Short Story of the Month, October 2023

"I often think of Larkin’s poem, Afternoons, and the young mothers and how ‘something is pushing them/to the side of their own lives’. This feeling informs Living a Little. That and my memories of growing up on a Birmingham Council Estate and the sense of having escaped a ‘life less lived’ when I left home." (Jackie Morris)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

October 2023: Living a Little by Jackie Morris

‘Seems like only yesterday me and your Daddy were coming over on the ferry. Love’s young dream. You should have seen your Daddy then,’ Mam exhaled her cigarette. Smoke drifted over the children’s heads. ‘Your Nana had him down to be a priest, but I couldn’t have him going to waste like that.’

Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris’s stories are online at Brilliant Flash Fiction, Free Flash Fiction, Micro Fiction Monday, Retreat West the National Flash Fiction Day 2022 anthology and the National Flash Fiction Flashflood 23. She came third in the Willesden Herald Short Story Prize, 2022. She can be found on Twitter @JackieMMorris and on Bluesky @jackiemmorris.bsky.social.

Review: Magpie's Nest by Clare Starling

Clare Starling

The first thing to say is that this is no eclectic bundle of poems about this, that or the other. The 27 poems in this hefty pamphlet could almost be presented as one epic poem in 27 numbered parts. They are all poetic emanations from the maelstrom of events and emotions surrounding family life in the light of the wonders, adventures and sometime challenges of living with an autistic child. 

You may find yourself returning to this chapbook many times, and depending on your mood, you might laugh at Pokémon in the Cemetery or sympathise with the passerby carrying a bunch of flowers.

At the Soyer Tomb
Grade II Listed by English Heritage
You evolved your Woobat
into a Swoobat

There are many humorous touches but it's never just one thing and it's never prosaic, every poem is heightened with sensual evocation, metaphor and other tricks of the poetic trade, but never losing a pleasing lightness of touch. This is poetry with a purpose but it's in no way perfunctory. Each poem seems to have blossomed up completely out of the blue. At another time, you might dip into a Hampstead pond, as in Effortful Swimming.

You dropped into the cold
eager as a dog

There are poems with a complex structure, such as the side-by-side feelings of "In the Dark" or the dense imagery and oddness of "Escape Room". There's frustration in "Waiting for CAMHS" and relief of a sort in "On the Threshold". There is strangeness in plenty throughout.

But the last of the feelings I would like to mention, from the myriad I could choose from if time allowed, is one I'm not sure how to describe. It comes in the poem that has its name in the second line of the last stanza.

you were so proud of me
you called me The Bee Saver
I think it was the honour of my life

"Magpie's Nest" (Wildfire Words, 2023) by Clare Starling is available for pre-order post-free within the U.K. and with reduced postage to addresses overseas.

Short Story of the Month, September 2023

"Frisch weht der Wind / Der Heimat zu, / Mein Irisch Kind". Is this what billows my sails? Is it anything to do with Prigozhin? No, it's the joy of reading a marvellous story about people and places and the lives lived today, in all their complex history and entanglements. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

September 2023: Fresh Blows the Wind Homeward by Jaki McCarrick

Emily stood at the window and looked down at the illuminated town. It was Saturday night and she could hear sirens.
“What is it?” Jo said.
“Police, I think. In the distance. Something must have happened.”
“Exactly,” Jo said, “in the distance. Come to bed.”

She looked eastwards, away from the passing police cars, and to where she could make out a cargo ship, inching its way across the Irish Sea. …

Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. Winner of the Papatango Prize for New Writing for her play Leopoldville, Jaki’s play Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio, London and has been staged many times internationally. Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Tony Doyle Award, Belfast Girls made its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2022, and opens in Buffalo, NY, in 2023. Her play The Naturalists premiered in New York in 2018.

Jaki McCarrick. Photo © Bobbie Hanvey

Jaki’s plays have been published by Samuel French, Routledge and Aurora Metro and have been translated into Swedish and French.

