Check out this wicked, vicious little story from Brindley Hallam Dennis. It’s a great reminder that stories are for speaking and listening, as well as reading and writing. I’m keen to start committing more of my work to film; I have the equipment and the stories, but I seldom have the time.
On another note, this clip makes me want to track down more of BHD’s work. It’s a perfect short story – snappy, sharp and engrossing, with a perfect pay-off.
Fiction Desk Ghost Story Competition
I quite like the look of this, and I’ve had a ghost story in mind for a while. Need to find the time to write something around plotting the new novel…
Here’s my awesome uncle Rich telling the tale of the ant and the peacock to some very happy kids – for the Guardian Children’s Books podcast, no less.
Here’s issue 2 of The Fire Crane, a magazine from New Writing Cumbria, which includes my short story ‘Nash the Mole’ as well as a selection of superb poetry, photography and landscape writing. The theme for this issue was ‘No Signal’, asking writers to question how we construct our understanding of the countryside.
I’d been thinking for some time about the traditional practice of hanging dead moles on a fence. This was how the molecatcher proved how many he’d caught, and then the land-owner would pay by the mole. The image had stuck with me for months; when I read the ‘No Signal’ brief, I knew I’d found a destination.
The magazine, which is printed as a newspaper, is available in libraries, museums and some bookstores throughout the county, and it’s free like a bee. Editor Mick North sent me not one but ten copies, which I plan to hide in random places. I’ll pop a link to the online version in the ‘Read a story’ page.
Simon Sylvester 