"Fragments from a Schizoid Dream" - Reading

A reading of "Fragments from a Schizoid Dream" soon to be published by Black Pear Press in their Hard Times Happen anthology.

Story acceptance by "Hard Times Happen" anthology

 

I've just had a story accepted for publication in the Hard Times Happen anthology published by Black Pear Press following a competition run by Worcestershire Litfest & Fringe in conjunction with the Time to Change mental health charity.  The theme of the competition was, as the title suggests, "hard times happen" and it was focussed on mental health issues and mental health awareness.

The story, "Fragments from a Schizoid Dream," is technically a flash piece as it is only 280 words long and is a revised excerpt from the short story "Fragments of a Schizoid Dream", which was originally published in the anthology Darkness Rising 3 and was later collected into the collection, Ugly Stories for Beautiful People.  I've always had a soft spot for this particular story as it was the first short story I ever wrote - a tale of a man performing a Turing-style test on an AI to determine if it actually was genuinely intelligent, who then, in true Dickian fashion, starts to see his own reality unravel as he starts to work out that all human intelligence is actually scripted, like a computer programme, and that free will does not exist.  His ultimate fate is to be that he realises there is no free will and so is cursed to live out the rest of his days as a passenger in his own skull, watching the pre-scripted drama that is Life, play out around him.   As this was my first short story, I was very happy with the actual idea and its execution, but I did not have my own voice.  It is, I suppose, a perfect example of juvenilia.  In my youthful arrogance, I instantly started sending it to the leading magazines of the day - Fantasy & Science Fiction, Playboy, Omni and the like, and despite it being a mish-mash of "Philip. K. Dick written in a deliberate copying of Clive Barker style" actually got an expression of interest from Amazing Stories.  I revised it and resubmitted on their instructions, but ultimately did not hear back from them.  In some ways this was not a great start as it just reinforced the youthful delusion that all my work was obviously going to get published by big Pro-markets, as this had very nearly done so even though, at the back of my mind, I knew it was not "genuine" - even though the idea was 100% me, I hadn't yet found my own writing voice.

Thus it sat on my laptop until a few years later when I found myself, 18 months into a stint of teaching English in Barcelona and smoking way too much weed, experiencing a nervous breakdown.  In an attempt to wrest something productive from that time, I rewrote the story from scratch, using the experiences of reality and ego collapse that I was feeling at that time, as a structure for the basic plot.  Pretty much everything that happens in the resulting story was basically a diary of my experiences of that period (minus the talking computer).  Even the scripts of code exploding from people's heads and seeing everyone as automatons came from a skunk experience I had had which later caused flashbacks in Barcelona.  However, while the story was essentially a diary, with the only fictional elements being the talking PC and he character's names, I was really pleased with the end result, for I felt I had finally, finally, found my own unique voice.  

And, of course, when I finally got round to submitting this new and improved masterwork for publication, absolutely no-one wanted it.  Eventually it got published by a very Small Press magazine called Ammonite and then later by the more prestigious, Darkness Rising. But this did give me a sudden dose of reality into the difficulties people normally face in getting work accepted for publication.  

That said, even though I have always considered myself a story-teller rather than a "prose stylist", I was very happy with some of the language that came out from "discovering my voice," to the point where I later had a few excerpts published as haikus (reproduced below) - I can't even remember where now (Purple Patch magazine, maybe?) - and now, two short scenes from the story published in their own right, in Hard Times Happen.  

I will update you when this anthology is finally published.

Fragments I

The dancing people -

Bizarre living photographs

In a pop-out world.

Fragments II

The old woman plays

Solitaire, cold sun arcing

Over her wet bench.

Another flash adaptation for radio by OMF Theatre

 

Just heard that I've had another flash story accepted for adaptation by OMF Theatre for Season 2 of Barmy Nonsense to be broadcast on Liskeard Radio.  Season 2 will apparently be broadcast some time around Easter 2021.  The story being adapted is "Genuine Photo" which was first published in A Cache of Flashes and was also shortlisted for the 2016 Worcestershire Literary Festival Flash Fiction Competition (reading below).

Reading tonight at "Wordcraft"

 

I'll be reading "Gimp World", a story which was originally published by Horror, Sleaze, Trash at the Wordcraft spoken word event tonight.  Run by Staffordhsire Poet Laureate, Emily Galvin, Wordcraft normally operates in the Birmingham area.  I've been hoping to check them out for a while now but had never gotten round to it.  Now everything is online though, I managed to attend their last night and will be appearing at tonight's event, which is run live through Wordcraft's Facebook Page.  While I much prefer live Readings in real venues, the one bright spot about the pandemic and the resulting shut-down of venues, is that I've managed to find the time to branch out from my usual haunts and make contacts that I had wanted to make for a while but never had the time or energy to actually initiate.

It starts tonight at 7:30pm (GMT) at: https://www.facebook.com/events/757035355157366 

"British Bizarro Book Fair" - 19th - 21st December 2020

 

Following on from the successful US Bizarro Book Fair a few weeks ago, the weekend of the 19th to 21st December sees the launch of the British Bizarro Book Fair,  a virtual book signing event with Madeleine Swann, Jay Slayton-Joslin, Duncan Bradshaw, Dani Brown, Luke Kondor, Peter Caffrey, Bill Davidson, Chris Kelso and myself.

From the organiser:

"How it works: On the day of the event, Babou691.com will host our 9 authors at their "tables" (pictures of tables really). Click on an author's table to learn what they have for sale and how to buy from them."

