Publications

My stories are mostly from the past few years, writing in the margins, between work, life & everything. 

Stories also forthcoming in 

• Fudoki Anthology
• Reflex Anthology 
• Flash Fiction Festival Anthologyy
  
• Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology
• Best Small Fictions 2024
  
• Others to be announced

I'm excited that my collection/workbook 52 STORIES for Readers & Writers will be published by Ad Hoc Fiction! 

September 2024 ⬇️⬇️⬇️

⏩ The Observational Bias of Love shortlisted in Leicester Writes Short Story Prize & published in the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize Anthology 2024 by Dahlia Books.

⏩ Postcards From the Boathouse longlisted in Leicester Writes & published in the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize Anthology 2024 by Dahlia Books.

⏩ A Chandelier of Citrus Skins in Issue 103 of Mslexia 

July 2024

⏩  Skin Beetles in Best of the Net 2024 Anthology (originally published in Janus Literary)

June 2024

⏩ The Four O'Clock Shop in Issue 3 of The Mersey Review

⏩ Rewilding in the National Flash Fiction Day Write-in 2024

⏩ I Meet Myself Coming Back in National Flash Fiction Day Flash Flood 2024

⏩ White Noise (Editor's Choice) in 'Tiny Sparks Everywhere'  - the Elements themed National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2024 (Print) 

April 2024 

⏩ Mama’s Cupcake Recipe (All a Stoner Girl Needs at Night) published by Bending Genres

February 2024

⏩ Three Reasons Why Killer Whales Kill Porpoises But Don’t Eat Them in Swansong, Issue 14, published by Ellipsis Zine

January 2024 

⏩ A Rope Hangs Waiting in Flash Fiction Festival Anthology Vol 6, published by Ad Hoc Fiction 

December 2023

⏩ Gone in Mslexia's Best Women's Short Fiction 2023

November 2023 

⏩ Ceiling Projections For Late Stage Souperism 2nd place in the Propelling Pencil Flash Fiction Competition.

⏩ The Back Road and the Kissing Gate shortlisted by the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Prize & published in Solemates and Other Stories by the Scottish Arts Trust

October 2023

⏩ When You're Gone I Practice for When You're Dead in Issue 31 of New Flash Fiction Review

August 2023

⏩ At Weekends Mama's Carnivore in Issue 3 of RUBY Literary Magazine

July 2023 

⏩ The Zoo is Empty Tuesdays in The Phare Summer Issue 2023.

June 2023

⏩ The Princess and the Blankets in National Flash Fiction Day Flash Flood 2023

⏩ Ember Days in 'Scratching the Sands' - the Time themed National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2023 (Print) 

⏩ Scheele's Green in 'Scratching the Sands' - the Time themed National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2023 (Print) 

March 2023

⏩ Skin Beetles in Janus Literary

⏩ CHAW in Flash Fiction Festival Anthology Vol 5, published by Ad Hoc Fiction

⏩ How Alexa Gets Pregnant and Chooses Abortion in Flash Fiction Festival Anthology Vol 5, published by Ad Hoc Fiction

February 2023

⏩ Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine in Fuel a fuel poverty charity anthology of 75 prize winning stories. 

⏩ The Back Road and the Kissing Gate shortlisted by the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Prize 

January 2023

⏩  Making Marys in Atlas and Alice

⏩  I Give After-Christmas-Presents in Paragraph Planet

December 2022

⏩  Dead Elves in Paragraph Planet 

⏩  The Fortune Teller Miracle Fish from the Christmas Cracker Retreat West Christmas themed 12 Days of Stories

November 2022

⏩ Sailing the 7Cs of Flash Fiction - Vancouver Flash Fiction

⏩ Turf - Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Anthology Longlist (Print) 

October 2022

⏩ Free-diving Five Hundred Million Years Ago Quiet Man Dave Prize Shortlist

⏩ The Axens of Silver Stag Ridge - EllipsisZine #12 (Print) 

