The Caretaker
ICE HOT is a Doctor Who anthology of stories set in Paradise Towers, from the 1987 episode of the same name.
Caretaker 345/12 Subsection 3 is the youngest of the Caretakers at Paradise Towers, and he takes his job very seriously. Order and cleanliness must be maintained at all costs. Then he meets Safety Glass, last of the Yellow Kangs, and he begins to wonder when the Caretakers stopped caring about what matters most: people.
Published in ICE HOT, Obverse Books 2024.
Agnes Prune and the Vanishing Hamster
A hamster has been kidnapped, and Agnes Prune, librarian and part-time detective, is about to reveal the perpetrator of the crime.
Not-So-Average Joe
Joe’s superpower is that he’s average: in any room, his skills and tastes shift to reflect those around him. When he walks into the office and can suddenly throw knives, he worries that someone is out to get him.
Published in Don’t Get Caught!, WI4C in aid of in aid of The Carers Centre: Leicestershire and Rutland, 2022.
The Ghost of the GCSE Biology Module
Maria looked down. Her paper was wet with condensation from the metal table. She was going to fail everything.
“Cheer up, at least it’s not DNA replication!” The girl next to her leaned in to peer at the sheet.
Except that Maria didn’t sit next to anyone. And the girl, along
with the chair she sat on, was transparent and floating a few inches above the floor.
Also includes A Crack in the Universe, A Man Out of Water, Fetch!, Magus Amica, Cold Caller and Snowprints.
Published in From Bloom to Blizzard, WI4C in aid of in aid of The Carers Centre: Leicestershire and Rutland, 2020.
Afterimage
I walk through Haymarket Bus Station and everyone is dead.
Corpses slump on the metal benches, draped in dead leaves. Twenty years waiting for a bus? Someone should complain. A few buses are here, rusting in their bays. There’s a driver shrivelling under his newspaper, ignoring the commuters waiting for him to open the doors.
A squirrel turns to watch me as I pass beneath it. I show it my middle finger.
Published in Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2019 Anthology Vol. 3, Dahlia Publishing, 2019.
Unexpected Item in Bagging Area
Ace just wanted to go shopping – but with the Doctor, things never go to plan. Suddenly the supermarket is encased in a time bubble and customers are disappearing – and a confused 12th century knight is challenging them to duels. If they’re going to get out alive (and with their shopping), they’ll need a clever plan, nerves of steel and… avocados.
Published in Cosmic Masque – CM XVI, 2022.
Originally published in Time Shadows: Second Nature in aid of CODE, Pseudoscope Publishing, 2017.
Carol of the Space Warning Bells & GIFTBOT
‘How do you celebrate Christmas in space?’ Jane Shepherd, Commander of the S.S. Zipoffquick and Defender of the Nine Galaxies, took a long sip of space-grade instant coffee. Then picked granules out of her teeth. ‘Sounds more trouble than it’s worth.’
SARAH, let’s get gifting! JEFF has provided me with a list of lucky giftees. What shall we get for GREAT AUNT IDA?
‘God knows. The old bag didn’t get us anything last year.’
>Searching eBay for query = “old bag”…
Published in Christmas Tales, WI4C, 2017.
The Cloud Monster
Fire haunts Carla’s life. Over the years she’s tried to forget what happened when she was six, but there’s no escaping her nightmares. Of clouds in her bedroom, and the monster that searches for her…
Published in Mrs Rochester’s Attic, Mantle Lane Press, 2017.
Also shortlisted for the Nottingham Writers Club National Short Story Competition 2016.
Chicken Legs & Waiting For God Knows What
Lisa is stuck at her stepmum’s house during a terrible storm. Her stepsister teases her, and it seems she’ll never fit in. Then she meets a crazy cat lady who knows what it means to lose someone. (Inspired by the myth of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa.)
Ethel knows that something is missing. Despite living at Bonnington Care Home for many years, and being more than a little forgetful, she’s sure that she’s lost something important. And not just her fluffy bunny slipper. (Inspired by Cinderella.)
The Sky is Black and Endless
Emily lives alone, in a red brick house that floats in space. She’s happy up here. Until she befriends Wade, who demands to know how they all got here. And why all the houses keep crumbling…
Published in Space, St Ursin Press (imprint of Trencavel Press), 2016.
