Fiction

  • Intervention Paradox

    Intervention Paradox

    My first story, Intervention Paradox, won the Octocon Short Story Prize in 2011.

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  • Review: The Scholar and The Last Faerie Door, by HG Parry

    This is my fifth book of HG Parry’s and she never fails to impress. Like The Magician’s Daughter before it, this is a gentler, more involved story than the Magical Histories. But this also has a fullness that the previous book did not, following every moment of the deep friendships that this book is about…

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  • Review: The Empty Room by Brian McGilloway

    Brian McGilloway’s earlier work, The Last Crossing, published in 2020 and nominated in 2021 for Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, was his first standalone novel, departing from his established, and bestselling, Lucy Black and Benedict Devlin series. That book was a beautiful, devastating story of regret and revenge caught in a…

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  • Story: ‘Twas the Night

    Story: ‘Twas the Night

    Anthony slept lightly Christmas Eve, fully expecting the confrontation to come. When it did, it was the dead of night; he didn’t have a clock in his room, but the worlds inside and out were hushed and still. The figure perched at the end of the bed had done nothing to disturb the stillness, but…

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  • Story: And What Will The Robin Do Then?

    The bird was pecking at the glass again. Sunday afternoon, Linda put a fresh loaf of bread on the windowsill to dry. It was for breadcrumbs, which she’d freeze for the following weekend. Pete rolled his eyes at this latest escalation in the pursuit of the perfect, home-made Christmas dinner, but said nothing. She’d left…

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  • Story: Thankless

    Story: Thankless

    Happy Thanksgiving, those who observe it. I’m Irish, so I don’t, but I like the sentiment, obviously. In the spirit of the giving part, here’s a story, though it may not follow the spirit as kindly as my sharing it is intended. And if you take the time to read it, then Thanks. Thankless To…

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  • Story: Winter Barley

    Story: Winter Barley

    Happy Halloween, everyone. Here’s a little story for the night that’s in it. Winter Barley Sally hid in the barley field and tried to ignore her mother’s cries. She stared instead at the hungry mice as they shuffled back and forth near her feet; wanting to go round her, but fearing to as well. She…

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