With a second short story collection under way, I thought this was a good opportunity to say a little about the stories in the previous one: More Stories About Drugs Sex & Violence.
The collection comprises thirteen stories
written over a sixteen year period that covers almost every aspect of my writing. I’ve tried to provide some insight into them
below without giving too much away for those who have yet to read them.
Predator/Prey
The use of the second person in the narrative is a
direct homage to those old adventure games books that originated in the
eighties, where you navigated through the book by turning to various numbered
sections. Depending on your choices, you
either won or died!
In line with the choice of the second person was the
decision to write in as gender neutral a voice as possible. Despite being the oldest story in the
collection, having been written in 1996, it holds up remarkably well.
The Dog Trainer
The setting and much of the early dialogue relating
to dog psychology are lifted directly from a session I had with a dog trainer
after re-homing a dog that turned out to be aggressive. Somewhere during the process I started to
wonder what would happen if you applied the same process to a human. I suspect I have rather too many thoughts like
this.
Salvation
The concept behind this story started as something of
a joke, someone setting out to commit every specific type of murder, and
swiftly turned far more serious. Is it
too fantastical?
Death & Taxes
A reproduction of the composition piece I wrote for
my English O Grade. Proof, were it
needed, that my humour has always been black.
For those that may be interested, I received a B.
Charlie Says
For want of better term, a more literary examination
of the concept behind White Vampyre. I later attempted to turn it into a novel
with no success. Some of the material
from that failed attempt was then used in a second failed attempt to turn Tracks, another story in this
collection, into a novel. One of these
days I will complete a novel about Aberdeen
Leda
One of several pieces in this collection originally written
for a competition. In this instance the
brief was a modern updating of a myth. I
chose Leda and the swan from Greek mythology.
Didn’t win.
Carbon
Inspired by an advert for a company offering to turn
human cremation ashes into diamond via an industrial process. The character of Wayne
Two Minutes
Another competition piece and the only flash fiction
in this collection - 500 words on the subject of time. I suspect the racist language at the
beginning may have queered this with the judges. I considered removing it for the submission but
it is entirely justified for the character and self-censorship is a slippery
slope for any writer.
The Mythographer
This one arrived out of nowhere, starting with the
title which sounds like something J G Ballard might have used. Any resemblance to an ex member of The
Libertines is entirely coincidental.
Down The Rabbit Hole
The most light-hearted story in the collection. Besides the obvious references to Alice In Wonderland, The Wizard Of Oz and 70’s British
Children’s television, there are a number of references to Tori Amos lyrics in
the text. I do this sort of thing far
too often for my own good.
Tracks
Another story that seemed to arrive almost fully
formed. This one manages to feature all
three on the collections title themes along with a generous helping of black
humour. I like to think it attempts to
make some serious points along the way.
Another Nail In My Coffin
In large part inspired by the excellent charity
anthology Off The Record, where each
story was inspired by a classic song.
The title comes from Nail In My
Coffin from The Kills Blood Pressures
album. The two, however, have little
else in common.
The Killing Of Joe Fly
Competition - the body in the library. Hard boiled detective fiction with a twist. Also didn’t win.
No comments:
Post a Comment