Ni hao

 It was only two months ago...

 ...that I flew back to England....

 ...to read my Short Fiction competition winning story...

 ...at the Plymouth International Literary Festival...

 ...where I met Catherine McNamara, Tom Vowler, Anthony Caleshu, Jamie Edgecombe...

 ...and so many other writers and interesting people...

...and it was the first time I had been back...

...since moving to New Zealand...

 ...over six years ago...

...but the strange thing is...

...I feel like I only moved here yesterday...

...whereas Shanghai...

...seems so very long ago...

...and now all my memories are packaged up, and some are already in stories, waiting to travel somewhere. Maybe these pictures will inspire you...your story could end up in Plymouth and carry you to Shanghai, too. Give it a try, the Short Fiction Competition is open for entries now.

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. 

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.

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.

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.