Diversions

 

Welcome

... to a site for readers. Nothing much to see here about composing or being inspired or editing. Just stories. The process of writing is by turns erratic, painstaking, maddening, systematic and satisfying, but it is not a spectator sport, and the inner thoughts of writers should take second place to their writing.   

 

That this website exists at all is down to my friend Martin. He wanted to read my stuff, but, ‘How can we know what’s out there to read and how to get it if you don't advertise the information?’ he said.

 

I was trying not to be too forward, you see, but I have given in, and here you will find some of the short stories I have written and ways of getting hold of others.

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You can find Martin’s own writing here.

 

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'... but I don't read short stories'

Maybe you don't, yet. But think about it. In the time you spend on some pointless exchange on your iphone, you might instead have read about a life, a love, a disaster, something heroic or something daft that will brighten up your day.

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Longer than a tweet, but much, much briefer than any novella, short stories (some very brief indeed) are not competing with novels. If you are not yet a fan, you might think of a short story as an aperitif, a flash story as an amuse-bouche. Maybe, given how many novels seem overburdened with words, the terser narrative of a short story might provide you with just the digestif you need, cutting through the fat as it were.

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Whatever you are reading, why not have some short stories on the go alongside?  

 

A good short story has effort and art in every word, and, pound for pound, it gives you back more of life with its triumphs and tragedies than any other literary form. 

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Here then are my published stories, and here a few coming soon.

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'The Book'

A story to start you off.