More of the differently same

Looking towards the little Sudbury Hill Harrow station in the distance

The other side, where there is no footpath and you look like a freak if you go there

From the roadbridge over the Chiltern Line on Wood End Road today

Brexit endgame flowchart

Short Story of the Month, November 2018

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month

November 2018: That New Girl by Brian Kirk

Well, what’s she like then?’

I asked again. She ignored me as she tipped soy sauce into a clean bowl. I turned and stood like a fool with my hands by my sides looking out the front window where I could see the tops of some trees across the street. Our apartment is on the third floor and, even though we’ve been here for over a year, I’m still not used to living above ground level. 

Eventually Sara finished juicing a lime and mixing it into the sauce. She turned to me then.

Brian Kirk is a poet and short story writer from Dublin. He was shortlisted twice for Hennessy Awards for fiction. His first poetry collection “After The Fall” was published by Salmon Poetry in November 2017. Recent stories have appeared in The Lonely Crowd Issue 7 and online at Fictive Dream and Cold Coffee Stand. His story “Festival” was long-listed for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2017/8. Blog: www.briankirkwriter.com.

Refugees

They are young, whole lives ahead of them,
And take their chances on a rusty hulk.
Terrified at last to be locked below deck,
Wouldn't have wanted so many to push on board.

The Mediterranean is calm, so they say, but
With bodies crushed together, no provisions
And no facilities, death is never far away.
All long for Lampedusa, tolerance, a new life.

It is night now and a patrol is sighted,
A hubbub arises and the old tub lists.
Before you can think about home, here or there,
The sea is upon us all, this is our tomb.

In villages and towns, the old are bereft,
Some wives too and youngsters. Will they ever
Hear, or will they be left to surmise,
When no call from Europe ever comes?

--
Stephen Moran
(2016)

Who's hacking whom?

Seen in North Greenford

In view of the recent Russian Hacking story, we thought we'd wheel out this photo of one of the many Russia Today adverts seen around London. It says, "Watch RT and find out who we're planning to hack next."

Wheelie pooch

MUM, THAT DOG IS DOING A WHEELIE!

In Memoriam - Chas Hodges (1943 - 2018)

Chas and Dave "Wonder Where He Is Now?" on Later with Jools Holland, June 2018

Short Story of the Month, October 2018

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month

October 2018: Everything Comes Together by Frank Haberle

“In your trailer, it’s colder and darker than outside. You pull the wad of bills out and smooth them out in your frozen red palms. There’s a twenty, a ten, and eight singles. For one flashing moment you think of your rent, now ten days late. Then you get up and start walking back to town.”

Frank Haberle

Frank Haberle’s short stories have won the 2011 Pen Parentis Award, the 2013 Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, and the 2017 Beautiful Losers Magazine Award. They have appeared in magazines including the Stockholm Literary Review, Inwood Indiana, Necessary Fiction, the Adirondack Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Melic Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Cantaraville and Hot Metal Press. A professional grantwriter with nonprofit organizations, Frank is also a volunteer workshop leader for the NY Writers Coalition. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and three children.

Short Story of the Month, September 2018

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month

September 2018: The Almost-Widow by Carina Buckley

“If I had known, then, that a dull night’s companionable reading would prove on reflection to be a moment of perfect bliss, it’s hard to say what I would have done. Is the horror past or present? All I know is that right now, today, I am greedy for those days, and all the ones I had are not enough. It was their timelessness that made them worth having.”

Carina Buckley grew up in Margate, Kent, and now lives in Salisbury. She works in higher education and has recently completed her first novel, THE TRANSPARENCY OF WATER. She is working on a collection of short stories as well as a full-length play, SINCE I LAST SAW MY SISTER. She has had two short plays performed at the Salisbury Fringe festival.

Things were different back now

If you're doing anything shockingly brutal, cruel and inhuman, it might be understandable because things were different back now.

— New Short Stories (@storyofthemonth) August 18, 2018

I'm trying to be bookish and keep out of the argy-bargy but in the swim on Twitter, at https://twitter.com/storyofthemonth. (I give it six months.) By the way, if you have stories and would sell one for a free book, please submit to Story of the Month. (Steve)

Laser removal of rust (video)

This is how laser cleaning works to remove rust pic.twitter.com/XfXtBXF5KC

— How Things Work (@ThingsWork) August 16, 2018

Fascinating. Brave for the guy to run the thing over his hand?

The earliest colour film of London - 1924

Beautiful, evocative and moving: This is the earliest known original colour film of London, taken in 1924 - only 5 years after Armistice. pic.twitter.com/En0GGNKNZL

— BabelColour 🎞 (@StuartHumphryes) August 16, 2018

"Home at last! A personal study of Claude Friese-Green, inventor of the Friese-Green colour process"

Taken in 1924. Note the people around the Cenotaph in Whitehall. And so many people, in what looks like Petticoat Lane market, probably not one of them left alive today.

R.i.p. Aretha Franklin

Many pleasant, sometimes blissful hours, owed. The video is of a special performance with guests including the Obamas and Carole King.

