Utility

An insight into the treatment of Jared, a synthetic human, and his kind, following one of many unending battles in an apocalyptic future.

Utility was developed from a discarded scene from my short story, There’s Always Another, as I was over the allowed word length. But as I felt it was a strong scene, I ‘topped’ and ‘tailed’ it and submitted it to Antipodean SF, who published it online.

Part of the magazine’s publishing process is to include an audio recording. See the links below.

There's Always Another

The “Jareds” are the most recent model of synthetic (syn) soldiers fighting an endless war in the near future. A battle looms, and it’ll be a disaster if the humans don’t listen to Jared. But, of course, they don’t, and it’s only due to Jared’s actions leading a motley band of syns that the day is saved.

In the process, Jared rescues a wounded human. But that human now has a dilemma: how can he face his brothers in arms, his family with the knowledge that a “slim”, a syn, saved his life? Worse, he’s promoted and receives a medal, but all he did in the conflict was nearly get himself killed.

What does he do?

I wrote this story as an assignment for my bachelor’s degree and to better understand the world of the main character, Jared, Who is one of the lead characters in my novel, Tomorrow’s Not Promised. I felt I didn’t understand his world and his motivations enough. This was my first story to receive a High Distinction and was published in Macquarie University’s literary magazine, The Quarry. See the link below.

Invitation to a Dream

This story is underdevelopment. It comes from an idea that has been batting around inside my head for a while.

While I worked on it, I realised it was part of the 'Jared' universes. It will probably end up being a novella.

Two men are approaching a new world. What they find surprises them. A pyramid! The only sign of civilisation. But that's not the only surprising thing.

What's it's purpose? And what happens when they explore inside?

You'll have to wait and see.

The Harvest of a Bitter Fruit

The Harvest of a Bitter Fruit was originally Utility, and Utility was created from a left over scene from There’s Always Another, a short story written as a uni assignment that received a Hight Distinction. I’d run out of words so had to cut it.

I felt that Utility was too good a scene to be abandoned, so gave it a beginning and an end and it was published, see the entry. As happens, around 4am one night, or morning, I was harassed by an idea for a new first person beginning and ending. I always felt that on its own Utility wasn’t complete. Out of that sleepless night, came The Harvest of a Bitter Fruit. Not only does it have an additional beginning and ending, but I also included a scene intended for There’s Always Another that didn’t get written for the same reason Utility cut, word count.

As it was now pretty much a new short story, double in length, I felt a new title was needed. I liked Bitter Harvest, but that’s the name of a movie and so was taken. After trying out a number of combinations of the that title, I came up with The Harvest of a Bitter Fruit.

Well, as often happens, I was thinking about that story and the title and realised a lot of what I’d put into the work would be lost, to me in the future and to my readers. I’m currently working on one of my Anatomy analyses, which should be finished in a week or two and will be available on this website once the story is published.

The Definition of Me

Josie returns. But she's not alone this time ...

Perandor’s Ascension

Corporate psychopath. Every company has a least one. So, when finally, and at last you recognise you have one, just how do you get rid of them without the company dragged through the courts of law and public opinion?

Denise thinks she has a way, and gets Catherine and Robert on board. It’s a novel approach, but will it work? But then, is the real character of Denise revealed and is she just as bad?

Perandor’s Ascension was written and performed as a radio play for a unit I was doing for my bachelor’s degree. I then converted it back to a short story, and added some narrative and an extra scene.

Thursday's Alice

Billy’s getting on a bit. They’ll be calling him ‘Bill’ soon. But he’s found an unsteady place in life – a small-time crook who’s shacked up with a drug-addicted doctor. She owns the house so, he has to tread lightly cause he’s slept rough and is getting too old for that.

The day started out ok, despite the promise of rain. See, today is Thursday and Thursday is Alice. She likes Billy and his ponytail and, well, gives it him for free. Today he lingered and goes and misses his bus, and of course, it rains.

He’ll be late home, but Liz, the woman whose bed he shares, she’ll still be on another planet, so that’s alright. It’s just he’s got his tools in his backpack for tonight’s job, and a couple of cops he knows and who know him pull up, splashing his joggers and pants. They kindly offer him a lift home, and ask if they can see in his backpack only there’s a jewellery shop down the road as has been knocked over.

They might want to have a word with Alice, just confirm his whereabouts. And Liz too …

Thursday’s Alice was an assignment for my Bachelor’s degree and was published in Macquarie University’s literary magazine, The Quarry. See the link below.

