Slow-burn Short Fiction Project

How are you? It’s been a very long time since I last posted. Sorry about that.

Life has been somewhat delayed. I am thankful for many things, one being that I was many months ahead of my novel that I am working on as part of my UEA Creative writing MA (I’m very proud of it and can’t wait until it’s (hopefully) in the world in some traditional publishing sense).

However, despite now working on four novels, I feel pulled to return to my main love in writing. I have been, and remain, a staunch defender and advocate of micro (including vss, obviously), but even more so flash fiction and short fiction.

It doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Short fiction is incredibly hard to do right. Often it requires working against word limits, prompts, or time constraints–frequently all of these. There is little room for error. Every word has to have meaning. Editing is brutal. Creativity has to be maximised. I miss it.

I have, for some time, been working on an anthology of flash / short fiction based on the landscapes, people, senses and often the folklore of East Anglia. Many of the folklore inspired stories will be set in the contemporary worlds we are familiar with.

I often work with the seen and unseen. I like to tell stories from voices that don’t often have a voice, things we chose to unsee.

Sometimes my writing process can be sparked by images, sounds, words, often it is sparked by a title. This is how much of this project is forming.

Below, are the working titles for the anthology, along with current status and ideas on the storylines (where I feel able to share them).

This is a slow-burn project, which could take years to complete, but I’m putting it out there as much as a prompt to me to return to it as anything else.

Much love to you all. Stay safe. Stay connected. Keep writing and reading.

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Working Story Titles

• Title Sequence
  • An early story of the region, drafted a story on Boudicca. This might change.
• Sinkhole
  • Based on folklore of an unfillable hole that was caused by the road burial of a ‘criminal’. DRAFTED
• (Wish) Fulfilment Centre
  • Set in an Amazon type distribution centre NOT STARTED
• High | Street
  • The decline of our High Streets. IN PROGRESS
• Your Call is Important to us
  • Was supposed to be a story about a call centre, but turned out to be about a neglected public phone box. DRAFTED
• The Forbidden Dance of Mordy and Coimbra NOT STARTED
• The Parish NOT STARTED
• The C of Infinity NOT STARTED
• Corrosion
  • About a seaside town ‘rusting’ on the shore, about lost villages to the sea, about lost hamlets in the middle of fields NOT STARTED
• Preppers of the Broads
  • Pre-pandemic (I think ahead), a story of a ‘prepper’ (someone who seeks to be prepared in the event of an emergency) DRAFTED
• The Tinfoil Hat Society
  • Physical shop selling items for paranoid people. NOT STARTED
• Vanishing Point
  • Contrast story between farmworker and trawlerman/woman – both under infinite skies DRAFTED
• Boudicca
  • Flame-haired warrior queen / internet troll. Possibly to be adapted from a previous flash fiction. NOT STARTED
• Wayland / The Wailing Wood
  • A previous folklore inspired story that has gone through a few variations. This will be the latest version as published by the British Fantasy Society. DRAFTED
• Haulier
  • Life on the region’s roads as a female lorry driver. NOT STARTED
• Aorta
  • A story told from the perspective of the A11. NOT STARTED
• Standing on the (Broad) shoulders of giants
  • The Norfolk Giant, but in Norfolk Broads – set on a narrow boat. NOT STARTED
• The Pits
  • Ancient glacier indentations called ‘pingos’ that dot the landscape, as well as Grimes Graves. NOT STARTED
• Runaway
  • Modern slavery story. IN PROGRESS
• Spontaneous Combustion.
  • A story about cars, bikes and all things a bit strange in Cambridge. NOT STARTED
• Patron Saint.
  • St Edmund is the original patron saint of England (and unlike St George, was actually English). Probably set in a run-down village pub. NOT STARTED
• why be u when u can b new?
  • A digital-inspired story on reinventing who you are and who you can be. NOT STARTED
• ^Silver Linings^ Data Mining
  • Data centres in Cambridge, not doing what they are supposed to. NOT STARTED
• Biometrics
  • The dangers of DNA ancestry testing. NOT STARTED
• The Silent-scream Vending Machine
  • A dark or horror story, based on a conversation with my youngest brother. NOT STARTED
• You 2.0
  • A digital-inspired afterlife story. IN PROGRESS
• The Ghosts of Winterton Dunes
  • A story set in the near future. About love and loss. Submitted as part of my Cambridge Diploma in Advanced Fiction. DRAFTED
• A Prayer for the Fens
  • An ancient protector of the fenlands spends a day trying to save it. Submitted as part of my Cambridge Diploma in Advanced Fiction. DRAFTED
• The Girl Who Ate the Light
  • Created as a submission for Creative Writing Masters application. RE-WRITE IN PROGRESS
• Beyond the City Walls DRAFTED
• EvaAfta ™ DRAFTED
• Father’s Day DRAFTED
• The Emporium of All Things Lost and Found, and Lost Again
  • Currently submitted for Hobjects anthology (David Shakes). Awaiting news. Will appear here either way in due course. DRAFTED
• Acknowledgements. NOT STARTED
• Post Credits Scene. NOT STARTED

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