⏩ Every Happy Ending is a Lie - Reflex Fiction longlist 

September 2022

⏩ What My Therapist Calls Grounding to Calm My Anxious Body - A Cast of Crabs anthology from Retreat West (Print) 

⏩ The Mechanical Forest at the End of the World - Splonk

August 2022

⏩ Cup of Joe - HAD 💀

⏩ The Pigeon-Pea Princess of Sanganakallu - Fractured Lit

⏩ The Watchtower Seasons - New Flash Fiction Review

July 2022

⏩ What if Your Mother was the Woman Next Door - Ellipsis Zine

June 2022

⏩ A Sin to See Through Glass - National Flash Fiction Day 'Freedom' Anthology (Print)

⏩ FRAKTA National Flash Fiction Day Flash Flood 2022

⏩ The Measure of You - Crossing The Tees Flash Mob Anthology 

⏩ Gummy Bears - Tower Hamlets winner published in City of Stories Home anthology by Spread the Word

May 2022 

⏩ The Fish Tank Mangroves Canopy  - Urban Tree Festival runner-up

⏩ The Norwegian Spruce Seeds of the Svalbard Vault Urban Tree Festival Longlist

April 2022 

⏩ Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine Oxford Flash Fiction Prize Anthology (print) 

⏩ CHAW Great Flash Fiction Festival Throwdown (Winner)

⏩ The Life Cycle of Fire & Note Craft

⏩ Stick and Poke Reflex Fiction (Longlist) 

March 2022

⏩ Per Procurationem Flash Fiction Festival Anthology, Volume 4

⏩ Recipe for Sustenance to avoid the End of the World as We Know it with Fresh Roles Flash Fiction Festival Anthology, Volume 4 (Technical Challenge Winner) 

⏩ The Almost-kiss Tiny Molecules

⏩ The Animals of Göbekli Tepe & Podcast The Phare

⏩ Always Sunset Retreat West Flash Festival Competition

⏩ The Tucana Constellation of the Southern Skies Walk Listen Create

⏩ Torn EllipsisZine 

February 2022 

⏩ The Soapstone Girl Dances Paragraph Planet

⏩ Spill Reflex Fiction (Longlist) 

December 2021

⏩ Plink Paragraph Planet

⏩ Our Lady of Perpetual Plastic & Smoke & Mirrors interview Smokelong Quarterly 

⏩ Duct Tape Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology (Print) Longlist

⏩ Hail Bath Short Story Award 2021 Anthology (Print) Shortlist

November 2021 

⏩ Eclipsed Spread the Word & London Wildlife Trust This is Our Place Anthology (Print & Download) 

⏩ A Portrait of War and Love Ellipsiszine#10 (Print) 

⏩ Woodbine Reflex Fiction Autumn 2021 Flash Fiction Competition (4th place) 

⏩ The Animals of Göbekli Tepe  The Phare Literary Magazine 

⏩ The Acorns of Bartlett Park  Sydney Gardens Park Bath Tree Weekender prose competition winner. Check out Longlist here. 

⏩ Born Free Paragraph Planet

⏩ Night Bathing Highlands and Islands Short Story Association (HISSAC) Flash Fiction Winner 

October 2021

⏩ Guys I Meet Before I Die Half Empty Magazine - Sweet & Sour Issue 

⏩ Watermelon Metropolis Litro Magazine - Nature Issue

⏩ Mixtape for an Amusiac Sledgehammer Literary Journal

⏩ Three Hours and Seven Minutes Reflex Fiction Longlist 

⏩ I Am Coin  EllipsisZine

September 2021

⏩ Convenience Store Babies Janus Literary Issue 5

⏩ My Velcro Baby Retreat West Festival Micro Competition Winner

⏩ The Girl with the Farrah Fawcett Hair Emerge Literary Journal

⏩ We're playing doctors and nurses.... Paragraph Planet

⏩ Turtle on the Dotted Line Reflex Fiction

⏩ Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine  Oxford Flash Fiction Prize Winner

