Little Red Gem (32 page)

Every writer has a stash
of short stories hidden in their drawer. Short stories are a great
introduction into the publishing world because they teach a writer
about deadlines, submission guidelines, dealing with rejection, and
sometimes the joy of publication. I’ve selected eleven of my
favourite speculative fiction short stories for this anthology.
Although I started writing in 1996, it took until 2005 for my first
short story to get published. At a time when I considered giving
up, A Lesson In Time Management was published and reaffirmed my
enthusiasm to pursue a writing career. (There is nothing as
wonderful as having a piece of work accepted for publication).
Shortly following that small success, Mr Zodiac was published, and
then Talking To Walls. Mr Zodiac was reworked and became The
Twelfth House which was submitted in 2008 to a project titled
Hollywood. Next Stop! The story never made it to the final cut, and
I admit it was re-edited for this anthology, as were most of the
stories contained in this anthology. Some of these short stories
were written for competitions, such as The Harvest Of The Damned,
Falling Down A Rainbow, and A Watch Of Nightingales. The Girl
Nobody Liked has a title I think is cool, even if the story is odd.
Some stories were written simply to get an idea out of my head,
which is really the birth place of all speculative fiction. To me,
The Puppet Masters is a perfect example of speculative fiction;
what happens to a character once a writer has created them and the
story is over? I hope you enjoy reading this collection of haunting
and at times odd tales.

Poison in the
Pond

D L Richardson

Karen Malcolm escapes with
her life after a week of being held hostage in her own home by a
mad man named Cain. He gets life behind bars and she gets a second
chance as the future wife of Doctor Tyler Carlisle and mother of
his young daughter Jess. But Karen can't escape the nightmare that
follows when Cain contacts her from prison to beg forgiveness.
Instead she is plunged into a world where there are things in the
dark that even the bag guys are afraid of, including
Cain.

When Karen is caught up in
Cain's web of madness it places the life of her new daughter at
risk because when Cain returns, he's not alone and he's not after
her this time, but after Jess. Once more Karen will face her
attacker. Yet the madness he brings with him is left behind is like
poison in her veins.