Short story

  • A Ripper of a Tale.

    A Ripper of a Tale.

    Like many writers, especially those with an interest in the darker side of the human condition, I have a fascination with Jack the Ripper. The killings were quite horrendous but I’m sure they are not alone in their violence, even for their time at the end of the 19th century. What endures is the mystery…

  • The Particular Salinity Of Tears

    The Particular Salinity Of Tears

    Thalia walks the beach each day. She goes at dawn when the sun pinks the sky behind the hills and dew pearls the grass along the roadside. The beach is small and narrow, nestled between two outcrops of rock where seals bask with their pups. Low tide doesn’t add much to the beach’s depth. It…

  • You Are What You Eat

    This short story was published in Flash Flood Journal several years ago. It is very loosely based on something said in a real life incident. You’ve got to love the internet (and friends who share the weirdness with you). Trigger warning: this story is very dark, contains bad language, low morals and pigs. Still with…

  • And The Angels Cried

    I know that most people are scared of “The Witching Hour”, when both hands point in supplication to a darkened heaven, pleading to an ambivalent god for mercy, but I’ve always found the minute just before the scariest of all; the moments when you know what’s going to come but haven’t time to change the…

  • A Dark and Stormy Night: The Weather In Fiction

    I’m typing this in my armchair, looking out at the snow – it’s a blizzard out there! – and listening to a classical music playlist I have on Spotify. It’s my go-to music for almost everything I write that isn’t novel specific. It also seems apt for the winter weather outside – it lends the…

  • A Christmas Ghost Story

    ‘Know whit’s traditional at Christmas?’ he said. ‘Ghost stories. Everybiddy loves a Ghost story’ I swirled the beer at the bottom of my glass and smiled. ‘Load a shite, in’t it?’ ‘Naw, naw. Look at Dickens and A Christmas Carol. Classic ghost story that.’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘Name another then.’ ‘Well, they don’t need…

  • The Perfect Family

    In the best traditions of Christmas, I’ve written a ghost story. The subject matter is very delicate so I think it only fair to issue some trigger warnings. If you have suffered from infertility, miscarriage or SIDS, you may find the following distressing.   The Perfect Family Joe had left her after the second baby.…

  • Carniepunk by Various

    I have always found carnivals and traveling fairs very sinister places; places where the ‘freaks’ and dispossessed gather together and, at least in my imagination, seduce the unaware into the underworld, never to be seen again. It seems I’m not alone in my madness as Carniepunk, an anthology of urban fantasy stories set in and…

  • Dipping A Toe in the Self-Published Water

    It has taken me a long time of debating with myself whether or not to self publish my short stories. Part of me worries that they’re not good enough; part of me worries that I will be tarred with the same brush as some self-publishers who are happy to put their names to low quality…

  • The Rabbi In The Attic by Eileen Pollack

    The Rabbi In The Attic is a collection of short stories written by Eileen Pollack who covers a wide range of topics . In The Rabbi In The Attic, Eileen Pollack has brought together a