Short Stories

When I was at university, a few of us decided to start a band. This resulted in many nights spent in the pub deciding what to call ourselves. One of the names that came up was Sid's Glass Bed. Although we ended up with something completely different, I squirrelled the name away and many years later, it became the title for my first ever short story.

That one didn't get published but when my father read an obituary in the local paper, mistakenly thought that a relative of his had died and turned up at the funeral of a complete stranger, the incident served as the basis for my first ever published short story which was in Woman's Weekly magazine.

I had a few more short stories published in women's magazines and was also placed in a couple of short story competitions but by then I had discovered Flash Fiction or Micro-Fiction as it is also known.

This is a very short form of fiction, usually under 500 words, that often focuses on a single moment, character, or event. Maybe it was the journalist in me but I absolutely loved having to write so succinctly and make every single word count. I was successful in several Flash Fiction competitions and one of my (very) short stories was also chosen for the Skybreakers Anthology published by Earlyworks Press.

I stopped entering Flash Fiction competitions a couple of years ago but still have it in mind to self-publish some of my old short stories and Flash Fiction into an anthology of my own. I might even resurrect Sid's Glass Bed !