Her debut fiction collection The Scattering was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize and includes the Wasafiri Prize-winning story, “The Visit”. In 2020 Jaki was shortlisted for the An Post Book Awards Short Story of the Year Award (Ireland) for her short story ”The Emperor of Russia”. Jaki was Writer in Residence at the Centre Cultural Irlandais in Paris in 2013 and at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 2022. She has written critical pieces for the Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Examiner, Poetry Ireland Review and other publications.

Longlisted in 2014 for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate, Jaki is currently working on a novel, a second collection of short stories and the screenplay of Belfast Girls.

Short Story of the Month, August 2023

A fascinating insight into the process behind producing calm, unbiased, understated, yet admirably generous text online concerning topics that make your blood boil and steam come out of your ears. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

August 2023: Notes on a ‘Masterpiece’ by Ian Critchley

“… despite the fact that I’ve long dabbled in song-writing, it’s rare I discuss music. Today, though, I’m going to make an exception for Whistling in the Dark, the new album by indie flavour of the month Christ’s Cavalcade.”

[I could say more about my song-writing, I suppose, though probably nobody’s interested]

Ian Critchley

Ian Critchley is a freelance editor and journalist. His fiction has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Neonlit: Time Out Book of New Writing, Volume 2, The Mechanics Institute Review #15, Structo, Lighthouse, Litro and Storgy. He has won both the Hammond House International Literary Prize and the HISSAC Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Exeter, H.G. Wells, and Plaza short story competitions. His journalism has appeared in the Sunday Times, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review. He can be found on Twitter @iancritchley4, and his website is iancritchley.wordpress.com.

Submissions open for Willesden Herald Story of the Month

Photo: Anton Chekhov reading The Seagull to the Moscow Art Theatre company c.1898

Occasional feature. Want to get your name into the list of contributors? You have come to the right place. Still no reading fee. Still the same reward, a copy of one of our past anthologies. Guidelines

Jack Sheppard in Willesden (18th century)

Many of his deeds and adventures were set in Willesden as this copiously illustrated account by @thegentleauthor recounts. https://t.co/Kx15EpXR5M https://t.co/VCnVDbGn7h

— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) August 4, 2023

Many of the deeds and adventures of notorious highwayman and amazing escapologist, Jack Sheppard, were set in Willesden as this copiously illustrated account by The Gentle Author recounts.

Poor Paddy Works on the Software - lyric video

Apparently Moran has been moonlighting again. A recording of this monstrosity, the words of which are somewhere in our back pages. They are also under the YouTube video for convenience. If you like this video, tell your friends. If you don't like it, don't tell a soul, they'll never know. (Ed)

Harrow fly-tip marked "Closed" still there - Asbestos?

It's still there now, though marked "Closed" on the @Harrow_Council website (image below). The handwritten asbestos warning sign is dissolving in the rain. Still no safe way to walk around the corner from South Vale to Wood End Road. Incident number: 17753144. 

I reported the fly-tipping incident on advice from @Harrow_Council on Twitter. The fly-tipped rubbish is still there and cordoned-off on the path, despite the incident being marked "closed" on the Harrow Council website. There is presently no safe way to walk around the blind corner of South Vale and Wood End Road, as the footpath is only on one side of the road. (Ed.)

"I made you ... a housing ladder!"

 

"I made you a treehouse and a housing ladder."

Asbestos(?) dumped on footpath in Harrow

I saw this pile of fly-tipped rubbish on Friday where it is on Wood End Road, HA1, 7/7/23 (Ed.)

 

As of today (8/7/23) someone has put added a warning label: "ASBESTOS do not touch"

Today the footpath at the junction of South Vale and Wood End Road has also been cordoned off.

Earlier picture of the sign seen in the background in the photo above.
It has been there for months. It says "Why are you dumping rubbish? ... Don't be a tosser." 

The Leaving of Ballymun

This is a lyric video of a humorous parody and the words are included in the description on YouTube. You can see them in a recent post on this blog as well.

