Here you can read complete short stories. excerpts from my published books, as well as my works-in-progress and books available for pre-order.
The Reason for Everything and Other Short Stories
From: ‘Sweetening the pill’
I feel the ancient fingers grip onto me. She’s calm now, and her smile is docile – it’s like drugging a dangerous animal so it can be handled.
‘This is my Catherine. My daughter. She’s been living abroad. She’s come to see me.’
I can feel the carer’s eye on me. ‘That’s lovely for you, Maggie.’ As I look up, she mouths the words, ‘Have you?’ and I shake my head and stare at the blankets, and the hard, sugar-coated sweets, and wonder when I’ll be free to leave. Will I ever be free, even in my own head? The rooms here spin around in my dreams and I’m tortured by Mum’s face as I toss and turn; she forgets to eat at first, then forgets where she is for a while, until, finally, her eyes grow cold and she forgets me. I become smaller, more transparent, until I am nothing more than a dot, and even that disappears altogether and I exist no longer in the world where she is. I awake from my dreams, soaked in sweat and tears.
Judgement Day (complete short story)
This short story follows a young, proud and naive priest as he negotiates his way through his first confessional. He encounters a woman whose devastating story leaves him unexpectedly and completely shaken, questioning his competence, and with a sudden shattering insight into just how fragile confidence and faith can be.
