is an introductory volume, the product of my first year of writing flash and short stories.
It’s an anthology of fifteen pieces writing published in November 2018. It’s quite a disparate collection, both in terms of length, with stories ranging from just over one hundred to almost six thousand words, and subject matter. They’re mostly fictional stories although there’s a travelogue, Harry’s Tour, and a reflection on the reluctance of deer to follow even the most basic of rules of the road.
Hopefully, there should be something for everyone inside.
The stories also include:
It’s all JJ’s Fault, the opener, a story of one woman’s attempt to ‘do something’ with her life, make a statement, before it’s too late and is worked around the poem, ‘Warning’, by Jenny Joseph[1]
Harald, The Last Viking Warrior, the story of a latter-day Mr Toad and A Fair Exchange, village gossip, are both tales with a humorous bent.
The Lavender Field is a tragedy of Shakesperean proportion
The Girl and the Looking Glass is a fictional biography of a singleton, a singleton though by design, rather than accident
In Tea at Raffles, the character of Kenver MacDonald, who’s only briefly referred to in the novel, ‘Midsummer Dreams’, is developed when he meets with three dead writers, Henry Miller, Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling over tea at the famous Singapore hotel.
There are stories of love lost, A Chance Encounter, love passed, The Citadel and a love that was little more than lust, Worlds Apart.
There’s also a literary piece about nothing, A Godot Moment, so you’ll need to brush-up on your Samuel Beckett for that one
In Dreams was shortlisted for the EYELANDS 1st International Flash Fiction Contest – 2018 and appears in the anthology Dreams, now available.
[1] © Jenny Joseph. Written 1961. First published in ‘The Listener’ the same year
