Short Fiction

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More Than One Zodiac in High School

“And born in the year of the dragon! Okay for a boy, but for a girl… no husband will want you! Too much fire to bear sons and every meal will be burned.” She clucked, exactly like her chicken spirit: tutting, fussing, and happiest when she had something to worry about.

The Making of Broken Embers

Cooties Shot Required - There are things you must know, Broken Eye Books

"The roots ran deep. Thrived beneath the tarmac and paving stones, pushed their way to the surface. You could burn away the grass, but it grew back."

Weaving in the Bamboo

Translunar Travelers Lounge Issue 3

Locus Recommended Reading List 2020

“The stories we tell and retell are strips of bamboo, woven into the basket that can be both full and empty. They mature with us— the green of youth, the russet of age— changing with each passing season.”

Knowing Your Type

Three Crows Magazine Issue 4

Honourable Mention in The Best of British Fantasy 2019

“Going to the fair was always a winning date. Knock a few cans over, win an oversized lumpy teddy and suddenly he was a hero. And so inspired, original for not taking them to a restaurant or a bar. Women were always easy to impress.”

Joss Papers for Porcelain Ghosts

Pareidolia (ed James Everington and Dan Howart), Black Shuck Books

Reprinted in The Dark

Reprinted in The Best of British Fantasy 2019

“She was nine years old again, a tug of war rope in a game with only one possible outcome.”

One More Song

Sirens (Magical Menageries Book 3), World Weaver Press

Reprinted and audio version in Podcastle

Reprinted in Arcana

“Shell necklaces and a side of salmon didn’t keep the landlord from yelling obscenities about stinking fish wasting his time. Even a submerged studio apartment caked in coral cost more than she was bringing in these days.”

Datsue-ba

British Fantasy Award nominated Asian Monsters – Fox Spirit press and reprinted in Mithila Review

“The white sheets covered everything except a large oval hole on the upper surface of the bedding. The duvet fabric was exposed there, a massive wound gaping in the centre.”

Kikinasai

Thirty Years of Rain (Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle 30th Anniversary) and reprinted in Tales to Terrify

“The music rang through the noise. No, the music was the noise: the applause, the shouts and whistles, Taichi’s under-the-breath swearing, the buzz of the amp behind him and the erratic dripping of sweat down the back of his neck. It was his. All his. ”

The Floating Market

Lontar Magazine Issue 2 and reprinted in Bi’an

“Towards them flew a dragon with jade green whiskers and golden flecked eyes, its undulating path sending a breeze through Quyên’s limbs. She could smell the lingering fragrance of the two dozen durians lashed in nets across its back. A vermilion bird materialized next to a rainbow-crested phoenix. The birds twisted and chattered like gossiping aunties.”

Sensing the Dust

Persistent Visions

“It was daytime, yet the sky undulated in unnatural silver, moulding fingers of shadow all around them. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a clear sky. Across the empty road, the four-car collision had now rusted into the backdrop, a reassuring marker that nothing had changed since it had all changed.”

The Water Museum

Holdfast Magazine Issue 8

“In hindsight the Kelpie Uprising in Loch Katrine in 1859 should have been a major consideration but distance in time and geography made Mancunian businesses turn a blind eye. ”

Kaonashi

Candlelight: An Anthology of the Supernatural Volume II and reprinted in Expanded Horizons.

“She turned and a small white hand pulled the long strands of hair away from her face. And she had no face. Where her eyes, her nose, her mouth should be there was nothing but smooth pale skin.”

The Boy Who Made Stars

Fantasy Magazine

“Motoki was fifteen when he accidentally created stars. Before this time, the night’s sky had always been ebony black, and the white glow of the moon had looked like a cheap spotlight left there by a film studio in liquidation.”

Under Her Skin

New Horizons, Issue 2 – British Fantasy Society

”'He gave it back,' she said behind me. I dropped the article in question, the guilt stencilled across my opened mouth. 'They dinnae give it back in the stories. Ah’m supposed tae use ma wile and cunnin’.”