August 2021

⏩ Killing Flies  Scissors & Spackle (Emerge Literary Journal) 

⏩ Watering the Garden at 4am  The Mambo Academy of Kitty Wang presents 'Millipede Ranch' from Blink Ink (Print)

July 2021

⏩ Babies Falling from the Sky Crack the Spine Anthology: The Year 2020 (Print)

⏩ Goldilocks and My Imaginary Family Free Flash Fiction Competition Winner

⏩ Stain Rejection Letters 

⏩ Don't Tell Me What to Wear Paragraph Planet 

⏩ Leaving Him Ellipsis Zine Issue #9 (Print) 

June 2021

⏩ The Soft Th Janus Literary

⏩ No Birds' Nests in the Tree Next Door NFFD Flash Flood Journal

⏩ Cardiac Ablation 50 Word Stories

⏩ Contact Lenses in  Beguiled by a Wild Thing Anthology Reflex Press (Print)

May 2021 

⏩ In the Other's Mouth Emerge Literary Journal

⏩ The Alligator Clock Ellipsis Zine

⏩ The Recovery Position The Daily Drunk Magazine

April 2021 

⏩ Under the Kitchen Table SVJ Schuylkill Valley Journal 

⏩ Trespass to the Person Versification Misfit Micros

⏩ A Body of Water Reflex Fiction 

March 2021

⏩ Orphan Negative Paragraph Planet 

⏩ White Line  Gone Lawn

⏩ Forced Moulting Gone Lawn

⏩ Like Rain  Blues Doodles 

February 2021

⏩ She Leaves Offerings on Doorsteps Schuylkill Valley Journal (Print)

⏩ The Unbirthday at the Border Schuylkill Valley Journal (Print)

⏩ There is no Ocean in the Bucket  Schuylkill Valley Journal (Print)

⏩ Rot  Reflex Fiction 

January 2021

⏩ Meat Raffle  Janus Literary Journal

⏩ I Wear Other People  EllipsisZine

⏩ Providing Opportunities For Another to Excel  50 - Word Stories

⏩ On the 11th day of Christmas   Paragraph Planet 

December 2020

⏩ Sowing Sea Meadows   Litro

⏩ The Man I Live With The Hunterian - Alcohol in the Archives Journal

⏩ How I Wonder  Friday Flash Fiction

⏩ Pine  Friday Flash Fiction

⏩ Between Rivers  City Lit Anthology: Between the Lines 2020 (Print & Ebook )  

⏩ Menhirs  Friday Flash Fiction

November 2020

⏩ The Black-lacquered Bowl  Fudoki

⏩ The Succulent  50 - Word Stories

⏩ Beans  Mum Life Stories - Competition & Anthology

October 2020

⏩ The Indentation of Pearls  Hysteria 21 - Competition and Anthology

⏩ Dear Joy  Friday Flash Fiction

⏩ The Proper Respect for Water  London Independent Story Prize

⏩ Bubble-wrap and Brown Paper  Virtualzine

September 2020

⏩ Cloudburst '72  The London Reader - Cyberpunk 2020 1ssue

⏩ Contact Lenses  Reflex Fiction Longlist

⏩ Connected  Paragraph Planet

⏩ Overcharged with Dead  Mslexia Issue #87 (Print)

August 2020

⏩ Remington Made Typewriters  Friday Flash Fiction

⏩ Paper Cranes  50 - Word Stories

⏩ Duck and Cover  Liars League - Performed by Lin Sagovsky

⏩ Landed My First Kick-flip  Paragraph Planet

July 2020

⏩ Covid Time Capsule Items List (Archive Copy)  100 Words of Solitude - Life in the Time of Corona

⏩ a measurement of silence in one hundred words  Fish Publishing - Lockdown Prize & Anthology - Third Place

June 2020

⏩ The Berlin Heart  Paper and Ink Literary Zine #16 - The Rebellion Issue (Print)

