“Broken” in National Library of Scotland’s 1980s blog project Back to the Future, August 2019

Orange: Boxing Day, 1981

Eight-year-old Iona raced past the kitchen and into the lounge, where she’d left her favourite present: a Rubik’s Cube. Iona’s schoolmates had gone Rubik’s crazy in November; she’d been left behind and was desperate to catch up.

The footsteps halted. Jean, spooning coffee granules into a mug, registered a drawn-out moment of silence where she’d expected the click-creak of rotating slices.

“Muuuuum!”

Jean sighed, made her coffee with nearly-boiled water, and ambled through. Iona was standing, legs akimbo, pointing at the Cube. She glared at Jean.

“It’s not a real Rubik’s Cube!”

» Read online at the National Library of Scotland

“Do Not Pass GO” in Shoreline of Infinity: Issue 12, Summer 2018

» Longlisted for the James White Award Short Story Competition.

“It’s fun for all the family,” said the man from the bank. Joanna McGowan, adjustment marketer (Toys and Games), kept herself from sighing. A couple of minor mistakes and here she was, stuck with a pinstriped banker and a board game. She needed to get this one right. Another round of redundancies was rumoured, she was behind on the rent, and the jobs market for historians was bleak.

“When did you wish to market this concept?” she asked, following her script carefully. A recording of the briefing meeting would be timelocked, along with the contract.

“Our researchers favour the early years of the twentieth century.”

Joanna nodded and looked down at the square board, her face neutral. The idea certainly wouldn’t fly in Austerity Britain.

» Buy Shoreline of Infinity: Issue 12
» Watch the launch event for Shoreline Issue 12, including a reading from “Do Not Pass GO” by fantastic writer/actor Debbie Cannon (starts about 01:52:15)

“Team Building” written for Edinburgh International Book Festival, 29 August 2016

» Selected to read on the Book Festival’s closing night by the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust.

Aphra had worked at the National Library for a month before anyone mentioned the Void.

She was a book fetcher. Three of them worked their floor: Aphra, Giacomo and Doris. Giac was fat, bald and mansplain-y; Doris gaunt, granite-haired and taciturn. Requests from the Readers’ room curled endlessly out of a fax machine. A fax machine! Aphra had accepted the Library would be filled with musty old books, but a fax machine was a whole nother level of obsolescence. Why didn’t they use email?

She shouldn’t have asked that out loud.

» Event details on the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust website

“Build Guide” reprinted in Best British Fantasy 2014 (July 2014)

“Build Guide” has been selected for Salt Publishing’s Best British Fantasy 2014, edited by Steve Haynes.

» Buy The Best British Fantasy 2014

“Amazing Dancing Bear” performed at Illicit Ink, 01 December 2013

Photo by Chris Scott/Flickr

Emily knows, alright?

She’s seventeen, not seven. She knows all that glitters isn’t gold, she knows good things come to an end, she knows it’s always jam tomorrow. And she knows the bear can’t dance.

But, doesn’t she deserve a little magic?