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Short Story Performance

Yesterday’s post has been rendered slightly redundant by the fact that the writing classes I was looking at are all full.  That’s what happens when you haver…  However, I’ll be more on the ball for the next round. Thanks to everyone who left me advice, you’re all stars!

In the meantime, can you access Glasgow with ease?  Do you like listening to stories?  Well then you should head along to The Old Hairdressers tomorrow (Thursday 13th) at 7pm to hear the recording of Outside Thoughts, a short story podcast.  The very first story, Je Ne Regrette Rien, was written by me and is being performed by ‘a great young actress’ according to the people behind the project, which I’m sure you will agree is excitingly cryptic.

Unfortunately I have a prior engagement (seeing A Dream on a Midsummer’s Night as performed by the wondrous Wee Stories in Portobello) so I will have to listen online later, and of course I will stick up a link when it goes live – but if you want to soak up the ambience as it happens then you should very much do so.  It’s only £2!

Find Outside Thoughts on Twitter @ShortFictionPod and on Facebook here.

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Pictonaut Challenge – Any Direction

This month’s Pictonaut Challenge is Sci Fi, in honour of the release of Mass Effect 3. That’s a computer game, for those not in the know, and to be brutally honest it is of little significance in my life. My gaming habits are restricted to endless Tetris and getting stuck on Monkey Island, with a bit of Wii Bowling/MarioKart for luck. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, ‘plunges you into an all-out galactic war to take Earth back from a nearly unstoppable foe.’ No coloured blocks or weak puns, then.

Continue reading “Pictonaut Challenge – Any Direction” →

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Pictonaut Challenge – Faces in the Woods

I have some lunchtime reading for you in the form of February’s Pictonaut Challenge, hooray!  This picture screams fantasy, I’m sure you will agree, so I cracked out some silly names and had at it.  Enjoy.

“Fancy a bit of banana loaf?” Razir said hopefully.  He really wasn’t looking forward to trying to cross the ravine, but the other two were eager to press on.  There again, both of them could swim. 

“It’s got nuts in,” he added lamely.

Continue reading “Pictonaut Challenge – Faces in the Woods” →

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The Reliquary

Every month The Rogue Verbumancer posts a photo on his blog and demands the people of the internet write a short story about it, posting links to every entry at the end of the month for all to see.  He calls it the Pictonaut Challenge and you can join in too, if you like, for it is open to all.  This is my one for January.

Continue reading “The Reliquary” →

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The Psychedelic Lady

As December finishes, it is time for another entry to The Pictonaut Challenge.

For those who don’t know what that is – every month The Rogue Verbumancer (also known on the Twitter as @Glempy) posts a different picture on his blog and invites people to write a short (around 1,000 words) story around it.  Entrants post their attempts on their own sites, or can send them to TRV if they don’t have one, and at the end of the month he does a post linking to them all.  It’s a nice way to flex your writing muscles, particularly if you are working on something that is doing your head in or if you are stuck for ideas and would like a fixed exercise to get you thinking.  It’s also really interesting to read the different ideas people take from the same image.

I began writing my December entry during breaks at work, but when I went to finish it today realised I didn’t actually email it to myself.  So I wrote a different one, in about an hour (using my favourite app, Write or Die, to get to 1000 words in just over 20 minutes and then revising it in the remaining 40), which I have posted below.  It is really not my best work, but such is the nature of the first draft, and hopefully the rawness will help you understand why the fact I have drafted all these books does not mean they are ready to read yet… Continue reading “The Psychedelic Lady” →

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The Sphere (November’s Pictonaut Challenge)

We are now into the third month of Glempy’s Pictonaut Challenge, and what a month it is.  I don’t know what this is a picture of, and I don’t darn well even care, but I wrote a short story about it anyway.  I look forward to reading your one.

Continue reading “The Sphere (November’s Pictonaut Challenge)” →

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