Free Stories
Gentle reader, the vast majority of the stories on this site are ‘unpublished’. However, where things have been freely published online as part of an anthology or a magazine, it doesn’t seem fair to ask you to pay for them. So please test drive them with my compliments. If you like them, you might like to think about either buying some from other pages of the site or subscribing to my weekly short story service on the fund raising Patreon platform.
Subscribe to a new story every week- JUST £1 .98 / MONTH
If you would like to be among the first to read a new story every week then simply subscribe to my page on Patreon – once of the most reputable fund-raising platforms for creative people in the world. Subscribing costs £1.98 per month including VAT. (After VAT and commission I get around 33p per story). In return for which I will email you an original and new piece of flash fiction up to 1,000 words, or a poem.
The Silence of The Kippers
This story was submitted to a well-respected graduate creative writers’ publication SWAMP. The theme of the issue was ‘Silence’ due to Covid-19. It was supposed to be published in late 2020 but, presumably due to the vicissitudes of Covid, has yet to make it online. It’s about the sudden and rather bizarre shortage of kippers at the onset of Lockdown. At just over 800 words it’s a nice read when you have 10 minutes to kill.
47 Tomatoes
This is another Covid-19 story and has been selected as part of an anthology entitled ‘The Lockdown Project’ which is due to be published in 2021. You saw it here first! It’s about the surprising fecundity that gardeners seemed to enjoy and share during the challenges of Lockdown. If you like tomatoes, or like gardening, it’s a nice read of not quite 2,000 words.
The Three Sisters Webster
I’m not in my comfort zone writing horror or ghost stories but the London Screenwriters Festival team (I was due to attend LSWF in April 2020 but, as you might expect, it was cancelled due to Covid-19) called for Christmas ghost / horror short stories of no more than 1,000 words to put in an anthology to raise funds for ‘the cause’. I thought I’d push myself and see what I could do. Of course I left it until the last minute and, much to my surprise, was selected for publication. Some people say it’s scary – others are equivocal. Hey, it’s free to read so what’s your view? It’s tight to the 1,000 word limit so quite a quick read – best in daylight if you have a nervous disposition.
