Short Stories from A Flash in the Pen

I've been a member of the Authors Electric group since it was set up a little more than five years ago and I've really enjoyed being part of a very supportive collective. We blog once a month, mainly on things related to Indie authorship and we give each other advice and support in a secret Facebook group. It's a varied mix of writers - quite a lot of established authors with traditional publishing histories who have gone over to the Dark Side, but there are also others just dipping a pen in the inkpot for the first time.  There are children's authors, professional ghostwriters, travel writers, crime writers, playwrights, novelists and biographers - we're all represented.  About a year ago someone had the brilliant idea of bringing out a collective anthology of short fiction.  We all write short stories, but they're devilishly difficult to find outlets for these days, even though readers like them. So, here at last, is the result of our collaboration.

There is a wonderful mix of stories - as varied as their authors - and every one of them is honed to perfection. Twenty eight stories by twenty eight brilliant authors!  I can't mention any favourites or I risk being lynched, but I enjoyed them all. If you love short fiction, you'll find something to laugh or cry over in this book. It's only on Kindle at the moment, on offer for 99p, but the print edition is on the way and may arrive on Amazon at any moment.

My own contribution is called 'Serious Music', about an affair with a  musician that doesn't go according to plan.  It begins like this . . .


I should have been glad to come, he said, privileged to hear such great musicians,  as if  Berlin in late November was the most desirable location in the world. And not even a good venue - just a shabby little theatre near Alexander Platz in what used to be the eastern sector.

Don’t let anyone fool you. The wall may have come down, but the two cities still exist, facing each other over the cranes and bulldozers – functional socialist architecture in the east, funky, space-age extravaganza in the west. The people are similarly divided – resentment and reserve on the one hand,  wariness and blame on the other —  an east and west of the psyche. I hadn’t been there more than a day, but I’d worked out that  Berlin is still a city of extremes. Old Europe – New Europe. It seemed fitting for the situation I was in.

Perhaps I should explain that I’m English and Piotr is not. He comes from the Czech Republic and we met at an arts centre in Twickenham where I was working as an arts officer and he was playing with a group called ‘Strings On Fire’. Piotr’s tall, dark and thin and plays the violin like a whirling dervish on steroids. I’ve loved him ever since I heard him put bow to string and over the past few months we’ve conducted an intense, though peripatetic, affair. It’s hard to have a relationship across Europe with an itinerant musician. Emails and text messages are no substitute for physical contact. So, when he emailed me to say he was playing at the Berlin jazz festival I went straight onto the Internet and booked a cheap  flight. . . 

A Flash in the Pen from Authors Electric
99p on Amazon