Much of my short fiction takes place in the Bohemian 'burb of Chorlton, South Manchester, somewhere I spent a happy decade in various flats, houses and bedsits. While often acknowledged as a 'rough diamond', my stories take things further still - portraying various shifty sorts engaged in a variety of shifty, often sexual, behaviour around and about the place (to be). I hope you enjoy the samples available here, most written before The Blaggard, on which they have due influence. You can still buy Comma's Gothic Tales from their website. And you should because it includes my unsettling short story, The Proofreader (2004). 

Letting it Out
David wants a quiet life - to rent a new place, lick his wounds - so why, why, why go to Why Buy? lettings and encounter the maliciously unhelpful Tress? Why move into a flat with a dark and unresolved romantic history that goes back to the time of the Wonderstuff? Simple, he didn't know any better. 

Slightly Destiny
A Bank Holiday yet relaxation comes hard to Daniel Pinch - it's too hot, but when he stands outside the flat he shares with Tania, getting high, a sinister figure demands a light. On the horizon, on the bus, the population see suicide bombers while he watches his relationship slowly disintegrate. Dan's dream of the simple life seems distant, as do old times just a few months before. Is it a time for new beginnings or loving oblivion?

The Gloaming
Luria is worried about her boyfriend - she should be. Dogger demands constant care, appears to have no short-term memory, and is beginning to trace his troubles back to a camping holiday he seems to think ended in murder. 

The Forgivable and Forgettable Fire is about blame, when we should accept it and when we should learn to forgive ourselves - for the end of a relationship; the end of the world.

Bait
A terminally ill scuba obsessive is determined to feed himself to the sharks he adores, rather than fade away at home - something difficult for his family, the sharks and maybe even the reader to accept. An early effort.