Sometimes, I get a line stuck in my head. It usually stays deep down, but it’s there, working away in my subconscious mind, pulling in other ideas as it grows. Often, the only way to get rid of that line is to set it free.

The End Of The World started like that, with the line ‘The world ended sixteen days ago, and nobody noticed.’ But I didn’t want this to be a depressing story. I wanted something that is sympathetic to the holiday season (and having certain similarities with Groundhog Day might help here!)

You can read the story here.

And there will be more new stories throughout 2019.

One of those stories that started with an image in my head, and developed in the writing (what’s often called ‘pantsing’ or ‘discovery writing’). It’s not something I do for novels, but it works well for the first draft of short stories‌. In this case, I knew the main character was trying to escape from some kind of agency, but when I started out I had no idea of the twist at the end.

Anyway, this story is Freedom At Any Cost, and you can read it here. Let me know what you think!

I’ve had the idea for this story knocking about for a couple of years now, originally as an opening to a novel‌—‌but I never had a clear idea of where to take it. So I thought I’d adapt it to a short.

I might write the novel that comes after at some point, but not yet.

Anyway, the story’s called Suspicion, and you can read it here.

It starts with a man on a plane…

This story was one of a number that I first-drafted while on holiday over the summer. I can’t recall if I wrote this story on the plane, but it’s genesis was definitely the flight out.

So, you’re on a plane, with a hundred or so other passengers. Maybe you know a few, but most are strangers. Some look like they’re going on holiday (pale and excited), or just returning (tanned and tired). But others are more of a mystery‌—‌the lone passengers, the ones who might be on a business trip, or who might be doing‌…‌something else.

For this story, I let my imagination run wherever it wanted. What if one of these mysterious passengers were on a mission to save the world? What if the world was being invaded, and only this passenger and a handful of others knew?

And what if the invaders were winning?

The result was Hold Back The Waves, which you can read here. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve got a new sci-fi short for you, called Stowaway. It stands on its own, but it also ties in to the Shadows series. The main character in Stowaway, Deva, is the protagonist in the novella Shadowlair (A Shadows Prequel), and she also features in the latest book in the series, Shadowstrike (Shadows Book Three).

It’s fun revisiting characters. Often, when I’m writing, I’ll add snippets of information that hint at a character’s backstory, and short stories are a great way to expand on these snippets. So in Stowaway, we learn a bit more about how Deva made her way down to Haven.

Shadowlair is only available for readers who sign up to my newsletter, but Shadowstrike is now available on Kindle, currently at the bargain price of 99p/99c (there’s also a few chapters available as a free preview‌—‌click here). And you can read Stowaway for free by clicking here.

Back in the summer, we had a family holiday in Portugal, in an area we’d stayed in a few years ago. Unsurprisingly, not much had changed, but I started imagining what the place might look like in the future‌—‌especially a future where we were leaving the planet. Who would visit a place like this when tourists were all going elsewhere? And as the cafes and bars and shops all closed, what would it be like for the last place standing?

This short story, Prepared, arose from those thoughts. I’m still not sure if I admire the main character for their perseverance, or am saddened by the futility of their existance.

You can read the story here, and others can be found here. And, as always, I’d love to know what you think of it.

After a break for the summer, I’m back into posting free short stories. I wrote quite a few first drafts while on holiday, so I have plenty to be working on over the next few months.

The first of these is The Campaign. I found myself wondering how holidays might change as virtual reality becomes increasingly realistic. Of course, there would be advantages‌—‌no need for hours spent at airports or on stuffy coaches, the ability to tailor the holiday to individual tastes, and so on. But there would be problems, too. As with any technological advance, there would be those who wished to disrupt it.

This story came from those thoughts, and you can read it here. As always, I’d love to hear your comments.