One of the last units I did for my degree was Radio and Podcast Creation, I'd run out of writing units. This has inspired me to make podcasts of my own work. I'm hoping to have a podcast of Thursday's Alice very soon.

The Fire Season

Greg, known to his friends as “Tubbs”, and Cliff, are retirees volunteers with the local Rural Fire Service and great mates. That is till Tubs learns that Cliff is gay, and getting married. In fact, Cliff asks him to be the best man. When Tubbs was a boy being gay was a crime and just plain wrong. You just had to listen to his dad.

But now Tubbs is tested. He’s known and trusted Cliff for years. Hell, they watch the F1 in Brisbane. They share a hotel room. What does he do?

At first, Tubbs rejects his friend, even when he learns how Cliff has been badly treated in the past, because isn’t that the right thing to do? Being gay is wrong; that’s what he learned at his father’s knee. That’s what all the adults said.

It takes a bush, regenerating from a recent fire, to teach him the truth.

The Fire Season started as a short story inspired by Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gra, then was converted into a script for a unit for my Bachelor’s degree script, and finally rewritten back into a short story again.

Fairy Lights

Fairy Lights was inspired by an anecdote told to me by my wife’s mother. A relative, I think an uncle, came to visit the family during WW2. This night there was an air raid and everyone except this uncle went down into the family bunker. He remained outside, looking up at the planes revealed in the searchlights, and the anti-aircraft fire, the “Ack Ack”.

I understand he was in the navy and died when his ship was sunk.

The Travelling Spoons

This story is a first for me, a collaboration with a dear friend, Carlo. It’s based on an anecdote he recounted over lunch in March 2024. I’ve expanded on the story a little, adding detail and brining the characters alive a little.

It’s about two friends of his who have sadly passed and an event based around, well, some spoons.

Cactus Mate

Frank’s an old-style mechanic happily buried in his garage in a small country town. His only worry is the complicated relationship he has with his wife.

Kelvin, an up and coming executive type is rushing to Melbourne to meet with his girlfriend. He too has a complex relationship.

It’s a hot weekend afternoon and Kelvin is desperate for Frank’s help as his beamer has broken down.

This was an experimental piece of writing, done as a character study and an exercise in creating interesting fictional people.

Cactus Mate was long listed for the Lange Cove Literary Award.

Parallel Parked

This story has undergone quite a few revisions. It was based on a newspaper article that is at the heart of Steven Blanket’s motivation to kill himself.

Steven’s wife and children were killed in an accident. This loss destroyed his life and in the story we experience his downfall. He steps in front of a car, only at the last second, when it’s already to late he realises he can’t put the woman driver through this.

This story has positive ending, if not a happy one.

Broken Things

Broken Things was published in Macquarie University’s student magazine, Grapeshot, in 2022.

An updated version of the story was published in Bewildering Stories in 2024.

There is something off in the interrogation of Johnny Dash, the brother of murdered famous Rocker Franky Dash. At least to Constable White. Detective Inspector Sheridan Quay, a recent widower, seems more interested in who wrote the band’s music then whether Johnny is a potential suspect.

Why doesn’t the Inspector ask the hard questions, whey doesn’t he pressure John Dash? And how comes Inspector Quay knows things White doesn’t? What’s going on here?

Note: I've made a few changes to this story. This story has been accepted for publication in 2024. I'll add a link when its available.

Eigth Nine:The First

Eight Nine:The First is the first of the 'Alien Encounters' collection. Three works dealing with First Contact from a different perspective.

Mt Tsurugi. 8.9klm above sea level. Brodie and Ben will be the first to climb it, unaided.

They reach the mountain’s peak, thrilled at their success. They lay on the cold hard rock laughing at the sky. Success and fame are theirs! Only, what’s that snow-covered mound a little higher up? What does it mean to them and their pursuit of fame?

And what, if any, opportunity does it represent?

Rescue

A man wakes up on an island with no idea how he got there. The last thing he remembers was staring out the ship’s viewport at the gas giant after he’d …

He finds others here, and strangely they are all from different decades from the past. None of them knows how they got to the island on a planet with rings. But the ‘aliens’ who fed them don’t come anymore. They realise they have to get off the island if they have any hope of ever returning home.

Four of them build a raft and go on a journey, and as they travel, secrets are revealed. Including the most horrible of all: Murder!