Short Story of the Month, May 2023

Intriguing. You might find yourself wondering what exactly happened in this short story. Don't look at me. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

May 2023: Against the Grain by Anita Goveas

“She expects to get caught and almost confesses every Friday. But if there’s anything her father talks about, it’s tradition and family and maybe the way he sustains that is by only looking at what he wants to see.”

Anita Goveas is British-Asian, London-based, and fuelled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, most recently by the Cincinnati Review. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction, and is a submissions reader for The Selkie. She tweets erratically @coffeeandpaneer. Her debut flash collection, ‘Families and other natural disasters’, is available from Reflex Press, and links to her stories are at https://coffeeandpaneer.wordpress.com

Zadie Smith – Tufton Street – More Evil Than Climate Denial

21 April 2023: Zadie Smith addresses a climate crisis demo in Tufton Street. A closely reasoned speech, touching on the thought processes of people in denial compared to those of people who know exactly what they're doing. People in denial must recognise the horror of what they deny, or they wouldn't be moved to deny it. Others, she argues, such as Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, are not in denial, rather they know there is a climate emergency but they just don't care. All that lot care about, in short, is their own wealth. Her conclusion evokes an emotional response from the crowd. (Ed.)

The Leaving of Ballymun

"Two heads are better than one" (S.M.)

Air: Skibbereen*

Oh father dear I often hear you speak of Dub, about
Its coffee smells, its Book of Kells, its billion pints of stout,
The thanks and please, the ocean breeze, and colleens by the ton.
Then tell me Dad what was so bad, you left old Ballymun?

Oh son, I loved my concrete home, its basements and its towers
Till I got the chop from my old job for canoodling in the showers.
My name was mud, my reference dud, my hopes for a rise undone
And that’s the cruel reason I left old Ballymun.

Before I left, was all upset and thought I’d change my mind.
My folks and friends took some offence, and let me in to find
Another boy, some hobbledehoy, had rented my room for one.
I heaved a sigh and said goodbye to dear old Ballymun.

My girlfriend too was bored I knew, and glad to see me go.
Apparently, she two-timed me with a plasterer called Joe.
I got the word and now absurd, what else could I do but run?
And that’s another reason I left old Ballymun.

That you exist, I somehow missed, till you turned up at my door
Ten years hence, with fifty pence and my darling from before.
More plastered, Joe, than plastering, he found out you’re my son,
Then changed the locks and said you pox, get out of Ballymun.

Oh father dear, let us stay here, I’m sorry if I weep.
I’ve made new friends here in Hatch End, and cider is so cheap.
I’ll tell you jokes and quit the smokes. Me ma says you’re the one.
And anyway, we have to stay - there’s no more Ballymun.

--

Stephen Moran

* I didn't like any of the guitar chords I found online for Skibbereen, so I made my own ones that seem to work okay.

In my version:

[Am] Oh father dear [C] I often hear you [F] speak of [Em] Dub, [Am] about

[F] Its coffee smells, its [C] Book of Kells, its [Em] billion pints of [Am] stout.

[F] The thanks and please, the [C] ocean breeze, and [Em] colleens by the [Am] ton.

[Am] Then tell me, Dad, [C] what was so bad, you [F] left old [Em] Bally [Am] mun. 

In original lyrics:

[Am] Oh father dear, [C] I often hear you [F] speak of [Em] Erin's [Am] isle

[F] Her lofty hills, her [C] valleys green, her [Em] mountains rude and [Am] wild

[F] They say she is a [C] lovely land where-[Em]-in a saint might [Am] dwell

[Am] So why did you [C] abandon her, the [F] reason [Em] to me [Am] tell.

In their recording, The Dubliners with Ronnie Drew singing, do it in F#m.

Short Story of the Month, April 2023

"In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" according to Tennyson. Well, it's April, and I'm not young, so I think I will just turn lightly to this short story about the hazards of same. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

April 2023: Dr Takotsubo, and My Heart by Mike Fox

“I walked along the corridor. Her flat was on the ground floor of a large Edwardian conversion, and seemed to stretch back a long way from front door to garden. It was light and airy in the morning sun, with a particular quietness. I imagined that few, if any, arguments had taken place there.”

