my thoughts turn to new beginnings, goals, and achievables; not for my fitness regime or healthy eating plan (recovering after a brief but brutal holiday tussle) but for my writing. If you’ve read my last few posts you’ll know that 2016 wasn’t the most conducive year for my creative […]
Happy New Year, And May Your Creative Endeavours Ever Increase!
I’ve been working on a Christmas post for the last few weeks – I didn’t finish it off in time (waste not, want not, it’s saved in my drafts and may be recycled for Christmas 2017), but I’ve been thinking about the essence of what I was trying to say in that post. 2016 was a […]
Flash Fiction October 2016 – “Between”
I admit it, I’m currently on a real kick for Horror fiction in general and HP Lovecraft in particular. Maybe it’s the time of year; the evenings draw in, there’s a catch in your breath from the cold air, it’s Halloween season, and your thoughts turn to cosmic horror and undying gods beyond the stars and […]
A Hiatus and HPL…
I’ve had a tumultuous couple of months, and my writing has suffered; in fact my output nose-dived to zero. I keenly feel the truth of the (probably apocryphal) Chinese curse of living through interesting times. You may note, dear reader, the lack of any posts on here since July, but my hiatus is hopefully over, […]
My Second Work-in-Progress: The Bondage of The Soil
I love reading spooky tales at Christmas; M.R. James is a firm favourite, and I usually reread H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Festival” to celebrate the Yuletide season. The idea for a short horror story in the tradition of these greats came to me last December when I was deep into my ghostly reading season; I have a […]
Flash Fiction June 2016 – “Glaucus”
One of my 100-word stories has been published today by John Xero in Issue 12 of 101fiction.com . The theme of this issue is “underwater”. I love reading the other stories published at 101fiction; the quality is very high, so if you like reading bite size horror, Sci-Fi, fantasy and surreal tales, please check it out. […]
Office Trim
I wrote this several years ago; the idea came to me during a particularly uncomfortable meeting with a contractor. I keep changing my mind with regards to the title; sometimes it’s “Six Degrees of Freedom”. We meet to discuss resources, not people. Outsourcing, insourcing, TUPEs And how many FTEs We need, and how many are superfluous; We must trim our budgets and our manpower, our undertakings. But it’s ok; they’re only contractors, and road diggers at that. We roll with it. We don’t discuss names but Full-time equivalents Each FTE is a person, each team is two, And a gang is not as it sounds, A menacing mass of uncomprehending brawn, but Four living emissaries, who toil to shift the earth and uncover the cables Whose surge we all live and die by And as we talk, and look at charts And calculate how many people to discard, My eyes swaying, I notice the room divider. Teak veneer, with a trim at each end to hide the workings Of the sliding thing which can increase room volume productivity, Cleave its capacity, double its output. […]
My Research Trip to Belfast for “And The Buntings Flew”

I’ve just returned from a three-day break to Northern Ireland; the trip was definitely a mix of pleasure and writing research – the first thing I did after checking in at the wonderful Europa Hotel (the most bombed hotel in Europe) was to head for the Belfast Central Library Newspaper archive. And The Buntings Flew, the […]
Flash Fiction April 2016 – “The Expedition”
Today I’ve had a piece of flash fiction published at Ad Hoc Fiction, a Bath Flash Fiction Award project. The title of my story is “The Expedition” – it was published in the 27/4/16 weekly edition, but if you have difficulty locating it in the Flash eBook format, I’ve saved a copy for your perusal here! As with much […]
Flash Fiction March 2016 Part III – “A True Story”
Woohoo! Three pieces of flash fiction published in one month, my all time best! Today I have a new story published on Tim Sevenhuysen’s fantastic fiftywordstories.com, it’s called A True Story, and it is in fact based on an event in my childhood. Please have a read of my story, and check out the other great […]
Flash Fiction March 2016 Part II- “The Poke”
This is just a quick night post to proudly announce that one of my flash fiction stories has been published by Richard Hearn at Paragraph Planet, a brilliant creative writing site that has published one 75-word story every day since 2008. I’m very pleased to have my story featured as the 27th March entry! Please […]
My New Flash Fiction site – Strippedlit500.com
Flash Fiction March 2016 – “Wireless”
This is just a quick post to proudly announce that one of my 100-word stories has been published by John Xero at 101fiction.com. Please check the site out, now in its sixth year online, it has some fantastic flash fiction. My story’s title is “Wireless” and it is published in the March 2016 issue. The […]
8 Foods of Ulster featured in “And The Buntings Flew”

I recently read a great article in the Guardian Food in Books series by blogger Kate at The Little Library Cafe; – you can read the latest article here. Kate writes about the food that features in some of her favourite books, and she often recreates recipes for foods as described in such classics as To […]
Commission (Ezra Pound)
Not my poem, alas, but one that I wanted to feature here; it’s always relevant for the poet, the writer, the artist. Go, my songs, to the lonely and the unsatisfied, Go also to the nerve-racked, go to the enslaved-by-convention, Bear to them my contempt for their oppressors. Go as a great wave of cool […]
Writing With “Norn Iron” Words & Phrases
Wikipedia defines Norn Iron as “an informal and affectionate local nickname used… to refer to Northern Ireland, derived from the pronunciation of the words “Northern Ireland” in an exaggerated Ulster accent (particularly one from the greater Belfast area). The phrase is seen as a lighthearted way to refer to Northern Ireland, based as it is on […]
Hold The Front Page
I wrote (borrowed? appropriated?) this in 1999, using headlines taken from the 28th May 1999 papers; I’m going to write a followup this May, as an interesting exercise in observing what has changed in 17 years, and what remains the same in absorbing us, news-wise. Tragedy of babies born into A BUS SHELTER CALLED HOME Ferguson’s £12million spending limit Upsets the Deaf War crimes move The start of the weekend SORRY SOPHIE We never meant to cause you distress Topless photo was a mistake – Two heads four legs and sex appeal!!! Ban on Viagra to cost millions […]
For Boxer
I wrote this poem last summer for a work colleague who really should ease up but on whom lots of us rely, daily. Not tall, but sturdy London born. Not quite A Cockney. Unremarkable maybe except for That quiet determination, Hard as granite, soft as shit Your sentimentality Like jellied eels A backbone in the mush. A dying breed But don’t be dying, We need your help, as always. Your achievements chiseled from Honest dignity and care; You’re always there.