These are my published Short Stories:
2015
Over the last three years I have taken a break from writing short stories as I have been working mainly on writing poems for artists. Some of these appear on the My Poetry page
2014
I have several short stories published on the Cutalongstory website: http://www.cutalongstory.com/. The stories of mine that appear there are as follows: ‘Bella’s Journey; ‘The Visit’; ‘More Important than Love’; ‘Rice’;’Upriver from Bridge Cottage’. Each of these are in e-book format and can be purchased for a very small fee. You can leave feedback for me here too, which would be much appreciated. Please feel free to say whatever you like or don’t like about them.
HISSAC Winners 10 Years is an anthology of Short Stories from the Highlands and Islands annual competition winners. HISSAC was founded in 2004 by novelist Clio Gray to encourage writers via an Annual Short Story Competition and Mentor scheme. This anthology consists of 50 of the best stories from the first ten years of HISSAC. My story entitled ‘The Tree House’ is included in this volume. It is available on Amazon, in paperback or on Kindle.
2012
‘Cowed’ published in Fankle’s Flash Fiction Special in November 2012.
Earlier Stories
‘The Visit’ published in Gutter Magazine 07 in autumn 2012, a magazine that features edgy new Scottish Writing. On the surface the story concerns a meeting between mother and daughter but is really about the tensions between people that are never voiced.
‘The Tree House’ achieved ‘Highly Commended’ in the Highlands and Islands 2008 Short Story Competition and was published on their website in 2008. This story is included in the HISSAC anthology, in 2015 (see above) showcasing the best of HICCAC stories over a decade.
‘Rowing Upriver from Bridge Cottage’ is a story set in Scotland and was broadcast on Radio 4 in February 2008. It explores the relationship between a couple who are hoping for different things from a holiday.
‘More Important Than Love’ published in ‘Matter’ Issue 6 in October 2006, is a quirky story, akin to prose poetry. This story has been read at the Hay Fringe and Oxford Literary festivals, features on the digital library website at the Southbank Centre in Londoan and is also scheduled to appear as a downloadable story for e-readers on a new website called cutalongstory in the near future. (the image shows Matter issue 1 but it gives you an idea of what the magazine looks like. Issue 6 is the same size and colour.)
Trick or Treat? was published in New Fiction’s ‘Edge of Sanity’ anthology in August 2006. It is a ghost story set during the Chinese Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.
‘Rice’ was published in Staple 65 in July 2006. This is a story told from a child’s point of view and based in India where I grew up.
‘A Fine Opportunity’ published by Sheffield Hallam University in The Best of MA Writing 2001-2002
Why I like to write short stories:
They seem like poems to me, vivid snapshots in time, revealing layers of meaning and hidden truths. I especially like the ones that do not really end, that seem to go on resonating in your mind after they have come to a close. Short stories are often built around a small event, or germ of thought, that leads to huge change and marginalized characters that falter on the cusp of that change. In this sense they do not so much entertain as offer meaning. I love the way they are crafted: So much seems to matter in short stories, the tone, language, suggestion, association, symbol, and it all has to work together; there is no room to hide anything that doesn’t quite work.
Lesley J Jackson: Writer 