As with some of my other stories, Rescue was written as an assignment for my bachelor’s degree. This was the most literary story I’ve ever written. There’s a lot more to the main characters than you might think. I did something unusual for me. I’ve written an analysis of the work and provided it in pdf form for download.

Every Boy's Dream

Every boy wants to be an astronaut, don’t they? To go into space, to the Moon!

‘Isn’t it every American boy’s dream …?’ is the response Dr David Winchester gives to the FBI when they ask him why he faked his way onto the team that was training to man the first moon base.

The truth is, Dr David Winchester doesn’t exist. All his paper work degrees, passport, everything is faked. So, who is he? And what is it that attracts him to the moon, what’s there?

David manages to escape the FBI and sneaks aboard the ship taking the first crew to man the new moon. David has a plan, but it’s complicated by the fact he’s fallen in love with Dr Alice Whitaker. Arriving on the moon, against his objections, Alice joins him when he takes a lunar rover. She dies on the journey.

David had a reason for his return to the moon. He does what he has to do, but then what? What will happen next? And will Alice help?

Keepers of the Light

I was inspired to write this story while cruising along the Norwegian coastline.

Lighthouse Inspector John Gregson comes to Foul Rock Lighthouse to investigate some 'odd' goings on. Nothing serious, just odd. Also, the light house had been forgotten. Parts that were ordered were never delivered. Gregson comes to confirm all is well, and to apologise for the forgetting the men. What he finds changes the trajectory of his life.

John Doe

Inspired by the 2023 movie, Jules, staring Ben Kingsley.

John Doe, walks everyday into the small Pennsylvanian town where he's chosen to settle. It takes about two hours each way, but John doesn't mind. He enjoys the walk.

One day one of the two women he appears to be oblivious to chasing him comes in saying there's an alien on the lose. An 'Alien' alien. Like from outer space. John doesn't believe her, saying it's just a marketing campaign.

That is till he meets the alien. He discovers something about it, and the ladies discover something about John.

Forever Mine

Forever Mine, like so many of my recent works, came about as an assignment for my Creative Writing Degree. In this case we had to reframe the beginning of a horror story, Edgar Alan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. While I’m used to experimental writing - creative works used to practice one skill or another or to simply ‘See’ what a story, genre etc would look like – and I’ve written in a few genres, I’ve never attempted Horror.

I found I enjoyed it. So, I reframed the beginning of ‘Usher’, setting it in the far future, then wrote a complete short story. Note, only the beginning was required and was submitted as the exercise, the rest of the story came later.

As in the Poe’s story, Forever Mine deals with two friends, with one visiting the other after a long absence. It was this journey that was the reframing exercise.

So, what happens? You’ll find out when the story gets published – I’m considering including it in a collection of my short stories, The River. As it’s in first person, it’s suitable to be made into a podcast. That I will put up here, when it’s done.

The River

The pink mist. It haunts John Gibbons in his sleep, when he sleeps. And thunder. It’s the sound of rifle fire. Storms, and there are so many this summer, have him on edge.

John is out of the army now and running his own hardware store that’s running down. A bad choice against good advice.

And there’s the other. He comes during the storms. A captain in a strange uniform. Like John, he’s got a gun. And like John, he’s going to use it. Better for everyone.

John goes out one night, drives a lonely highway, racing through the mist. Wraps his ute around a tree. See, the gun would have made it better for everyone.

But he comes during the storms. Afraid, hiding. They talk, brother to brother. Funny thing, the talking helps. As his business collapses, John finally seeks out the help he needs. He sees the lines on Lace’s face, the woman he loves, start to fade. Slowly, things get better. Sleep is just sleep.

Except this night. It’s hot and he tosses and in the A.M. he gets up and goes down to the kitchen for a glass of water. There he finds a stranger who needs help making a sandwich. A stranger with a strange name, whose at the other end of the river.

For a Pen to Hide the Name.

This story was published in the University of Technology Sydney’s Writers Anthology, while I was a student there.

One of the things I put into this story, was that all the characters' names were based on famous SF writers. So, I was surprised, when it was read in class, that no one knew who the writers were!

A man moves to a small town. One night after work he goes for a quiet beer and chats with the licensee. There’s a man in the corner of the bar who scribbles continuously. A comment is made about his scribbles. The pub owner recounts a tale and how the scribbler saved his daughters life. After the man leaves, the scribbler's tragic past is revealed.

The Title, For a Pen to Hide the Name, is a reference to pen name.