⏩ Circle Time  Bridge House Publishing - Waterloo Festival Competition Anthology

⏩ Rubin's Vase  NFFD Flash Flood Journal

May 2020

⏩ The Karma Economy  Crack the Spine: The Year Anthology (Print)

April 2020

⏩ 7 Photos Lie on My Mother's Body  Thorn Literary Magazine

⏩ Rising and Falling with the Sea  Thorn Literary Magazine

⏩ The Birthday Cake Approaches  Paragraph Planet

⏩ Tulips for the Homeless  Reflex Fiction

March 2020

⏩ The Room on the Ledge  The Wellington Review Issue #5

⏩ The Cubital Fossa  EllipsisZine Issue #7: She Cries Honey Anthology (Print)

⏩ Other Uses for a Woman's Body  Lunate International Women's Day Micro Competition Winner

⏩ Life Sentence Mslexia: Issue #85 (Print)

February 2020

⏩ Pancakes  Paragraph Planet

⏩ Harvest  Crack the Spine: Neighbours Anthology (Print)

Pre 2020

⏩ Fruit is the New Gold  Paragraph Planet

⏩ Submarine  Jellyfish Review: Issue #51 Metalheads

⏩ Red Grass  The London Reader: The Motherhood Issue   (Print)

⏩ My Father the Somniloquist  Short Edition: Online and Story Dispensers 

⏩ Flamingos of the Salinas  Spread the Word: City of Stories Anthology (Print)

⏩ My Mother Left Me for a Tree  Retreat West: Word for Freedom - Anthology Celebrating 100 years of Women's Suffrage (Print)

⏩ The Old Man and The Balloon  The Magnolia Review - Balloon Issue

⏩ Under the Gaze of the Lion  EllipsisZine

⏩ Rusted  Paper and Ink Literary Zine # - The Punk Issue (Print)

⏩ The Shop of Preserved Curiosities  Dear Damsels - Curiosity Issue

⏩ Soul Brothers  NFFD Flash Flood Journal

⏩ Lost Words   Friday Flash Fiction 

52 Stories: Creative Writing Workshop

Free Creative Writing Workshop! 

Stories, prompts and exercises to inspire writing. 

Drop in and join this friendly group, meeting Monday lunch times (1230-130) at the Community Cabin of Mile End Climbing Wall. 

⚠️ For updates & cancellations check @52QuotesRoz on Instagram

 

Pens & paper provided or bring your own notebook, phone or laptop. Drinks can be purchased on site & water refills are available.

Workshop sessions are based on the book 52 STORIES for Readers & Writers by Rosaleen Lynch - a collection, workbook and toolkit for readers' and writers' groups and weekly individual practice, to be published this year by Ad Hoc Fiction.  

52 STORIES at Mile End Wall

Looking forward to starting 52 STORIES at Mile End Wall on January 16th. 

Find us at the Community Cabin at Mile End Climbing Wall 

Cli-Fi

Check out some of my online flash fiction which includes nature, growth in all its connotations and climate concerns around weather, environment, migration, mental health, fertility, cycles and inequality. From 50 words anthropomorphising a succulent to speculative fiction about babies sold in convenience stores or houses with built-in skies.

 

🌴  The Fish Tank Mangroves Canopy - Urban Tree Festival Shortlist 

🌴  The Norwegian Spruce Seeds of the Svalbard Vault UTF Longlist

🌴  The Life Cycle of Fire & Note Craft

🌴  The Animals of Göbekli Tepe  The Phare Podcast

🌴  Always Sunset Retreat West Flash Festival Competition

🌴  Plink Paragraph Planet

🌴  Our Lady of Perpetual Plastic  & Smoke & Mirrors interview Smokelong Quarterly

🌴  Eclipsed Spread the Word & London Wildlife Trust This is Our Place Anthology

🌴  Woodbine Reflex Fiction Autumn 2021 Flash Fiction Competition (4th place) 

🌴  The Acorns of Bartlett Park  Sydney Gardens Park Bath Tree Weekender prose winner. 

