Latest Fiction

The mystery of morning

The mystery of morning

Thick socks fall in loops over ankles   displayed like the slipped towel of a naked back   pushed further down by a bashful hand,   innocent of the artists eye.     Pale hairy soleus protrude to   shuffle across cold cracked tiles   all silent but a hiss of burning gas,   the frightened kettle screeches a warning   and I appear outside in heavy frost.     Thick white mascara brushed onto cobwebs ...
The Temporary Ecstasy Of Ignorance

The Temporary Ecstasy Of Ignorance

A false conquest (or was it)! Flash fiction From reality, a real actress, enough to supply the story, but not enough to justify 'factual'! A blast of snow threw me half-way in as I straight-lined on to the bar Reaching past to pay I sensed the stillness of your inattentive interest, black hair face, half hidden in a mess of curls you quickly tossed back straightening up, to reveal what was on offer – Sitting unattached ...
Useful Knowledge

Useful Knowledge

One learning-curve; of anything else, I know nothing! What have I learnt after living a long and happy bachelor life? I've learnt, a dog, setting off on the poop trail loop from home, pulls like a drag-hound on a scent, until exactly halfway, where, between five- yard meat-bit bribes, it suddenly becomes a bag of coal, refusing to budge a homeward inch! I've learnt, a horse on its rural ride is the opposite, stubbornly slow, like Don Quixote's pony, until exactly halfway, from where it races stablewards, like it's being straddled and spurred on, by ...
Senescence's Inner Voice

Senescence’s Inner Voice

don't behold it with dread, or dwell on its premonitions, enjoy its creativity! Pic.: watercolour, small part of 'Earthliness' my own As the bacon sizzled...smelling so good..          ...shrunken to insignificant, I'm socially-housed in lodgings, with other boars, hogs, and swine,     at the end of the meat market, by the abattoir         Someone warns me, carelessly sitting in the window, attracts old jaundiced sows, from the repossessed talc ...
An Incomplete Story

An Incomplete Story

I was stung by a wasp. was mucking about in the  paddock, the one with the flowers, on the edge of the wood and was stung by the wasp. fuck it hurt. didn't see it coming, but after, I saw it fly into the woods, little bastard. there must be a nest nearby. I'll get it. everyone knows there are wasps up here, but the wasps normally just keep out of the way.  thank god ...
Going Straight

Going Straight

between two points; by popular demand, more information on the Straight-Line club To all fellow, solo hikers, hello from founder-member of the Straight-Line club! The only member to date. A habit retained from patrolling manoeuvres. One strict rule, crow-like routes from A to B, skirting only tree trunks, rock face, deep water, police cordons, armed county-lines drug gangs, etc.. Ambush, by wolf, bear, and sloth, or carelessly coming between hunter and elk, or elk and ...
The Comfort Of Knowing

The Comfort Of Knowing

one's own character in a social vacuum; the site's become a sad indictment of the times During one moment in time on a desolute track on our vast planet, two walkers met, one stepping aside to allow the other to pass. My greeting unanswered, rejoining the path, I thought: you can't know it, but if anything bad happened to you, a stranger, I would risk my life trying to help, not because of who you are, I ...
Beautiful Secret

Beautiful Secret

kept to the end. Fictional(?) - sadly! On sunlit London streets, paved not with gold, but warm grey stones edged with glass- and brick-dust, our timeless friend, that innermost thinker and most honest commentator, is helping piece together sparsely-recalled fragments of a long journey through time. At an age when the end could be far sooner than later, I feel contentment, and readiness if grinding slowly towards stillness is what these creaking cogs turned by ...
Legend of Tabarru

Legend of Tabarru

  Hello all! Aziza Hon's debut novel isn't attracting the interest she had hoped for, thanks in part to a lackluster team in charge of marketing. A couple of first-time novelists (Aziza and Gary) prematurely released the novel "The Light of Infinite Memories" (Aziza Hon). It required drastic cuts as well as a professional editor.  The story had more potential than we were able to give it alone. In that spirit, the early chapters of ...
Die Fahnen Hoch

Die Fahnen Hoch

Felix sucked each finger in turn.  The noise irritated the big blacksmith who stared under lowering brows.  Jacques never ate at the Lion D'Or; a cheese and potato man with no time for fanciful food, nor the people who delighted in it.  Felix removed the serviette from inside his shirt collar.  He dabbed at pursed lips, the gesture almost lady-like, as Gaston the proprietor hovered nearby.  Jacques frowned into his glass.  Checking the level, he ...
Square-Meal Day

Square-Meal Day

every day, if she could afford a simple sprinkler and tank However she angled it, the hoe juddered over dry, arable land. She headed home. The family would have chapati bread again, but, needed protein, vegetables, nuts, and, hopefully today, some fresh fruit. Handcart wheel still broken, she put a sack on her back, and facing the rising sun, set off for the city. It was unusually hot, forcing her to rest up often. By the time she arrived, the ...
One For Sorrow by Steve Hart.

One For Sorrow

Suicide was the only possible answer. She was lying on the bed of a hotel room with a pistol in her left hand and dressed as though she was going to a party. Detective Rimmer turned away to look at her clothes scattered on the floor. He had a 20-something daughter and so had an idea what the kids of today wore – and what he was looking at didn’t fit. The fabrics didn’t seem ...
Shadow - Shardlake 8 Fan Fiction

Shadow – Historical Fan Fiction Experiment!

The following 'Novel Beginning' is something I was working on during the weekend. I am a fan of C J Sansom's Shardlake series but it seems that book number 8 in the series will probably never arrive now. It set me thinking about the continuation of the series which in turn promoted me to dabble with a spot of fan fiction.  The Blurb (introduction, below) is actually (probably) from another fan fiction author's writing of ...
Airship on The Moon

Airship on The Moon

(OOOO)______!______!______!______!______!______!______!______!______![[ Arrival He’d won a trip to the Moon due to a writing prize he’d received. The competition had been sponsored by the company who had pioneered space tourism, and the ambition of its CEO (the undoubted richest man in world, if you counted share price valuation) was to now make Moon tourism a reality for the super-rich. He'd tried to persuade his wife to come, but she had expressed serious anxiety at the prospect, ...