END OF THE WORLD
By Gareth L Powell

Michelle and I broke up over a lunchtime bottle of wine in a crowded bar by the river. We’d been seeing each other for eighteen months, and now it had to end.

She said, “So that’s it?”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

She fiddled with the stem of her glass, looking angry and upset. The place smelled of garlic and spilled beer. We finished the wine in silence, and got up to leave.

As we stepped outside, the ground shook and the office blocks of Canary Wharf ripped free from their foundations, rising into the sky like rockets, trailing pipes and cables and loose bricks.

People were shouting and screaming. Michelle put a hand to her mouth. There were tears in her eyes.

“It’s the end of the world,” she said.

The Friday Flash Fiction Anthology, Illuminations, has been reviewed by The Fix, in an epic article by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro that manages to comment on every one of the sixty-six stories included in the book. And considering that the book was conceived, edited, designed and published in a ridiculously short period of time, I think it stands up pretty well. His comments on my nine contributions are quoted below, along with links to the online versions of the stories, for your reading pleasure:

William observes a “Snowball” from a dome on the surface of the Moon. The pacing in this very short flash piece is effective, the setting works, and, most importantly, the revelation of the last line is entirely consistent with what we know (and don’t know). This poignant, speculative outing is as fresh as snow.

Contemplating “The Point Furthest from the Sun” may lead one to inaction, even as a loved one is having a rough time. I missed the significance of the title, which, based on the skill of the writing, I’m sure was chosen with care. I found it intriguing. The repetition contained in the last two sentences certainly emphasizes the importance of what we’ve learned, but I’m not sure it heightened the experience for me.

The narrator of this tale learns of the horrors inflicted on some “Fresh Meat.” The attention to detail in this very compressed narrative, in conjunction with the sparse, polished sentences and strong rhythm, worked to make it a chilling experience.

A simple misunderstanding at an Amsterdam “Coffee House” informs this quiet, observational piece. It vividly captures a moment in the interaction between two characters and, through implication, portrays the characters and setting more vividly than might appear at first glance. Perfect coffee house reading.

Ed, on his way to take pictures of a crash site, stops at a roadside café and sparks up some conversation with the waitress, “Natalie.” There is an almost Ballardian sense of fragmentation and despair in this well-written tale, which artfully utilizes technological imagery to build tension in the setting and refract the character’s inner selves. An impressive feat given the space, this riveting piece transcends “flash” and approaches a less formalized version of the Ballardian “compressed novel,” in the best possible manner.

An unplanned hyperspace return to Earth provides Diego and Carla with a direct glimpse of cosmic “Lost Toys.” Powell again manages to imagine an intriguing situation and justify it with a rationale that is not only dramatically plausible but also thought-provoking. Some descriptive details, in particular, stand out. A tale to be found and enjoyed.

The revelation that ensues the narrator’s “Thai Curry” dinner with Nina is conveyed with elegance and emotion in this charged, biting, sad tale. With skill aplenty, Powell artfully builds not only a situation, but a mood, and places it in a broader context. More bittersweet than curry, but just as delectable.

In “The Red King’s Nursery,” Lawrence is vastly outnumbered and hopelessly outgunned by an enemy which, in the form of a talking remote, seems overly chatty and casual to be truly menacing. The whys and wherefores become revealed by the tale’s end. Though there were some clever moments and engaging writing, I didn’t find myself caring enough for the character to make this piece work on the psychological front, and I couldn’t ignore the weakness of the ending enough to make it work on a plot level either.

On his six-month watch aboard a starship forty years from its destination, with the remainder of the crew asleep in their pods, Kurt finds himself on “The Long Walk Aft” and the terrible fate to which it leads. The un-subtle situation is described in the no-frills manner in which its protagonist experiences it, and the detachment and realism only serve to strengthen the inevitability of its ending. It brought to mind Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations.” I enjoyed the image of a book being recycled for food; that seems somehow appropriate, under the circumstances.

On the whole, a pretty good review, I thought. You can read the whole thing here: http://thefix-online.com/reviews/illuminations/

In other related news, that cheeky scamp Shaun C Green has done a great impersonation of my flash fiction style over on his blog: http://www.nostalgiaforinfinity.com/?p=127

VICTORIA ROOMS
By Gareth L Powell

Darren and Kate are sitting on the steps of the Victoria Rooms, above the fountains, holding hands. It’s late. It’s been raining and the pavements are wet.

