Confessions of a stamp murderer

30th May 1931.

An unremarkable date. The British Raj is still lording over the Indian populace even as revolts are cropping up like angry acne in pockets all over the country.

It is an unremarkable day in a small village in the remotest interiors of Cawnpore, the industrial capital city of the United Provinces in north India. On the main road pull-rickshaws ply to and fro, shrilly trilling cycles overbalance into pedestrians and bullock-carts sway along slowly. The cow scrunching on the footpath is placidly chewing the end of the lungi of an irate passer-by who is red in the face from trying to...
Read the full article in the November 2009 issue of Stamp News

or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

1625 words
Drama
Australia publication

Fly like a bird

"Mix a little French high brow with a little German stiff upper lip with a little Italian style and get a heady whiff of fantastic Switzerland!"

The promotional pitch jumped out from the center-spread advertisement of a famous travel agency in bright, bold inviting letters.

As a computer programmer, I normally lead a very sedentary life and any outdoor activity is limited to the weekly run from home to the local supermarket. However, the lure proved so strong that by the next morning, I had summoned courage enough to take the plunge. A week later, I found myself en route to a new adventure...

Read the full article in the October 2009 issue of Connecting (Solo Travel Network)

or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

862 words
Humour
US publication

***********************

Words from the Wise

"I enjoyed reading it"

Bob Dury

Editor

Cross Country Magazine

"This makes for excellent reading"

Lorna Loveless

Editor

Back Home

"I enjoyed reading your article"

Diane Redfern

Founder

Connecting (Solo Travel Network)

Buttons up!

A powerful stroke of the upper arm, a strong kick of the leg and I crawl forward another few feet. I am swimming. All around me is a myriad of rainbow colours undulating like the air heavy with sound waves broadcast from a giant speaker. Except that this isn't water. It's buttons. Big and small, bright and dull, round and square, flat and raised, two-holed and hole-less, stitch-on and stick-on... a sea of buttons of all shapes and sizes. My limbs cleave the surface like cracks ripping through fragile china and create a yawning chasm with buttons falling all around me. The scene reminds me of loose...

Read the full article in the September 2009 issue of The Gift Of Stitching


or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

2100 words
Humour
Australia publication

***********************

Words from the Wise

"This is a great story and I enjoyed reading it"

Kirsten Edwards

Editor

The Gift Of Stitching

"Reading it was really a treat for me"

Cathy Jakicic

Editor

BeadStyle

It ain't half cold, Mum

I’m looking for the pool but I can’t see much, jammed as my view is with auto-rickshaws, cycles and the obligatory bullock-cart or two. The cow squatting on the footpath is placidly chewing. Honking cars scurry around urgently like buzzing bees. Buses clatter by, weighed down and bursting at the seams with swarms of passengers hanging on for dear life to doors, window frames and whatever else they can wedge their fingernails into. Massive trucks lumber across the narrow road, billowing clouds of smoke akin to atomic explosion mushrooms. Not to be outdone in cacophony, motorbikes whiz through...
Read the full article in the April 2009 issue of Swimming Times


or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

2000 words
Humour
UK publication

Moving in sharp circles

Against a pale yellow background, the six red flowers with five petals and two leaves each rise majestically from the open centre of the tea cosy and stretch across the width of the cloth to rest at the peak of the cosy’s arc. The effect is simple, yet striking and I can’t help but feel a dollop of pride and satisfaction at my progress at needlework.

With time hanging heavy on my hands and nothing much to do but dole out long-winded stoutly-opinionated advice in my husband’s legal cases much too often, I had soon tired of the charms of daytime television and had begun to hunt in earnest for a proper little...

Read the full article in the March 2009 issue of The Gift Of Stitching


or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

2375 words
Humour
Australia publication

***********************

Words from the Wise

"It really made me smile!"

Kathy Troup

Editor

Stitch

"That's a great short story, really enjoyed reading it"

Kirsten Edwards

Editor

The Gift Of Stitching