🌴  Watermelon Metropolis Litro Magazine - Nature Issue

🌴  Convenience Store Babies Janus Literary Issue 5

🌴  Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine  Oxford Flash Fiction Prize Winner

🌴  No Birds' Nests in the Tree Next Door NFFD Flash Flood Journal  

🌴  Sowing Sea Meadows   Litro 

🌴  The Succulent  50 - Word Stories

🌴  Tulips for the Homeless  Reflex Fiction  

🌴  Other Uses for a Woman's Body  Lunate Int. Women's Day Micro Competition Winner

 

5 Flash Fiction Writers (including me)

I was thrilled to be mentioned in this  article today in JMW by Mandira Mattnaik, called Beginners Guide to 5 Flash Writers and Their Unique Styles recommending my flash fiction amongst some of my favourite flash fiction writers--Bronwen Griffiths, Patricia Q. Bidar, Jo Withers and Sara Hills. 

Check out the article and learn more about these writers and flash fiction. 

And here are links to the 3 stories of mine which Mandira recommends:

 

Watermelon Metropolis published in the Nature issue of Litro Magazine.

Twenty-oneSpecies of Fish Called Sardine, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize Winner.

TheAlligator Clock published by Ellipsis Zine.

 

 

The Acorns of Bartlett Park

'The Acorns of Bartlett Park' is a piece of micro-fiction, that was written for and won the prose catgory of the Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender Writing Competition and was awarded this fabulous illustration of the story by Alban Low. 

Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender Writing Competition

Prompt: Trees in our local public gardens and parks have a special place in our hearts. They have boosted our spirits and willingly offered us something to hug! We want you to put your feelings about trees in public gardens and parks into just 250 words.We invite you to write a flash story or poem of 250 words or under about trees in your local public garden or park.

My story is about a tree in Bartlett Park in the East End of London. I'd been in this park with my partner sheltering in the rain with a carpet of acorns under our feet. As a child and a mother and youth worker I've played with acorns like these but this story is also about the stories we tell our children. The stories we tell them for fun or protection or to explain what we do not know. About nature and our nature. Some stories get changed over time, and we forget that Pinochio's maker Geppetto told the first lie, and not Pinochio, in Carlo Collodi's original story - Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet (1881-1883). I wrote my story thinking about climate change deniers and Covid deniers, wondering about the stories they will tell their children, and the stories those children will tell theirs.

👂 Listen to all the shortlisted stories read here.

Sydney Gardens Tree Weekender is a partnership project between ReThinking Cities and the Sydney Gardens Project and this competition was run by Rethinking Cities/Museum of Walking on behalf Bath and Northeas Somerset Council.

Eclipsed

Photo by Kashif Haque

'Eclipsed', was published in print in the nature writing anthology, This is Our Place by Spread the Word and the London Wildlife Trust, and can be downloaded here. 

'Eclipsed' began life on June 10th in a Charlie Latimer class (@Charlie_Lat). We were talking about writing and when we get stuck or can't start. We were asked to write 'one true sentence' in the Hemingway tradition of when he told himself...

"Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.  (A Moveable Feast, Hemingway, 1964)

My 'one true sentence' was:

'The sun eclipsed looks like a crescent moon.' 

There had been a solar eclipse that day and this became a refrain in the story and 'Eclipsed' was then developed in the Spread the Word and London Wildlife Trust nature writing workshops (@STWevents & @WildLondon).

Here's what was going on in my head and in the world, that influenced the story...

1. A solar eclipse that loooked like a cresent moon.
2. Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' 
3. Urban nature, seasonal cycles, from the human body to the solar system
   
4. Domestic abuse triggered in pregnancy
5. Rise of Domestic Abuse numbers in lockdown
6. Domestic Violence websites 'hide' button
   
7. Reports of  billionaires going into space when people on earth are going to foodbanks and earth is going to pot. 

This Is Our Place was launched by Spread the Word and the London Wildlife Trust, on the 27th of November at Camley Street Natural Park. The event had live streamed readings from the project’s writers-in-residence, Jackee Holder, Elspeth Wilson, Laura Barker, LiLi K. Bright and Anita Sethi, alongside writers like me, whose work had been selected as part of the anthology showcasing voices in nature writing.