“What time is it?” Kate says. She has tinsel in her hair and she’s left her underwear in the toilets of an Indian restaurant on Park Street.

Darren shrugs. He doesn’t have a watch. He’s drunk and uncomfortable on the cold stone steps. “I don’t think I can go back,” he says.

Kate stiffens. “Look, I’ll call you a cab, okay?” She doesn’t want him crashing at her place. She pulls out her mobile phone and Darren folds his arms.

“Don’t be like that,” she says.

I discovered today that Illuminations is now available to order online via both WH Smiths and Blackwells:

• http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails-Illuminations+-9780955866203.html
• http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/Illuminations/9780955866203

This is a photo from the FFF workshop at Orbital 2008. Left-to-right: Gareth D Jones, Martin McGrath, Paul Graham Raven, Neil Beynon, Gareth L Powell, Justin Pickard, Shaun C Green. Photo courtesy of Gemma Morgan.

GOD’S GIFT
By Gareth L Powell

Jack’s upstairs neighbour really was the world’s greatest lover.

In the evenings, Jack had to turn his TV up to hide the bumps and giggles from above. One time, a lump of plaster fell off the ceiling and smashed his glass coffee table.

In the mornings, there would usually be two or three ashen-faced women in the communal stairwell. Some were lost, some shell shocked or euphoric. Some were reassessing their lives and relationships in the light of the previous night’s events. Jack would take them in and make them coffee, call them cabs or get them cigarettes, that sort of thing.

He liked the company. He liked being useful. And sometimes, one of the girls would stay a few days.

They used him to wind down, to ground themselves. Sometimes, they just needed to talk. And when they left, as they inevitably did, it made him sad.

He would rinse out the empty coffee mugs, clean the ashtrays, and then fetch himself a beer from the fridge. Then he would settle himself on the sofa again, rest his feet on the coffee table frame, and turn the TV volume wa-ay up.

Some photos from the weekend are already starting to appear on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/orbital2008/

Plus, there’s a photo of the Friday Flash Fictioneers and a nice summary of our workshop over on Gareth D Jones’s blog: http://garethdjones.blogspot.com/2008/03/and-jolly-good-time-was-had-by-all.html

Other Orbital reviews from the FFF crew can be found here, here, here, here, and here – including the story of how Martin McGrath assumed upon being introduced to her that Interzone author Aliette de Bodard was my wife.

I’ve spent the last few days at Orbital, this year’s Eastercon, in the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow – and what a few days it’s been…

I travelled from Bristol on Friday morning, with Colin Harvey, author of Lightning Days and The Silk Palace. We got to the hotel at luchtime and pretty much launched straight into the thick of things – the highlight of the afternoon being an energetic panel discussion on the future of the UK short fiction market.

I also met up with some of the Friday Flash Fictioneers, and finally got my hands on a copy of our anthology, Illuminations – which looks absolutely awesome.

We launched the anthology Saturday afternoon at a flash fiction workshop, which went very well. But by that time, I had started to feel ill – a feeling that would only get worse as the weekend progressed.

I met some old friends, such as Jetse de Vries and Roy Grey from Interzone, Andrew Hook from Elastic Press, Neil Williamson, fictioneers Gareth D Jones, Justin Pickard, Martin McGrath, Neil Beynon, Paul Raven, and Shaun C Green – and some new ones, such as fellow Interzone author Aliette de Bodard, Dev Agarwal, and Christopher Teague from Pendragon Press.

But by Sunday morning I had begun to feel really dreadful and had to miss the guest of honour speeches by Charles Stross and Neil Gaiman – but before I retreated to my hotel room with some rice cakes and bottled water, I did manage to stop by the art auction and buy the original artwork for my short story, Ack-Ack Macaque, drawn by SMS.

Now that the paperback version of Illuminations is on sale, Out Two Out have also made it available to download as a pdf, in return for a small donation to charity.

Follow this link to download your copy: http://www.oddtwoout.co.uk/buybooks.html

On 14th March, Warren Ellis wrote:

“… if you go over to Velcro City today, you’ll find details of a collection of flash fiction by sf writers, released under Creative Commons and donating all its profits to the NSPCC. Nice one, Paul. Includes work by Gareth L Powell, the author of the terrific “Ack-Ack Macaque” story I mentioned a couple of months back.”

SF Signal calls it:

“A Internet experiment done right”