Noises Off

This is the title of my latest short story, a spooky little tale told in exactly 75 words, which is appearing at Paragraph Planet today.

Telling a whole story in so few words isn’t easy – I often find that even when I think I’ve achieved the target I’m actually two words short, or three over.  After much fiddling, pen-sucking and head-scratching (not to mention swearing and banging of head against the nearest wall), I managed to convince this story that it really, really wanted to be told in those 75 words, and ‘Noises Off’ is the result.

It’s available to read free at Paragraph Planet today so head on over and check it out. And don’t forget the magazine is always open to submissions if you want to have a go at your own tiny tale.

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Got Ghosts? You will have!

Terrific news in the last few days – my new book ‘Got Ghosts?’ is due out from Fox Spirit in October, all set to coincide with Halloween!

The book is a complete romp, very loosely based on the hit TV show ‘Most Haunted’, and features a haunted English manor house, and all the things that go wrong when the film crew of (entirely fictional) television series ‘Got Ghosts?’ come for a weekend to make a programme there.

Greystone Hall’s owner Emily has far too much to deal with, including a plethora of ghosts, an arrogant producer, happy and unhappy mediums, a set of missing paintings, and yet more ghosts, not to mention a burgeoning romance with someone she doesn’t expect.

More details to come, but then if you’re good psychics you’ll know that already…

 

Fearful Symmetry

Excellent news today – I’ve had my first short story in ages published over at the Library of Rejected Beauty.

The Library does what it says in that wonderful title – collects stories and other assorted creative content that have been rejected elsewhere, often multiple times, but which the creator still considers to have some worth or beauty.

In my case that was ‘Fearful Symmetry’, a short story I wrote for a contest years ago, and have had no luck placing anywhere, perhaps because it’s told in second person point of view which can be unpopular.  Basically, it tells the story of a dark and dangerous forest during a thunderstorm, but with a unique twist at the end.  And the quote about tigers is something my own Mum used to say to me when I was a small child, which gives it a personal touch as well.

I’ve always loved the hot, steamy and vaguely threatening atmosphere I managed to conjure up in the story, and I’m delighted to say that the Library of Rejected Beauty liked it too.  You can read it over at their website, free, today by following this link.  I hope you enjoy it.  At the very least, you may never feel the same way about curtains again!

All of a twitter

I’m slowly creaking my way into the twentieth century (never mind the twenty-first!) and have just opened up my own Twitter account.

It’s much more fun than I expected, with lots of local Cumbrian and Lakeland events, venues and people to chat to, as well as all my own interests to follow such as museums, art, architecture, history, gardens, reading (of course!), ghosts, and even the odd pot of chalk paint.  And new friends made already, which is always nice.

If you’d like to track me down, I’m on as F_Glass_Author (all the better ones were taken!).  I’ll usually follow legitimate fellow-tweeters (ie, no spammers or scammers) back.

Say goodbye to Necessity’s Door

As mentioned the other day, my novella Necessity’s Door is now out of contract, and no longer available as of today.  Sorry if you missed it but, er, it’s been on sale for over three years now so where were you?!

In the meantime I’ve taken the opportunity to re-vamp my website, since I was taking all the links to the book down anyway.  I’ve checked the remaining links, added a link to that story I rediscovered recently, and also included for the first time three of my previously published stories, to read free on the site.  You can choose between Come Friendly Bombs which was commended in an online contest, Huff and Puff which was published in Mslexia, or Peeping Tom which was published by Pill Hill Press before they ceased trading.

I hope you enjoy poking around, and I hope to have more new stuff to add soon.

Story from the archives

What a nice surprise.  Like the historian I studied to be I’ve been digging around in old files and archives, and have just re-discovered a short story I had published way back in 2011, which I quite thought had disappeared.

‘Clones’ appeared in The New Flesh magazine, which ceased trading not long afterwards (although I’m sure the two events weren’t actually linked…  Ahem.).  I assumed that the magazine’s web site would cease to exist, took the link off my own web page, and promptly forgot all about it.

Just shows how wrong you can be.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet The New Flesh site is still accessible, and my story is there along with many more.  The story is more than a little strange – but perfect for Halloween, so if you want to read about a scientist doing dreadful things with a vat of goo in a laboratory, follow this link!  I hope you enjoy it, and if I find any more buried treasure I’ll be sure to let you know.

Raincheck for Roses

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted that April has come and gone with no sign of ‘Roses in December’ being republished.  Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten – it’s just that when I came to look at the manuscript I found it needed a lot more work than I’d realised to bring it up to my current standard of writing (whatever that might be…!)  Little things like matching quote marks, bigger things like removing the endless dialogue tags, even bigger things like making sure it all makes sense.

It’s going to take longer than I bargained for, and will have to be fitted in alongside other writing projects and General Life TM, but I’m still hoping to get something viable at some point during the year.  It may just be a case of ‘Roses in December’ after all!