Shortlisted for the Margaret and Reg Turnill Prize (Junior Category) as part of the HG Wells Short Story Competition.
Listen to an opening extract, which was played at the awards ceremony in Folkestone on 27th November 2016.
Bare Bones
“She remembers to kick out the glass shards this time. The skeleton dances on his wires like an angry puppet as she saws at them, cutting at the shoulder, then the other shoulder, and finally at the skull. He collapses in a pile, still held together by the strings. The bones are heavier than she thought they’d be.”
Published in On The Day of The Dead, Black Pear Press, 2016.
That Time of the Month & Snowprints
Amber is a were-squid. And in a class full of were-rhinos and were-parrots, that makes her a social outcast – that is, if anyone finds out. But when the school is endangered, can she come to the rescue when it means revealing her secret?
Published in The Heroes Among Us, WI4C in aid of LOROS, 2016.
Ghosts (Flash Fiction)
I sweep the shelves into the box. In go coils of lucky charms and sticks of chalk and bottles of holy water. I unhook dreamcatchers from curtain rails and tear down scrawlings in Latin and Hebrew. Everyone thought she was nuts, but we humoured her. After all, it wasn’t as if she was hurting anyone. She only wanted to see the ghosts.
Published in In a Flash, Sinister Saints Press (Horrified Press), 2016.
Zenith
“At sixteen, I’m your typical teenager: technical expert, social recluse, and a decent dancer in zero gravity. I’m also the first person to be born in space.” Zenith Abney has lived on a space base all her life, and she’s never wanted it another way. But when the crew’s twenty-year mission comes to an end, she is forced to question what it means to go home.
Published in Lost and Found: Stories of Home, Dahlia Publishing, 2016.
Hear an extract from the launch during the Leicester Writes Festival.
LOADING & Blood and Honey
People tend to think that apocalypses are loud, messy things. This just isn’t the case, as it turns out when screens across the world display only a spinning loading symbol. How long this will continue no one knows. Slowly, the population dissolves into chaos…
Published in Vices and Virtues, The University of Nottingham, 2016.
A Drop in the Ocean & Flown the Coop
“In British Sign Language, the sign for drowning is one hand held horizontally in front of you whilst the other is dragged down beneath it. It was one of the first I learned after I lost my voice: a hand slipping beneath waves made of fingers.”
Published in Life’s Great Journey, WI4C in aid of The Carers Centre: Leicestershire and Rutland, 2016.
Read the interview with Dale Anthony Church, editor and founder of the Write-Up.
Silver Lining
Summers are harsh on the planet Loria. The survival of the last human colony hangs in the balance as crops wither and die in the heat. Until a young scientist, Anya, forms a friendship with a race of mysterious and beautiful moth-like creatures. A friendship which may ultimately save the future of both their races…
Published in Carers of the Cosmos, WI4C, 2015 in aid of The Carers Centre: Leicestershire and Rutland.
Interview on BBC Radio Leicester with Grace Haddon, Charles Huddleston and Dale Anthony Church 14th November 2015.
A Wizard’s Gift
Halloween isn’t a good time for a wizard to be out walking in the dark. And when you’re Harry Dresden, bad luck tends to follow you around. A fanfiction prequel to the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.
Shortlisted for the Sugarscape Fanfiction Award as part of the Wicked Young Writers Award, 2015.
Read the story here.
Read the interview by finalist Chaz Josephs on her blog, Under The Slush.
Blood, Sweat and Vodka Shots
Human for just one night. How hard could it be? But when a young wolfwere becomes stranded in a nightclub, she discovers there is more to humans than she thought. The first Change is always the hardest, but perhaps she’s better off without her pack…
Published in Growing Pains, Sinister Saints Press (Horrified Press), 2015.
Running From Shadows
Humans don’t cast Shadows. Corpses do. As an arctic storm batters the University of Luxford, young candlekeeper Atris struggles to keep the darkness at bay. But fate finds us all in the end, and even at the icy edges of the world she can’t escape the Shadows of her past. Inspired by Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights.
Winner of the Project Remix Competition 2015 (Creative Writing Category) judged by Malorie Blackman.
Movellas.com is now closed, but you can read the story here.