I'm been working flat out on my new novel Red Claw for the last few months, and have made a remarkable discovery.  When I have far too much work to do, the only way to get it all done is to commit to EVEN MORE.  And so I took time out from the novel to write a clutch of short stories, and then found the novel was going faster than ever.

I don't know why this should be!?!  Maybe it's connected to the old adage of 'Always give a job to a busy man (or woman)'.  Or maybe it's simply that writing these stories - all very different from Debatable Space in genre and tone - fired up my creative energies. 

Anyway, the first of these stories is called Mr Smith, and I'm delighted to say that it's been accepted by Andrew Hook of [1] The Elastic Press, for publication in his short story collection New Horizons next year. 

Mr Smith is a tale of the extraordinary, set in the present day, in and around a South Wales B & Q. I shall say no more...