some stories
Most recent stories first, oldest at the bottom.
I have lots more to post... I'll get around to it eventually, now that I have room.
Some guide to the content is given with symbols. You can hover the mouse over a symbol to get a quick reminder of what the symbol represents (this only works in recent web browsers).
generally nice story, suitable for most people
exploration of thoughts in story form
comedy
virtual reality
androids or artificial intelligence
space
female-female attraction
sex
action story
prompted by my annoyance at something
not a happy tale
extremely unpleasant
Selena City - my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel --
This is a story set in the near future in a close to ideal society.
Began on 1st November and ends on 30th November. Please let me know what you think of it in my LiveJournal. I am still working on the ending. During November I was able to stop real life interfering with writing, but when the month ended I was suddenly buried under all the things I'd put off. I will be posting the final couple of chapters soon. Sorry about the delay.
Closed Curve (8kB) (1,298 words)
I woke from a nap with the rapidly fading fragment of a dream which hinged on a strange idea. By the time I had the computer running and had begun frantically typing, the dream had mostly evaporated, but I'd managed to weave an odd tale around the bit that remained. I know it is nothing like the dream. The dream was pleasant. I can't blame the dream for this horrid story. But somehow it feels like it didn't really come from me either... it's like it invented itself.
Invade
I participated in NaNoWriMo again in 2006 though I didn't make it past the finishing line by the end of the month this time. I might still finish the story one day...
01 - The beginning - in which Angie is introduced and bad things start to happen.
02 - Taking flight - in which Greg is introduced and more bad things happen.
Cuckoo (12kB) (1,948 words)
I wrote this fairly recently after a nighmare. The nightmare was quite different to this story and had an altogether darker, more disturbing plot. I might write that down some day too.
Once Bitten... (9kB) (1,466 words)
This unpleasant little tale occurred to me out of the blue while I was over in New Zealand for Xmas 2005. I thought I had put it up here some time back, but realised today (more than a year later) that I'd forgotten. Remedied.
Insurance (291kB) (52,000 words)
In 2005 I completed NaNoWriMo. Yay! In some ways I'm really happy with this story. It is about love and the near future. It is mostly a happy and optimistic piece -- deliberately so. I need to rewrite some clumsy parts though, so I haven't made it available here yet.
Anti-sense (11kB) (1,665 words)
I started this story a while ago, but got stuck part way through. I knew how it had to end, and I knew the general theme of the story, I was caught up on a proof which I felt was needed in the story. In the end I realised I didn't need it after all. It doesn't depend upon it, so I implied it. I'm still not entirely sure it was the right thing to do. One day I might fix that and give it the proof it wants.
Guardian Angel (12kB) (1,970 words)
This was an exercise for the writers' group I attended in Kenilworth -- the smartly named Writers INKenilworth. I'm quite happy the way this story turned out even though it is simple and is an action piece. It wasn't the intention when I wrote it, but this story would work well as machinima.
Lessons in Reversal (5kB) (773 words)
A very short piece. It actually happened, though not quite the way I've depicted of course. And I was about twice Rebecca's age.
The Controller (10kB) (1,674 words)
This was a dream. When I awoke I wrote it down as quickly as I could before it evaporated. Even so, I lost the original thing that I'd done that I'd had to fix in the dream, so in writing this I avoided it by saying it was too embarrassing. Other than that the story is pretty-much as the dream was. I don't recall ever having a dream this complex before, nor one with such internal self-consistency. I did add the thoughts on altered time streams though, because swapping streams appeared completely natural in the dream, and it was only in the retelling that I realised I was telling the story from two points of view (the me who is caught and the me who escapes), which I needed to reconcile.
A Loving Soul (30kB) (3,390 words)
This is one of the scripts I submitted to twoTwisted. It didn't get picked up. Nevertheless I'm quite proud of it and like to think it would have been rejected because of the controversial stuff anyway. This story basically wrote itself. Halfway through it took a direction I didn't want and I was thinking, "No, don't do that," but was powerless to stop the characters. At the end I was annoyed because the story wound up in a way that didn't suit me, so I went back and scrapped everything from about halfway through (a very painful thing to do). I changed the bit where everything had started off in the wrong direction. I was worried that it would be hard to force the story to go the way I wanted, but the characters took hold again and wrote it the way I'd originally intended, with a nice extra bit I hadn't planned on as well. I felt like just an onlooker.
Love Honour and Obey (28kB) (3,546 words)
Another of the scripts I submitted to twoTwisted that didn't get picked up. I think it is the best of the ones I sent. I don't feel like I should take much credit for it though because I feel like the characters in the story wrote it. It was the weirdest feeling. The story just appeared on my screen. I had a fairly simple idea to start with, that robots and androids will never be a danger to humans, but was a bit stumped as to how to turn it into a story. I even rang my Mum because I couldn't think of a way to do it. But when I sat down to write, it just fell out onto the screen. The strangest thing is it developed a whole lot of cool subtexts during the writing that I hadn't originally planned.
The Killer (27kB) (3,973 words)
Yet another script sent to twoTwisted. I'm not sure whether I like this one or not. I like the idea behind it though. I originally didn't want to spell out the ending in the final line, but my family convinced me that it needed it. Still not 100% certain.
Medusa (10kB) (1,755 words)
I've always felt the Medusa legend got it horribly wrong. I think this is more likely to be what actually happened.
Hell (11kB + 27kB image) (1,883 words)
Hopefully this will eventually become a work of machinima (VR Fiction). It was printed in the second Spaced Out anthology. Not a very good story, in my opinion, but serves to illustrate that even the wonderful VR future I dream of can be misused.
Grace (14kB) (2,146 words)
Part of a story that will become a work of machinima. It is printed in the second Spaced Out anthology.
I like the idea behind this story because it shows why all religion would be incredibly insulting to any god if such a being existed.
Grace3 (28kB) (3700 words) is a better version with 3 simultaneous threads.
Virtual Confinement (8kB) (1,159 words)
An oldie, but rather proud of this. Was also in the first Spaced Out anthology.
Restaurant Nightmare (5kB) (819 words)
When I awoke I realised its humorous potential. It is really just a fragment, as dreams tend to be.
Starry Dream (12kB) (1,975 words)
This was actually a dream which I wrote down when I awoke. Originally written ages ago, reworked more recently. Always felt it should be expanded upon... maybe one day.
Some older, not very good stories.
Simone's World (8kB) (1,118 words)
Quite old now.
Cherry (4kB) (551 words)
A fragment.
Greenies (7kB) (934 words)
An old attempt at humor... not great though.
Soaps (8kB) (1,111 words)
Another old attempt at humor.
The Game (7kB) (1,094 words)
Ancient. It came from a phrase Bruce Barnes said to me once.