Beyond the Dreaming

Each time is like the first time, even though each time is nothing like the first time. The world stretches and churns, then comes the falling out of the world into some place that has no name or description. It is a maelstrom of pressure, sound, colours and shapes tossing against the body as it

The Danger of Stories

This is what comes from telling stories all my life. I can no longer remember what was true and what I made up. I would tell stories in each village I passed through, for food, ale and somewhere to sleep. Then then the women came to me in the night, looking for a further taste

The Luton Budgie

Denouement Spadework was probably the UK’s leading private detective in the early post WWII period. Most of the time, of course, he worked on seedy divorces and other such bread and butter cases. Mostly just scraping by with enough left over by the end of the week for him to buy a bottle of whiskey,

None of it is True

This is not going to be one of those stories about what could have been. Nor is it going to be about what ought to have been. Then again, it is not a story about what was. None of this ever happened. At least it didn’t’ happen this way… no matter what she tells you.

The Emperor’s Favourite

She had a name. It was not the name given by her father at her birth as tradition demanded. Sometimes it felt as though that first name and the life it lived belonged to someone else. Moonmist. That girl stopped existing a long time ago. There had been other names since. Sometimes Shala had trouble

Never the Same

From those days on, it was never the same. How could it be? Grenil had lost everything she had ever known and so the world, and her life in it, could never be the same. At least she’d avoided the fate of the other girls and young women of her village. She’d watched from the

Juggling Balls: Episode 20

Go to Episode 1   Chapter 17   ‘Good, you’re back. Did he explain it all to you?’ ‘No… he…. He couldn’t. The police were there and… well… you see…. There had been some kind of explosion… apparently.’ ‘I see…. I see.’ Lisa glanced up at Martin. ‘You are lucky, in a way, not knowing

Juggling Balls: Episode 19

Go to Episode 1   Chapter 16   The woman from the bench came up to him. ‘Sir, are you all right, sir?’ ‘Mandy?’ Martin saw it was Mandy. She was wearing a wig and dark glasses. Martin could just make out the edges of the leather outfit she’d been almost wearing earlier, under the

Juggling Balls: Episode 18

Go to Episode 1   Chapter 15   Martin stood on the street outside the University. He looked left and then right as the cars sped past. The street looked just the same as it had the day before. He could just see the house: Sam’s house, his house, the place where he lived. The

Juggling Balls: Episode 17

Go to Episode 1   Chapter 14   ‘Professor Stewart?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, who…?’ ‘Chief Inspector Lever. And you are?’ ‘Bloody confused.’ ‘I beg your pardon?’ ‘I’m confused.’ Martin glanced around the room. It looked like a typical academic office, or – rather – what he would expect a typical academic office to look like: namely