Must Be in the Fifties

You know, all that happened a long time ago.

What’s past is passed, the culture has moved on now.

Mistakes were made, but it’s time to get over it, all right?

I say, let’s let bygones be bygones.

And, when you’re finished reading this satirical short story at the very excellent Mythaxis, maybe you could bring me my pipe and slippers, okay, sweet-cheeks?

Thanks to classic car image enthusiast and Flickr user SwellMap for giving permission to use this fantastic bit of 1950s advertising memorabilia. To be clear, it didn’t really say that patronising thing – and any offence caused by the story is entirely my fault…

First In, Last Out

Life gets boring without a visit to Mythaxis. For me at least.

When the editor got in touch I almost danced for joy. It had been a year since the last one.

I offered him a short story about the risks of working towards the relentless advance. I think he empathised.

First In, Last Out.

Is that a hand at the edge? Is that a person?

Addendum: although I hope you read all the stories there, I especially recommend you read Liam Baldwin’s The Lost World of WW1 and Jez Patterson’s Aye-Nay–because both of them are lovely chaps and you’ll like their stories as much as you’d like them personally, if you don’t already.

Art is never finished, only abandoned

So said Leonardo da Vinci, which can only mean that my entry in Defenestrationism‘s Flash Suite Contest has been kicked from the moving car of creativity onto the cold, hard streets of public consumption to lie shivering at the corner of Success and Failure.

My piece, a four-part journey into a fractionally changed but increasingly disturbed world future, is really meant to be read all in one go, and fortunately that is now possible by clicking on the following link:

The lines, the trees, the cliffs, the eaves

First of all, I hope you like reading my story. I’ve resisted the temptation to be explicit about what inspired it as I think the clues are there, but perhaps I’ll give just one hint – what would you expect to find in each of those places, and who made them frightening?

Second of all, I hope you’ll vote for it too. There are four official judges plus the public vote as the fifth. Apparently you can vote as many times as you want, but I’ll happily settle for just the one from each of you – and then only if you actually liked it. Call it modesty, call it a championing of the democratic principle, call it establishing an excuse in advance of poor performance… call it whatever you like, just Vote.

There are nine writers in the contest and, of course, it would be nice to win. I’m in with a chance, but it won’t be easy and I wouldn’t want it to be: you’re only as good as your competition, and some of the entries are really good. My favourite (my other favourite, I should say) is Broken Toys by Julie Duffy, who makes suburbia thrilling…

All the completed suites can be viewed here. Best of luck to them, my congratulations to the winner, and a salute once again to Defenestrationism for letting us have our fun.