The aim of this blog when I started was to follow my progress
in putting together a collection of my short stories with the plan to
self-publish.
The writing of these stories has been under way for a while
now and all seven are at various stages as I do everything to avoid the dreaded
five (see my earlier blog post about what used to stop me writing).
This week I thought I would go into more detail about the
project itself and talk a little about each of the stories that will be
included.
So, without further ado . . .
UNCANNY TALES: volume 1
“The Past Is But
Prologue”
IMPRISONED
Peter Grainger has
spent the last few years being moved from prison to prison. He knows he will
never be set free and his reputation makes him feared by those on both side of
the bars. He thinks he has seen all that evil has to offer. Today he will
realise he hasn’t.
IMPRISONED was written as a 2000 word story for an SFX
Magazine competition back in 2006 (I think). It was originally called The
Decider and it made it into the final fifty despite having minimum editing. I
wonder how it would have done had it been writing by present day me instead
with a group of readers to help me shape it.
Last year I rewrote the story, breaking it free of its word
constraint and allowing Peter Grainger to be a character with feelings and
history. It’s had several drafts and is the closest to completion.
JINGLE HELL
A freak snow storm
forces a small group of people to spend the night trapped in their office
building. It doesn’t take long before tension grows among some of the staff.
But there are worse things to worry about then people’s bad habits and half
empty vending machines. Something else has come with the snow. Something
undead. Something hungry.
I came up with the idea for this about eight years ago when
heavy snow did leave several work colleagues unable to get home one night.
Nothing horrific happened to them.
This is still in early stages but will end up being close to
novella length.
THE OFFER
Colin has skills but he
doesn’t have much confidence. He’s also never been asked to attend an interview
that he never applied for so today he’s a little dubious. Will Colin get the
job? Does he want the job? What exactly is the job?
This is one of those stories that came from such a small
idea. How long would you stick at an interview that got weirder and weirder at
each stage?
LOVE BITE
Alex loves his wife
Lorna. Despite some tough times he couldn’t imagine life without her. But some things
just don’t get covered in your vows. Like what to do when the woman you love
becomes a Vampire. Can this marriage survive such a dramatic lifestyle change?
This one was written for an online writing group just before
I got married. It had to be a 1000 word horror / fantasy / sci-fi story using
the theme of love. When I was looking at my stories to include in this
collection I originally dismissed LOVE BITE but then I decided to set myself
the challenge of fixing it.
THE CHALLENGE
On tonight’s episode of
‘The Challenge’ we’ll find out if one of our new contestants has what it takes
to kill the indestructible Sean Newman.
After a morbid discussion with colleagues about the fear of
surviving a suicide attempt with a disability I wondered what would happen to a
man that wanted to die but could not be killed. I didn’t know what to do with
it until a few months later I caught the last hour of the Running Man on late night TV. It’s kind of an extreme Britain’s Got
Talent.
FIGURE OF EIGHT
Ben and Tim are dealing
with their parent’s divorce and have moved to a new house with their mum. One
day they spot their neighbour behaving strangely in his back garden. Tim just
thinks their neighbour is crazy but his older brother is sure there’s more to
it than that.
This is one of the most personal stories I’ve ever written
and came about last summer while I was walking my son around our back garden in
a figure of eight to help him nap. I had my movie soundtracks playing on my i-pod
and my brain wandered as it usually does. Half an hour later and I had an idea
for a story that put a supernatural slant on what I was doing, simple as that.
As my son slept I continued to form the story and spent the next week of lunch
breaks writing it up.
STAR
In the blackness of
space, on the edge of our galaxy, a being appears and begins its journey
towards our planet with a single, important purpose.
This piece is short and sweet; a nice way to round out the
collection. It was written as part of the same writing group challenged that
LOVE BITE came from. This theme was transport. I went as far from obvious as I
could.
So that’s the seven I’m currently working on at the moment.
I’m hoping I can have this available to purchase by the end of the year at the
latest; earlier would be fine but I don’t want to rush it. It does seem like a
relaxed goal but there’s a lot to do after the writing that is new to me like
cover design and e-publishing.
If things work out well then I have plans to keep the
momentum going into year two. I have more short stories that I’d like to put
out as UNCANNY TALES: volume 2 as well as releasing the first NaNoWriMo novel I
finished. And to top it off I’m hoping to start a project I’ve been planning
since last year by releasing a ten part story as monthly novellas.
I really hope this is the small start to a big future but for
now let’s just see how I do with UNCANNY TALES: volume 1.
See you in seven.
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