Monday, December 16, 2013

Lucky two

 There are the steps where...
...I bumped into... 
...Colin from Poole...
...Colin and I...
...had met...
...the previous day...
...at the airport, where...
...having narrowly avoided...
 ...paying more than the going rate for a taxi....
...he asked if I...
...would like to... 
...hail a cab from outside....
...to share...
...and I said...
...yes...
...and Colin told me...    
...all about...
 ...the city's history...
...he knew...
  ...lots about...
...the Bund area... 
...where I was staying...
...and he told...
...the taxi driver...
...to drop me off...
...first...
...at my hotel...
...but the driver...
...misunderstood....
...and went to Colin's hotel....
...where Colin offered to...
 ...hail me another cab...
 ...which he assured me...
...would take me....
 ...to my hotel...
...on Dianchi Road...
 ...which it did...
...so when I saw...
...Colin the next day, I said... 

"What are the chances?" And he said, "I know!" before going sightseeing. 

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Push her

I'm completely floored to have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for my story "Dinghy". My sincerest thanks and gratitude to Sian Williams and Michelle Elvy at Flash Frontier.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

An underground of applause

I'm very pleased to have a story, "Blue Blood", in the December "Underground" issue of Flash Frontier. Many thanks to Editors Sian Williams and Michelle Elvy for including it.

This issue is Sian's last, unfortunately, so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for accepting so many of my stories at Flash Frontier over the last couple of years - I've greatly enjoyed every piece of Sian's fiction I've read there, too - and I wish her all the very best for her future endeavours.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Sweet issue

JAAM #31 has arrived, "the 2013 issue" - unreserved thanks to Harvey Molloy and Claire Needham for including two of my poems in this brilliant issue.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Shanghai ed

 Gas masks for two....
 ...old and new....
...bicycles and bipeds...
 ...dog walking...
...dog parking...
..video screens...
...traffic...
 ...let's eat tar...
...city within a city...
...wire baskets on bikes....
 ...wires overhead...
...a head in advertisement...
...department...
...architecture...
 ...gold and red....
...red and blue...
...people passing through...
 ...people passing wearing gold plastic, passing gold...
 ...hidden blue streets with red signs...
... red lights with no obvious use...
...red and gold handbags, red phone boxes for two...
...people moving too fast to photograph...
...photographs for two...

...two buildings frame the view...