I Am Coin

'I Am Coin' published by EllipsisZine started off at the Stay-at-Home Literary Festival 2020.

The festival began as a single tweet by CJ Cooke, an award-winning author and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. A few short weeks later the festival launched, bringing together 220 authors and industry professionals with support from lead partner, Paper Nations. With 145 events held over two weeks, Stay-at-Home! debuted as one of the largest literary festivals in the United Kingdom.

The story came from prompts from two free and fantastic workshops, where an object was the starting point.

27 April 2020 -  Morning Workout with Susmita Bhattacharya - prompts (see link) included listing objects a character would carry and what they tell us abut the character in a situation.

1st May 2020 - Experimental Writing with Dr Tawnya Selene Renelle - prompts included writing from the perspective of a 'cherished object' and what the object sees, hears and feels.

The cherised object I chose was a silver coin (dated 1888) my grandmother recieved on her wedding day and gave to me the year my daughter was born in 1988. I was reminded of the letter she sent with it saying it wasn't worth much but meant a lot. I'd written 'Other Uses for a Woman's Body' thinking about the effects of climate change and 'I Am Coin', writing from the perspective of a coin fit with themes around the objectification and commodification of womens bodies like in sex work and human trafficking.

 

Deptford High Street 

We're Playing Doctors and Nurses

This story began on my way to work at our youth centre, when a young woman passed me wearing a mask under her chin as if it was the most natural thing in the world. 

I thought about how I'd never seen a surgical mask in a doctor or nurse toy set and I fast-forwarded into a post-apocalyptic world (or maybe somewhere now) and thought about the consequences of discarded masks, a discarded health service, and a discarded world and the irony of the term 'stranger-danger' when statistically we are more likely to be hurt by people we know.

The story is pretty creepy I know. I'm hoping it makes the reader uneasy. I think it's a good thing when I'm not feeling comfortable about something, it's harder to ignore.

Thanks Paragraph Planet for publishing this. Writers, send any 75 worders you have their way here. 

Watering the Garden at 4am

'Watering the Garden at 4am' is a 50 word story published in The Mambo Academy of Kitty Wang presents 'Millipede Ranch' by Blink Ink.

 

Sapsuckers by Rachel Laundon

 

 

Dueling by Rachel Laundon

 

I was thinking of the brilliant Gabriel Garcia Marquez story called 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings', and the health worries of a number people I know, and how a decline in physical and mental health can keep a person in a sort of captivity.

According to Prostrate Cancer UK, 'One man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer. It already kills more people than breast cancer and by 2030 it’s set to be the most common cancer in the UK.'

Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine

...a recycled Oxford English Dictionary as trophy

Twenty-one Species of Fish Called Sardine is piece of flash fiction in the form of a breathless paragraph. It started off life with the title I found in a fact I learned from QI. I got the first line from a mermaid prompt from a Meg Pokrass Flash Gym and developed the flash with an eye on a pirate themed subs call and entered the final draft in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, never imagining it would win, or that the judges would say such lovely things as they did below:

I found this piece outstanding. The final image of the child at the ‘now cold dashboard’ stayed with me – I loved the push of the pace, the lyrical language and structure, the child’s view layered over the lives of the parents; the way the mother’s condition surfaces almost as though it were revealed by the sea, with intricate, telling detail. A rhythm and crescendo that felt like a sea-swept dirge.

Catherine McNamara

---

The voice is immediate and intimate. The language is lush. The pace is breathless. It rewards re-reading.

Adam Lowe

---

Wonderfully poetic and evocative and with great detail and atmosphere.  Strong voice and emotional resonance.

Dr Clare Morgan

Thanks Catherine, Adam and Clare and everyone at the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize. 

Write your 1000 word story and enter it here by January 31st 2022, to be in with a chance of winning £1000 and one of these wonderful trophies!