Mike Fox has co-authored a book and published many articles on the human repercussions of illness. Now writing fiction, his stories have been nominated for Best of Net and the Pushcart Prize, listed in Best British and Irish Flash Fiction (BIFFY50), and included in Best British Stories 2018 (Salt), His story, The Violet Eye, was published by Nightjar Press as a limited edition chapbook. A collection of new stories is being prepared for publication by Confingo Publishing in 2023. www.polyscribe.co.uk

Photos from Twitter - Greenford Road

Greenford Road near Sudbury Hill today

 

A rainy day in South Vale

South Vale, Harrow

Tuesday 28/3/2023. A rainy day in South Vale. The trees on the left are old English oaks on the boundary of Sir John Lyons School playing fields. The verge on the right has a mixture of young Italian alder and old ash trees.

Short Story of the Month, March 2023

I have reason to suspect that when studious geeks at school try the same psychedelic drugs as the seemingly cool popular kids, the effects may be more extreme. This story is a trip in more ways than one. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

March 2023: The Paradox of Fossils by Michelle Christophorou

“It was Jim who suggested the magic mushrooms. He knew a guy in Lyme. This was the summer of 1990, just before I left for university, when I was still green as common eelgrass. Fiona said her parents would be away the following weekend, so we could do them at hers.”

Michelle Christophorou lives in Surrey, UK. Her short fiction has appeared in various places online and in print, and her story ‘Wearing You’ (FlashFlood journal) was included in the BIFFY 50 list of best UK and Irish flash 2019/20. She is the author of novella-in-flash, KIPRIS (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021), shortlisted for a Saboteur Award. In 2022, she won the Free Flash Fiction competition and had work shortlisted in both the Bath Flash and Short Story contests. Michelle is a recovering lawyer. Find out more at michellechristophorou.co.uk.

You can follow Michelle on Twitter @MAChristophorou.

Short Story of the Month, February 2023

And so at last we come to February, the fifth month of 2023. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

February 2023: The Rings by Marion Urch McNulty

“In the hospital in Sligo Town, the undertaker’s assistant was bathing Bridget Ellen while her children were flying or sailing across the Irish Sea from scattered points throughout England. In trains and cars, others were nearer, Ignatius, the youngest of all of them, even had time for a drink.”

Marion Urch McNulty is an award-winning artist and writer. Her first novel Violent Shadows (Headline Review) was published in the UK in 1996. Her second novel An Invitation to Dance (Brandon 2009). Various short stories have been published in Ireland, England, Canada and the US. Her video works are held in galleries around the world and archived by the University of Dundee.

The Rings is part of a collection of short stories titled Of Love and Other Miracles which playfully subverts the lives of the saints.

New Budgens in North Greenford

Photo: Shiny bottle-green shopfront of new local Budgens supermarket

The brand new Budgens is where the old Barclays Bank branch was. The shop is on the service road beside the main Greenford Road. Parking is on-street only and extremely limited, to say the least. On the same parade there are already Iceland and a Mleczko Polish local supermarkets. Nearest underground Sudbury Hill (two minutes walk), buses 92 and H17 stop outside.

Short Story of the Month, January 2023

We're back with a new series of original short stories online. Don't worry, the reprints are still there somewhere on the menu too. And what better way to start the year than with a tale of young people in a northern town, somewhere near the sea and the eternal question about staying or leaving. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

January 2023: This One-Trick Town by Amanda Huggins

“There was a far-off shimmer to the north, and Da told her it was the glow of Newcastle, luring the unwary with her swagger and shine. Annie knew he’d made it up, that you wouldn’t be able to see the city lights from so far away, but she went along with it unquestioningly, as though she believed every word.”

Amanda Huggins

Amanda Huggins is the author of the novellas Crossing the Lines and All Our Squandered Beauty as well as several collections of short stories and poetry. Her work has also appeared in a wide range of journals and newspapers and on BBC Radio. She has won numerous awards, including three Saboteur Awards, the BGTW New Travel Writer of the Year, and the Colm Tóibín and H E Bates short story prizes. She was also a runner-up in the Costa Short Story Award and the Fish Short Story Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and many others.

