Tonight, I was listening to the sound of growling made by dogs and wolves for my current project, Euryale (working title). At first, I wanted to describe the sound, but am now thinking to concentrate on the feeling it unearths within us.
Tag: short story
Mudlark 5
The final section in Mudlark is entitled, The Mime. I found these two beautiful performances by Jérôme Murat and Clown Adrien whilst studying the art form in preparation to write my story’s conclusion. First draft of the story has just been completed!.
Enjoy the show!
Mudlark 4
In this story, I’m using different types of (street) performance as a metaphor for relationship stages.
They’re Closer Than You Think
I thought I would share the small piece about Poseidon’s Standing Stones that I was asked to contribute by fellow writer Gregory L Norris. The story has been recently published in ‘From The Corner of Your Eye – A Cryptids Anthology’ by Great Old Ones Publishing, It’s a damn fine book which stands next to Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and Barker’s Imajica on my writing desk and features some pretty creepy tales about those creatures that exist on the edge of our consciousness. ‘Ere’s ‘wot’ I wrote:
Holidays to the coast as a kid had me searching the flat-line horizon for sea-monsters. I found none, so I imagined them. Years later, I imagined one again. I then gave her a place to live, a modest social life including friends from English legend, and of course, a leisure interest. Every monster needs a hobby. All this, I thought, ought not to stretch one’s imagination too far since individuality is embraced by the society I live in, and neighbourhoods have become extremely transient. Maybe she would live unnoticed in a town, possibly making weekly trips to the Benefits Office. Maybe she would be saddened by the lament of the gull or be comforted by the gentle shush of the sea. Maybe she would find love. Or maybe not.
And here we are. How was I to know things were going to happen as they did? After all, she is a cryptid and they’re supposed to stay hidden, aren’t they? Something about the corner of one’s eye, or is that just myth?
To explore what inspired the other authors to write about their particular beasts, please do visit Gregory L Norris’ blog.
From the Corner of your Eye anthology (June 2015)
Unable to resist the sound of the sea rolling onto the shore, Flynn has returned to Dwynllyr. But the tide had washed up a secret, which has now become part … Continue reading From the Corner of your Eye anthology (June 2015)
Changes anthology (2014)
Originally published on this website, Bruce, Wayne and Mike is about a man’s obsession with his tattoo. Described as ‘utterly surreal and dark’, the story is now available in the … Continue reading Changes anthology (2014)
The Pigeon Has Landed
‘Pigeon’ has a home! My short piece about witchcraft has been bought by Sekhmet Press LLC and will be appearing in their Wrapped in Black anthology due out in October.
Click to check out this great Literary Micro-Press http://sekhmetpress.wordpress.com/
Writing Pigeon
One month ago, I said, “I want to write a story about a witch.”
From then on, I sat at my computer and squelch-squerched through the internet mire to glean a little about these terrible ladies of legend and folklore. I found an excess of images of either seductress or crone (mainly seductress – no surprise there), along with pages of charms and herbal remedies, broomsticks and familiars; but I found no story.
I talked to a practising Wiccan with whom I work. I read about black magic and white magic and sort-of-grey magic and fluff bunnies, but still had a cursor flashing the seconds away on a blank .doc.
Many times, I bemoaned to my wife: “Witches are a pain in the arse.”
I even set it aside and wrote another piece. When I returned to it, guess what? Yes, there it was! The cursor still waiting for my input.
Then the pigeon came.
It had come to me before – not the same one, because we are talking many years ago. I was in College and the bird was sitting in the tree outside my classroom window during a test. It did the same thing a week ago as it did back then, and with that in my head, I started typing.
The story is now finished. Maddie, a witch, has been conjured in a fiction dark. And a lesson has been relearned: Just write, because the act of writing will tempt the story onto the page and save your partner weeks of listening to your laments.
Eric Nash 