Aretha Franklin, 'the queen of soul', dies aged 76 (from The Guardian)

British visa hell

So, Twitter. In light of the ongoing clusterfuck that is #brexit, let me tell you a little about my white, Australian experience of dealing with the UK visa authority, a complete shitshow of a bureaucracy that is in no way prepared to handle what's coming.

— Foz Meadows (@fozmeadows) August 9, 2018

It's worth reading this thread of 34 tweets, to get a picture of the rotten heart of British bureaucracy, under Theresa May.

"But how are you going to pay for it?"

When the Tories ask 'How are you gonna pay for it?', here is their answer. 🙌🙌🙌 pic.twitter.com/AreCSJaprQ

— Momentum (@PeoplesMomentum) August 9, 2018

Here is the answer from a rising US Democratic Party star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the candidate who turned out many times more voters than is usual to win a primary in New York against a leading and long-term Democratic incumbent.

Short Story of the Month, August 2018

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month

August 2018: Independence Day by John Califano

In 1960s Brooklyn, New York, sensitive and empathetic Johnny Boy struggles to navigate adolescence. Here his worldview is shaped by the trauma inflicted by the violent and competitive relationship between his father and his older brother, who despises their father’s closed-mindedness and is the only one willing to stand up to “the old man.”

John Califano grew up in Brooklyn, New York and lives in Manhattan. He’s worked as a writer, actor, visual artist and musician and has performed in clubs, art galleries, feature films and Off-Broadway productions. He recently completed his debut novel, JOHNNY BOY, and is currently working on a second book and a collection of short stories. His work was recently featured in The Broadkill Review.

Life is a holiday from non-existence.

There's lots to see and do,
And when it's time to go,
you wish you could stay
another week. But oh
in the end, you may say
we're tired and, after all,
we'll need another holiday
when we get home.

--
Stephen Moran

Unguarded Moments

If you walk without thinking how you're walking,
   that's the way you walk.
If you think without thinking where you're going,
   that's the way you think.
If you talk without thinking what you're saying,
   that's the way you talk.

Say my name.

--
Stephen Moran

Short Story of the Month, July 2018

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month

July 2018: Lily by M.E. Proctor

“Some of us remember places better than we remember people. With time, we even start wondering if these people existed at all. As kids the difference between reality and fantasy didn’t matter that much. Lily lives in that in-between, somewhere.”

M.E. Proctor worked as a communication professional and a freelance journalist for many years. After forays into SF, she’s currently working on a series of contemporary detective novels. Her short stories have been published, both in Europe and in the U.S. She lives in Livingston, Texas.

March for a People's Vote on the Brexit deal

Rees-Mogg, Gove, Farage and Johnson as seen by the March for a People's Vote
Credit: https://twitter.com/clairehewlett62/status/1010499282212937729

"Do you really want to be left alone on a small island with these men?"

The Brexit clown car honks and sputters its way into the circus ring, and out they stumble as, with a final bang, it falls to pieces. They fall about laughing, while their band plays the only tune it knows.

TV hacks fawn over Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un

Comparing ludicrous and mindless propaganda by Fox News and North Korean TV commentators

Short Story of the Month, June 2018

Announcing the inaugural New Short Stories Story of the Month

The series kicks off with Con Chapman’s engrossing account of a relationship in trouble, and what can you do but go for a run? Let's see how that goes. 

June 2018: The Woman Who Listened to Britten by Con Chapman

Con Chapman is a Boston (USA) based-writer, author of two novels. His short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and other print publications. He is currently writing a biography of Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington’s long-time alto sax player, for Oxford University Press.

New Short Stories - Story of the Month

Announcing a new single item magazine. “What is a single item magazine?” I hear you shout. It only has one item, the story of the month. When another story of the month comes along, that will replace the previous one. There will be a list of all the previous stories of the month. Simple as that. Each successive story of the month takes over the Story of the Month page and gets added to the list.

No submission fee, no recompense, all for love of the short story genre. There are no obligations or restrictions, except for permission to publish on the Story of the Month page here on this website. Aside from that, copyright remains entirely with the author. Note, the story will only remain online till another story of the month replaces it. That might take more than a month sometimes.

To ensure quality, and also to make things easier for me, there will not necessarily be a new story every month. It will be treated like a magazine with rolling submissions, no deadline, and stories accepted or rejected ad hoc.

All the details are on the Submittable submissions form. Please read carefully before submitting. Word limit 4500*. Generally literary, not keen on generics. Only one submission at a time, please, and wait for the response to that before making another submission. (Steve)



* Updated 16/6/2018

Grenfell Tower inquiry day six – watch live

Relatives and friends of the victims share their testimony, all very moving. This is the sixth day.

Live stream the 2018 Champions League final on YouTube

6 pm: Watch Liverpool versus Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final, courtesy of BTSport on this YouTube link.

It seems you can also watch free on Virgin cable channel 100. Here is more info about the game and channels etc, from the Bristol Post.