Waste Not
“Well now, lucky we found you,” she said.
“I wandered away from my companions, upstream somewhere. I don’t suppose you could get me down?”
“Have you down in no time, one of the kiddies has gone for an axe.”
Just Some Goblins
“Once we get inside we’ll find the buried temple and so much treasure we’ll have to come back three times to get it all.”
“What’s in there, smells like gobbos.”
“Yep, just some goblins between us and the treasure.”
Deep Devotion
This story involves brave women risking their lives to provide evidence of wrongdoing to the outside world. That simple premise was all I had to start with, and the rest just followed along. The ending came as a genuine surprise, although it made sense for the rest of the story, so I suppose it could have been subconscious.
Earth’s Finest
Graham Langdon was nervous for the first time in years. He was head of PR at a very prestigious technology company, had many years of experience and was good at his job. He’d met kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, and once, an emperor. But he’d never met an alien.
Hungry Orc
The idea for this story came after I had re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was thinking about a certain scene, you’ll probably know which one when you read the story and my mind, as it often does, went into the gutter, and this story was born.
All in the Timing
Where the idea for this story came from, I don’t know. I was sitting in front of my computer with a blank document open trying to create some short story ideas when this one arrived. It’s a near-future SF story about a young man who is something of an artist. It’s not to be taken seriously, but it does predict the future.
Biological Warfare
This story was inspired by what Elon Musk has apparently said about the need for humans to expand to other planets in order to guarantee our survival. That is, if something happened to Earth.
Genetic Programming
The common link here, and some would say the weakest, is the human being at the centre of it all. At this point my mind, as it often does, dropped into the gutter and I began thinking about all that genetic baggage we humans have to drag around with us.
Snake in a Habit
What is a moral dilemma? While in self-drive mode and faced with a collision, the car might have to decide who or what to run into. For instance, if a child ran into the road, does the car swerve to protect the child, or stay on the road to protect the driver? This is just a philosophical debate, of course, because the car will be programmed to protect the customer.
The Joys of Dating in the Twenty-Second Century
I was about halfway through another story, when I noticed my neighbour’s cat that likes to sleep in one corner of my shed roof. You might think these two events are unrelated, but to a writer, there’s no such thing. So, story in progress, cat on roof, a glazed look and a slight smell of burning and k-ching! Another story. I hope you like it.
