I have decided to write an anthology of short works – each somewhere between 2000 and 5000 words. This will be self published as an ebook on Kindle.

I have set the number of stories in this at 9. For no reason other than because. They are be a mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, with there being more of the former….

Below are some of the un-edited, un-spell checked, un-grammar checked raw copy and pastes of the beginnings….

#01 – Training

Sal was sat in class, she had only two more hours left before she was done, all work handed in and then the wait for her grades. She would then be a qualified pilot. She would have to be supervised at first, she understood that. Her first job was lined up and waiting on the condition she got over seventy percent on her tests. She had got that on the practical and the first round of theories alone, this last theory one was all the theory on how the FTL drives worked. And she needed that to do out-system shipping.

She was watching out of the window – the work had been handed in and she had an hour to kill. Everyone else on the course was still writing – but the tutor was marking her papers now. She was thankful about that – no waiting for results. Tomorrow would bring what tomorrow would.

She could see out of the corner of her eye the tutor – Mr Stephenson – had finished marking her paper, she could wait until everyone else had finished – she didn’t see the point in interrupting them because she couldn’t wait thirty minutes to leave.

#02 – two

Pete found that his friend was having issues. She had just split from her husband and he was worried about her, how she was coping. Over several weeks they got closer, so much that Pete found he was actually looking forward to seeing her, waiting for her cute smile. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and after a month or so he realized he was in love with her.
Pete was left with a though decision, should he tell his friend how he felt, or keep quiet and hope for the best.

#03 – Three

Dem was sat at the co-pilots chair; their ship was doing a standard security patrol round the system. The system of rocks. There was only a small station here to provide a terminal for the miners to transport in and out of the system.
Most of the ships were the big ore processing ones, which were almost the size of the station; they roamed the system where the miners could bring their ore for sale. There was never any trouble here, the mining guild had made sure of that in the early days, but its power was diminished now, there was just one frigate and a couple of converted shuttles on patrol.

The war with Earth had drained most of their resources, and then with the war over for almost 50 years now, things had never been restored. They had lost. Both in terms of ships and people, and the will of anyone to try for independence.

#04 – Four

Jim was happy. He was on his way back into port, prepping to dock his little space shuttle. He would be seeing the only person in the world that mattered to him, Lidia. They had finally admitted to each other the week before he had to leave on his duty assignment.

#05 – The Finding and the Revelation

Flowe was sat waiting for the transport. She did it every day on her way to the office. She spoke to the same people every day on the way to her office. What she needed was something different to happen on the way to her office. She had been thinking that for the last several weeks. But nothing ever happened in the little village where she lived with her parents.

#06 – One

It was a strange day. It was the middle of summer, yet there was ice on the well, no birds were singing. And no sound could be heard from the stables, nor from where the other farm animals were kept.
The sky was overcast, big dark black clouds covering the sky.
Looking round Linna could see the buildings that surrounded the yard, they all looked bleak and uninhabited – it was though no one had been here

#07 – Severn

Kel was sat on the chair looking out over the river. He had lived on the banks of rivers all his life, not this river – the river he grew up on no longer existed; from before the Visit. He was getting on in years, well past his prime and into his tenth decade of life.

His children were grown, and his grandchildren and great grandchildren, he would be seeing his eldest great great grandchild later in the day, and today he would be telling them the stories of old, of the time the Visit happened.
He smiled as the memories came to him, as he worked them though in his mind ready to tell the tale, the tale of the day almost eighty years previously – the one and only day the Earth had been visited by an alien space craft. The day he had met Jenny, the love of his life; the only alien still on Earth.

#08 – Magic Scorn

Jarrod knew he had to get away, he muttered a few words under his breath and there were a couple of explosions a hundred yards away, distracting the men following him. But not the dogs; Jarrod would never hurt an animal, but he really needed to do something, they had his scent now. He searched back through his memory to see if there was any trick or spell that would distract them. He had never taken much interest in the control of animal classes his owner had tried to teach him. And now he regretted it – almost. He heard a twig snap to his left, and he spun round. Coming face to face with one of the big alsatians. It snarled, and Jarrod muttered a relocating spell and dropped the dog into the river half a mile away. At everything he had to do he realised more and more that he had not learnt enough to be out in the world alone. The villagers had turned on him as soon as they found he had the magic touch. His owner had warned him, but he had ignored her.

#09 – Sid

Sid was at ease, the horse was going along in a straight line, with the others for once. The last few miles had been bad; there had been an interesting rabbit hole, some fish in a stream, an interesting stone. It was as though his horse was set out to frustrate its rider into giving up and going home.

But Sid wouldn’t do that. This was his expedition, out to find the answer to what had happened to his son. His only child who had been pressed into the Lords army and never come back. Sid knew how his son had joined, he had been made drunk and then kidnapped.

The recruiters of the Lords army weren’t to know what was about to hit them. Sid had more power than their Lord, he was sure the Lord himself had no part in this.

Bonus – A Poem

Words are fantastic
They let you
Explore
Express
Examine

With words
Peace will prevail
Pastimes will provide
Pleasure will propagate

The written word is mighty
Remembered and passed along

The muttered word is weak
Forgotten and perishes