Out now, and available as a PDF publication from  HERE . Way back in the 1990s, Cyrkel Spynn was an independent goth zine run by Alan Miller, (or Crazy Alan Craw, as he was then known). This publication had featured several peices by me, plus plenty of other writers. The zine scene was a lively, wonderfully creative and quirky, low-cost way of sharing and exploring multiple subcultures. The internet plus the rising cost of snail mail pretty much killed that scene off, but all things change. Last year, I was in the process of updating some information and wondered if there was any lingering trace of Cyrkel Spynn floating around the internet. A quick search led me to the DMMG DisAssociation Music & Media Group webpage, (so new it was still under construction), where, with a lovely example of synchronicity, I read of Alan's plan to reboot the magazine. To cut a long story short, the newly published magazine is now available, and it really is absolutely packed with interviews, book...

This story was published on Hubpages in 2009. I am transferring my work from Hubpages to here. The story as it appeared in The Zine. the cartoon is a self-portrait, showing my camera on a tripod, plus a 'Home Sweet Home' sign with a UFO in it. Written in 1992, A Day in the Life of Ondole Andlifesabitch was partially inspired by my reading of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It also  presents an accurate description not only of my own life at that time, but of life for millions of others who lived under Thatcher's Britain. Official figures at that time estimated there to be four million people unemployed. The real figures are still protected by the Official Secrets Act. However, as many groups of people were deliberately left out of the official calculations--such as anyone who had graduated from education, or who had been made redundant, or who had left the armed forces, or was aged over fifty, or who had completed a prison sentence, or who wa...

Christie enjoyed her luxury cruise, confident that her domestic robot would take care of her home. And it did - with horrific consequences.  

Here are my two my recent paintings. They're both acrylic on canvas.  The smaller, oblong painting is called Into the Trees , while the square canvas is named The Nine Sisters. I feel these show a definite progression in my painting. They form a continuation of my Birkenhead Park series of paintings and sketches, and yet they differ greatly from previous work - less representational, more expressionistic, perhaps.  Anyway, I invite you to let me know what you think of them.   The two photos above show the fuchsias which had seemingly died over winter. Look at them now, in full bloom. Looking at the lower photo reminds me that I must rescue the house leeks which are in the grey Japanese bonsai dish, and which are getting swamped by self-seeded aquilegia. I've had that dish for decades - bought it from The Old Police Station, as it was then called, in Lark Lane, Aigburth, something like 30 years ago, back when Sunday craft fairs were held there. Below is a photo of ...

  This short story was previously published in the 2012 anthology, Seaside Stories , which can be downloaded FREE from this URL:- https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241567

Here's a video of me reading aloud one of my short horror stories, Make Do and Mend , which was first published in Flash Fiction Magazine on 4th September 2019. Enjoy!

 About a year ago, I was approached by musician Michael Pillitiere, who asked if he could use one of my short horror stories as a basis for one of his compositions. The story, called Make Do and Mend , had been published in Flash Fiction Magazine, which is where Michael had come across it.  He also planned to create an animated film to complete his project, though that idea seems to have come to a halt. Anyway, you can now listen to the audio version of my story accompanied by Michael's music, where it is available for free on Soundcloud. Link:-  https://soundcloud.com/michael-pillitiere/make-do-and-mend Michael Pillitiere · Make Do and Mend

You're invited to read one of my short horror stories, Make Do and Mend , which was published in Flash Fiction Magazine yesterday. It's attracting some very lovely comments below it, also. Read it for FREE here: Flash Fiction Magazine 4.09.19 This is the second short story I've had published with this online magazine this year. You can read Whatsername  here: Flash Fiction Magazine 02.18.19

My short story, Whatsername , was published in Flash Fiction Magazine, and you can read it online  HERE . This 500-word monologue comes from a conversation I had while sitting on a bench in Birkenhead Park. A lady using a mobility scooter began chatting to me, and all the time she talked I was thinking "This would make a story..." And so it was done - and now you can read it online. You can also download a free ebook of flash fiction by various authors at that same URL.