Short Cuts: A collection of eight short stories
by Sam McCollPublish: Apr 30, 2018Women's Fiction Book Overview
Edgy... honest.... Funny... Being a pocket sized book makes it a perfect Christmas gift or a stocking filler. Sam McColl was a winner of an Arts Council Bursary for new writers.
'McColl's work has intense clarity and compassion' CM Taylor, Shed Books.
THE PROPOSAL: I sneak a glance at the faces of our loyal audience and it's blindingly obvious that they are already feeling terribly sorry for me.
SALT CUTS: Back then, there was snow in winter, in the eighties - loads of it, and that Christmas holiday the cobbled streets of The Colonies were packed hard. Despite the weather many residents rode bikes to get around and the tyres cut dark salt gashes through the glassy pavements ...
MARTIN AND ME: We were so busy digging a network of waterways, we never noticed how the tide had rushed silently past and sunk the banks behind us ...
THE RIVER: Come on, Liam, show us your doggy paddle... And they pushed him hard and he fell sideways into the pool and he swallowed water.
HAPPY FAMILIES: Aiden, my four year old tells me to take some deep breaths - annoying little shit.
ANYONE FOR DARTS? Tell me, Ross,' the head teacher said as he deliberately and slowly squinted down the barrel of a pencil. Is there a reason for this, this sudden deterioration in you behaviour?'
HAPPY FAMILIES. Aiden, my four year old, tells me to take some deep breaths - annoying little shit ...
THE PROPOSAL. I sneak a glance at the faces of our loyal audience and it's blindingly obvious that they are already feeling terribly sorry for me.
I QUIT. There's nothing unusual about waking through the slime of a dream about rape and loss and misery, but when I grope the pillow beside me for my fags, the first as yet unformed flutter of panic forces my eyes open. A feeling as intense as the death of a loved one sweeps through me ...
BLACK MOUNTAIN. It is 2016. I am an old man now, returning to what is left of my grandfather's house, in the foothills of the Himalayas, near Lord Krishna's birth place.