Find more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2769775419907453/

Flash adaptation / sketch performed by OMF Theatre on Liskeard Radio - Sunday 22nd November 2020

 

An adaptation of my flash fiction story, "The Pub Fight", which was originally published by Bizarro Central, was broadcast as part of the Barmy Nonsense comedy strand on Liskeard Radio.  The brainchild of OMF Theatre, Barmy Nonsense is currently being broadcast online and on 87.7 FM by Liskeard Radio.  I know OMF hope to get Radio 4 interested in it, which would of course be fantastic!

The performance can be heard below (starts at 3:33).

Reading tonight at "42"

 

I've been avoiding doing online readings for a while, partly because I spend all doing doing tutorials online so the last thing I want to do is spend another few hours sat in front of a computer screen, but also because it just felt like a poor substitute for the real thing.  However, as the pandemic - or at least the Government overreaction to it - shows no sign of easing, and as the writing prompt for tonight's 42 session was "2020", I thought tonight might be a good opportunity to read "Gimp World" (originally published at Horror Sleaze Trash) for the first time in public.

Then again, as it is online it does also mean people are no longer limited by geographical location.

"42" starts at 19:30 (GMT) on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85774152824

UPDATED:  Now I've done a reading online, I think I prefer it to doing it live in many ways!  I can smoke, drink (normally I have to drive home), read while sitting down on my fat arse, and while you miss the reactions of the audience as you read, you do get a written record of reactions which you can keep for posterity (and to boost your ego, when necessary)....

Drabble published at "Horror Tree"

I somehow missed this one coming out.  A short drabble entitled "A Cerebral Vacation" was published by Horror Tree as part of their "End of Summer Special" back in the end of September.

You can find it here.

Reading on Radio WM

Radio WM featuring a reading of mine later today, between 8 and 9 (as broadcast earlier in the year). Apparently they think it's "spooky" so are re-broadcasting it again as it's almost Halloween.

Kind of nice they keep track of this stuff.

Radio WM.

Nice surprise - Story in a new anthology

Well, that's a nice surprise. I had a story - "Teach Control as a Foreign Language" published on the Trembling With Fear site around 18 months ago, and completely forgot that part of the deal was that it would also be published in a print anthology.  The anthology is now out and is available from Amazon UK here.

Reading on BBC Radio WM tonight.

Just a quick post to say that I will be reading my story "Marks on a Page" on BBC Radio WM between 8:20 and 9pm tonight.

New drabble accepted by "Trembling With Fear."

Just had a drabble - "A Cerebral Vacation" - accepted by Trembling With Fear, which should be appearing in their "Holiday Special" later in August.  This was a new one for me as I don't usually write stories of that length (100 words or so).  In fact, I am generally quite dismissive of the drabble as a storytelling format; while you can tell a complete, interesting or moving tale in the more accepted flash length of 1000 words or so, I rarely read drabbles that have much of an impact on me.  They tend to either be poems adapted to prose - all imagery and purple wordplay - or "shrug your shoulders" mood pieces which leave you wondering what the point of them was or, worst of all, "Gotcha!-style" vignettes along the lines of, "Here's 90 words and here's the last ten.... I was the vampire all along!"

That said, I had an idea that was no more than a flash piece and I wasn't even sure if it was that so I wrote it to its natural length.... which turned out to be a drabble.  I may redraft it as a flash piece at some point but even though I like the idea I have so many things to work on it will probably stay as is.

I will post the link to Trembling With Fear when it is published.

New story at "Horror Sleaze Trash"

Well, that's a personal record!

Finished writing story at 6:30pm on Tuesday, published by 4:30pm on Wednesday. 

22 hours! 

Only possible of course to the quick turn around by Arthur Graham at Horror Sleaze Trash.

My one (and only) pandemic-inspired story (am I the only one disappointed by the lack of imagination of Competition runners, editors and Commissioning editors in wanting stories on "people's experiences of the pandemic" or "tales of isolation")?

Anyway, here's mine, for what it's worth.  "Gimp World" is available at Horror Sleaze Trash now.


P.S.  It does leave my current dilemma of having no stories to submit unresolved, however.  In the last few weeks I have written this and a 100 word drabble.  As noted above, this was accepted within 22 hours and the drabble was accepted by Trembling With Fear within three days.  I'm not complaining, obviously, but still.....

New flash piece at "The Cabinet of Heed"

I have a flash fiction piece published this month at The Cabinet of Heed.  Funny - I've been submitting stories to them for ages with no joy, but they accepted this piece and in the confirmation email seemed really impressed with it.  Just goes to show that you can't predict what people will think of your work and there is rarely (although there are a few exceptions) such a thing as "an editor who doesn't like my work."

"The Hole in the Wall" is the only story I wrote last summer (no idea why I was so unproductive - it may have been because I was trying to lose weight so was walking for hours every day as well as fasting, and while that was really effective for weight loss, I found it hard to concentrate on anything) but I liked it and it went down really well when I performed it at the 42 Spoken Word event last year.

Anyway, "Hole in the Wall" can be found here - Cabinet of Heed.

"The Bumper Book of British Bizarro"

Just received a copy of The Bumper Book of British Bizarro featuring my story "Nanny Knows Best" (The Epilogue, not the Prologue of the same name which was published by The Wild Word).  I haven't had a chance to read any of the other stories yet but it looks like an interesting mix of poems, flash fiction, short stories, comic strips and visual art. 

The anthology is available from Amazon here in both paperback and Kindle formats.