Two decades

Looking on a bookshelf in my house yesterday evening I spotted an old small press magazine that I used to subscribe to: Xenos. (Where are you now, Stephen and Rita Copestake?)

I picked it up. It happened to be the edition that contained my first published short story – Morals Profane – from April 1995. That was just four years after I tried my hand at writing fiction for the very first time, behind a market stall in Tamworth.

This means that 2011 is my 20th anniversary.

Three novels, multiple short stories and articles published, and one award nomination. And more than that, I’ve met loads of really nice people.

I guess in 20 years I haven’t done too bad.

Onwards!

Impossible manoeuvres

I’m looking out of an upstairs window at rear of the house.
It’s our house – but it’s not our house, not our road.
I see a large airliner flying very low, skimming the rooftops.
Its undercarriage is down.
It seems to be in trouble.
The plane passes overhead.
I run from the back of the house to the front to watch it.
When I see it again it is upside-down.
It veers from side to side, climbing and descending.
Impossible manoeuvres.
I cry out as it drops further and disappears behind the houses.