Scale and Perspective | Short Story

The house on the mountain. It was as good a name as any.

There was a path, such as it was, cutback atop cutback, gouged into the loose soil and the scree on the side of the rockface. The sun spooled out over the mountain face within which the house was crammed for only a few hours every day, fewer in winter. When the pale warmth hit the face, the ice thawed and rocks fell like teeth from blasted gums, hurtling down to threaten anyone foolish enough to be climbing. In the summer, meltwater eddied and gushed from on high, thrumming down and beating upon the weathered rock. What stone and stream did not deter, terrain made fools of. Air and wind yawned around the bare faces; only trembling wildflowers and feather-bustled birds were brave enough to cling on.

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Shadow and Light | Short Story

A highly detailed, high-resolution image of a front door with coloured glass in its windows. The door is from 1940s Britain and is in deep shadow at night. There is an air of mystery about the door.

Keep the home fires burning; that was what the troops had sung in the Great War. And she does, never going out without a carnival glass lamp switched on to welcome her home, its warped, lead-lined shapes throwing up a kaleidoscope of shapes against the wallpaper.

Locking the front door behind her, she starts the Morris and lets it tick over, still glancing through her front window at the bright, coloured glass. The blackout is still in force, of course, but no German bomber is going to release its cargo based upon seeing a carnival glass lamp from twenty-thousand feet. She pulls away from her front door, the gravel crunching beneath the Morris’s thin tyres.

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Creep and Cold | Haiku

Peat smoke from a small village hanging low across a Peak District valley in the dusk. The houses are low, stone buildings. A cold river winds its way through the valley. There is a quaint, country feel to the image.

The nights are fair drawing in now – a couple of appropriately themed haiku

Dawn just breaking across a dark winter sky, There are still stars in the sky but they are slowly being overtaken by the dawn.

Creep

Sly light creeping slow,

struggling against steadfast stars –

the damp blue of dawn.

Peat smoke from a small village hanging low across a Peak District valley in the dusk. The houses are low, stone buildings. A cold river winds its way through the valley. There is a quaint, country feel to the image.

Cold

Peat smoke ribboning

across Peak District valleys,

above cold rivers.

Thanks for reading folks. Recent short stories include ‘The Kinmount Straight‘ and ‘The Clacks‘.

Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.

The Year of the Runaways | Book Review

Front cover of the paperback version of 'The Year of the Runaways'.

The Year of the Runaways

Sunjeev Sahota

468 pages

Paperback

Picador Collection

2015

ISBN: 9781035061761

Review

‘It really is a pathetic thing. To mourn a past you never had. Don’t you think?’

The scope of ‘The Year of the Runaways’ might put the frighteners on any author. Migration into Britain, visa marriages, modern slavery…these are not easy subjects to write about in Brexit-inflamed, red-op apoplexy infused Britain. Nevertheless, it is into these waters which Sunjeev Sahota sails us, steadfastly and skilfully.  

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The Kinmount Straight | Short Story

Front cover of the literary magazine 'White Witch's Hat' featuring a scary-looking witch.

My festive ghost story ‘The Kinmount Straight’ has been published in ‘White Witch’s Hat and other Yuletide Ghost Stories’ courtesy of Heavenly Flower Publishing.

All is not as it seems as a man drives south on the A75 as night falls, one of the most haunted roads in Scotland…

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWRP99CP

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FWRP99CP

Thanks for reading folks. Recent short stories include ‘A Prompting at Greysteer House‘ and ‘The Clacks‘.

Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.