Call for submissions: Story of the Month

This feature is open for submissions again from 5 January 2023.

Story of the Month is an occasional feature for literary fiction. The word range for new submissions is from 1000 to 3000 words. There is no reading fee. Payment is a copy of one of our past anthologies. Please read the guidelines in full before submitting. We are seeking to publish new stories by writers not previously featured in Story of the Month or not featured for more than a year. Story of the Month is online only, not for print publication.

Short Story Competition 2022 - Results and Book Launch

It's been a long time in the editing but here at last is the podcast/slideshow/video/audio thingummy from the competition results event and book launch for New Short Stories 12. (Ed.)

NOV 8, LONDON: Who will take the coveted one-off Willesden Herald inscribed “The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022”? All will be revealed on the night. Plus ten cash prizes to the writers of the stories in New Short Stories 12. From The Performance Space, upstairs in The Library at Willesden Green. 

With special thanks to Katy Darby, Claire Lacey and Liars' League

Willesden Herald New Short Stories 12 - unboxing

Makes a good present for Christmas or Hannukah. International, all sorts of stories, well worth reading. More

Competition accounts 2022

Foreword

I always like to be open about where the money comes from and goes to in the Willesden Herald short story competition. You can also find the previous years' accounts by clicking on the accounts tag below. Note: the annual competition began in 2005/6 but did not run in 2015, 2018, 2020 or 2021 (ref. History of the competition.) 

We're probably in the red when all is finalised but it all depends on whether the library charges for the use of the Performance Space. These are my own accounts, I no longer run a limited company and I don't make any money from the sale of books online, which all goes to the publisher.* That also runs at a loss by the way - as the number of sales doesn't even cover the annual Ingram fee but let's leave that aside for now. We do it for fun, really.

In the rare case when an author asks me to organise a "short run" print of 10 or more copies for themselves, I send them at cost plus £1 per copy for my trouble, which makes it virtually at cost as my time is next to worthless (full disclosure!) 

I have the itemised details on a spreadsheet here, but the totals are as follows, using $ exchange rates that were current at the time, where applicable. Submittable .com collects the entry fees which they then remit in $USD minus $0.01 per entry + 5% of the total via PayPal and PayPal take their cut too when converting to £GBP. 

Money in

• Entry fees for 371 entries @£5 after Submittable's percentage, paid in dollars: $1646.28 into PayPal, after conversion to pounds at the then rate and PayPal's cut, we got: £1390.95
• Book sales at results/launch event, 17 x £5 = £85
• 10 extra books sold direct from order received. £51.44
• TOTAL: £1527.39

Money out

• Prizes to contributors: £950
• Fees for book designer and judge's introduction (only fair as all the writers are paid): £200
• Book setup and Ingram annual catalogue fee $80 + $12 = $92, paid in pounds: £84.16.
• 47 books ordered including p&p: £188.96
• One month Spotify sub paid to get music for the event build up (yes, I did & cancelled): £9.99
• Postage to UK, France, Ireland, India, Australia & Greece + prize mug + Jiffy bags: £92.07
• TOTAL: £1525.18

If you build it, they will come!
(They did eventually.)

Balance

We're up £2.21 but we have yet to receive an invoice from the library for the space and we're hoping they will see the cultural value in the Willesden short story competition and waive the fee. Otherwise we'll be out another £80. (And if that lands, I will update this report.) So probably down £77.79.

Note. I haven't counted domain renewal for WillesdenHerald.com ($10 p.a.) and NewShortStories.com ($10 p.a.) and the WordPress subscription for New Short Stories ($45 p.a.). I suppose I get fun out of those, so - whatever. I don't run a server anymore, quit that when I closed the limited company.

Stock of books

In: 47

Out: 16 gratis to contributors to the book and the launch, 27 sold, total 43.

Balance: 4

(I get to keep one for myself, yeah? Ed.)

Steve M

* Willesden Herald is an imprint of Pretend Genius Press