I Am Words

I AM WORDS

A room empty but for a teletype machine, sporadically producing words.
There's more in the words than there is in the room.
There's more in the words than there is in me.
There's nothing in me but words.
I am words.

Photo: Greenford Road this evening at lighting up time. Cars parked, leaving, passing by with their red tail lights, delivery bikes, shops, street furniture, lamppost lit up, litter, cloudy sky, people in the distance further down the path almost silhouettes etc.

Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 12

Please go and buy this collection of short stories I edited. I don’t make any money from online sales but they help to keep the publisher going and pay the annual Ingram catalogue fees.

New Short Stories

Contents

• “Shoes” by David Butler
• “Remembering not Forgetting” by Helen Harjack
• “Vevey” by Catherine McNamara
• “Haircut” by Andy Mead
• “Cuckqeuan” by Jackie Morris
• “My Last Journey with Baron Baldanders” by Peter Newall
• “Empathy” by Diana Powell
• “Things we see, things we don’t” by Anju Sharma
• “Forecast for Rain” by Lui Sit
• “Hotline” by Zakia Uddin

“I can just say read these wonderful wonderful stories. They were an absolute pleasure to read and I hope you too will enjoy these writers as much as I did.”

Jarred McGinnis

Available from (latest info)

• Blackwells.co.uk (“10+ available”, free delivery UK)
• Barnes & Noble (available, free delivery US)
• Amazon.co.uk (“in stock, free delivery with Prime”)
• Amazon.com (“in stock”)
• Waterstones (available to order)
• Bookshop.co.uk (pending)
• Hive.co.uk (pending)

isbn: 979-8-9859089-1-6

Contributors

David Butler’s most recent short story collection is Fugitive (Arlen House, 2021). His novel City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group…

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Announcement: Results of the Willesden Short Story Prize 2022

It was a very good night. Apologies for overrunning the time. Thanks to everyone who came and to Katy Darby and Claire Lacey for bringing the stories to life. Couldn’t have done any of it without the support of Liars’ League and Brent Libraries.

New Short Stories

The Willesden Short Story Prize 2022 was revealed at Willesden Library this evening. First prize went to “Hotline” byZakia Uddin (left).

Runners-up were “Vevey” by Catherine McNamara and “Cuckquean” by Jackie Morris.

Thanks to Claire Lacey and Katy Darby for bringing the stories to life and making the event go with a zing.

Thanks to Jarred McGinnis for judging and to the writers of all ten shortlisted stories, as every one is a prize-winner in this short story competition. (Ed.)

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Message on a Sticker

A MONTH OF SUNDAYS

The only time I'm with you is when you're not here.
Oh never let me see you, let's never meet again.
I can live for eternity on a dismal weekend 
But time goes too fast in heaven.

Photo: Graffiti, The Broadway, North Harrow. More about this on Twitter

Canary Dream #4

CANARY DREAM #4

canary
in a sun-room
when I 
try to put it 
in a cage
 it turns 
      into 
   flakes 
of
   pure yellow
          that 
        scatter 

 in the air

   and out the window

From Day of the Flying Leaves (2021)

---

Photo: A story I wrote about Kenny the canary was published in Bird Times (US) in 2002. It subsequently appeared in The London Silence (2004).

“The Mask of Love” illusion

The Mask of Love is an optical illusion- you can probably see one face there but look again and you can see two people kissing, your brain will switch and it might be hard to switch back to one single face pic.twitter.com/ZsVhSzQAYs

— Janey Godley (@JaneyGodley) October 4, 2022

Once seen, you can’t unsee but it’s hard at first.

Motion Aftereffect Illusion: The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

🎨

The best way to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is to stare at the center of the spiral for 20 seconds and then look at the painting.

RT when it works for you. pic.twitter.com/SsEN8K0nSf

— Alexander Verbeek 🌍 (@Alex_Verbeek) September 15, 2022

Follow the instructions and prepare to have your mind blown!

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (1889) is currently in the the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Ref. Wikipedia

Every Time is the Last Ever

EVERY TIME IS THE LAST EVER

"We know not the hour"

How many more times will I walk downstairs
and what last things have I already seen?
The day before the night, the last round of the clock.
The year I went home, never to see Dublin again.
Our last Christmas dinner: that was it, no leftovers.
When we met in the pub in twenty-eighteen, l’chaim!
We shared those last embraces before the pandemic.
And the last poem I ever wrote, well is this it?

---

Photo: Bathmat towel with a random thread that looks like the number 78 on it.

The Stepping Feet Illusion

The Stepping-Feet Illusion features two rectangles apparently moving like a pair of stepping feet, but they're actually moving at the same constant speed.

The illusion is broken when the striped texture is removed.

[source, read more: https://t.co/iyJoeSY7he] pic.twitter.com/UQyzoJLF52

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 13, 2022

2022 Writers, Don’t Let Me Down! Ed.

New Short Stories

Your forebears could hunt an epiphany through the great forest of Um without breaking a twig and spear it with words sharpened on the soles of their feet. Arise, put on your leotards and send in your short stories, ye of this century…(Enough, thank you. Get to the music. Ed.)

SUBMIT

One-Off Mug inscribed
The Willesden
Short Story Prize 2022

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