Zoe Grace, Author

Crisis Point — Again!

I have been writing my novel for nearly four years and I know less about writing a novel now than I did when I started. It may take another four years, more or less — I hope not too much more — to learn to write a novel. Never mind the books I have read about writing, the courses I have been on. None of these have made a great deal of difference. It’s reading that makes the difference. I’ve been…

SCHRODINGER’S CATFLAP

FADE IN EXT. HOUSE From various angles converging on the front door. The number on the door is 659. ALICE, a teenage schoolgirl has her hand on the doorknob, turning it. A cute looking boy smiles and waves. INT. HOUSE Alice enters and slams the door behind her. NARRATION ALICE VOICE OVER.: I first realised that the world was coming to an end when I got home from school and found the cat gone. Alic…

“Hello, I’m Bernard. I’m from Venus.” “Ah, right. I said. “You don’t have much of an accent. None that I can make out. But then I’ve never been further than Austria on a school weekend trip.” “Well, I never did suppose you would have been to Venus. And if you did,” he tittered nervously into his hand,…

Unexpected Item in Bagging Area.

I open the lid of the crate and look out. There is no one there. I’ve done it. I’ve got through the security at Cutcost, and now I can take anything I want. That’s the weak point in their security: no one can get in, but anyone can get out. I climb out of the crate. Making it self-sealing was a stroke of genius, though I say so myself. Getting a job at the warehouse was easy enough, they always…

Summer Lightning’s Spell

Looking back, our relatives will say We planned it. We chose, certainly but no, No plan about it; anarchy – although Design came into it.

And yours will say I dragged you up the garden path!

And mine Will say; “After all is said and done He has no job and never goes to mass! He’s just a drifter, just a mongrel stray.”

As you pause at the door to pivot on your heel And view the last…

So what happens now?

The reality is, Labour lost in the sense of it cannot hope to get its programme through Parliament, it won’t even be trying. The Tories lost in that they no longer have a majority to get their programme through, although they will probably try, and quite a lot of day to day legislation will get through, unopposed. They also run a risk of being opposed by their own back benchers on certain parts…

“Just like the fifties,” says Mum, gazing at the broken skyline. “It was like it when I was born, and it’ll be like it when I die.” “You’re not going to die, Mum,” I say. “Not yet. You’ll get through this. We all will.” She thrusts her hand into the pile of grey ash that had been someone’s front door. It still feels warm. I know, I’ve just done the same. Nothing else in our world felt quite like…

Time For A Cull?

My Facebook stream is getting too full again. Time for another cull? Not of people, not ‘friends’ you understand, that’s not the problem. It’s these random items like weather reports and reminders of things I’d rather forget and articles that I don’t want to read. It’s the pages I’ve ‘liked’ and sometimes it’s the groups I’ve joined that are subscribed to by people who feel the need to cover my…

It is terrible being poor I feel powerless I cannot afford the SemtexP

The Madness in the Ice

We found the hut near the peak, half buried in Alaskan snow. The windows were broken, the glass was lying all around. “So they were broken after the blizzard — from within.” Weston enjoyed playing detective.

Hearne — the other reckless greenhorn — was the first through the door. “The heating’s still on.” He pointed at the crudely lagged jumble of pipes on top of a big tank or boiler. The only…

Twilight of the Gods

I was just making the final adjustments, tightening the quartz rod and squeezing a drop of oil onto it. And just at this vital moment, Lucy walked in with a brief, “Hi, Daddy,” sat down and commenced to write.

“What are you writing? Let’s have a look,” I said.

Lucy wasn’t enthusiastic. But then she never was about anything. She flashed a page in front of me, hastily withdrew it, and blushed. “As…

The Grim Reaper of Frozen Hell

Thanks; that mug of hot cocoa is most welcome. Preferable to the weak, sweet wine I was expecting. Sorry, bad joke. This is the first time I’ve felt warm in days. Those days in Alaska chilled me to the bone, especially the last one. I didn’t think I’d ever feel warm again. It was a total whiteout — a face freezing blizzard coming out of the north east. Our thick coats and gloves kept us…

The new constellation sparkled like a phoenix as it rose from the embers of the setting sun. Most of the people who saw it wondered, but did not worry, seeing only a beautiful addition to the autumn sky. Only the Hubble telescope painted a more sinister picture. And by the morrow, the media were declaring, not only that it was not a new constellation, but that it was a clear and present danger to…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix_DEto6nH4#t=2786.554603061

Randi, Stephen Fry, and the professional astronomer are right, I did an academic study of astrology at University in the late seventies, early eighties and it is absolute tosh and an insult to the intelligence. I don’t know why the video is so chopped up, though. The best part where the astrologer gives a totally ludicrous analysis of…

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Cobras do not strike in sunlight, rattlers never rattle when they’re wet. That’s all you have to know about council officers. Fionnghan MacIain, the assistant curator fell into the second category. I should have slipped him a quart of Glen Fiddich, beforehand. “The trouble is,” he waffled, “we’ve not got the time, let alone the space. And, if I were to leave your work in our storeroom,…

The Man Who Ate The Ocean

Every day with the noon-tide, Andre continues in his plan to eat the ocean. Grasping, clutching, sucking, licking his way he moves from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. No sea is safe from Andre’s probing tongue, nimble fingers, tearing teeth.

Day by day: anchovy; bass; cod; eel; hake; lobster; mackerel; octopus; prawn; scampi; tuna;whitebait; all slide…

Don’t Go There.

It was a dare. And a very scary one. St Tibulus’s church with its crumbling stone walls was fenced off and signposted:

“DANGEROUS”.

Most people haven’t heard of St Tibulus — except for an episode of Father Ted — and he’s widely believed to be fiction. But the old church had existed since medieval times, becoming a ruin a century ago. ‘Tibulus’ is a strange name. It translates from Latin as ‘bits’…