22 Oct The long and the short of it…
Each month the brilliant Aquila magazine features a short story and this month it’s mine.
I love the challenge of a short story. How can you captivate and engage a reader in 1000 words? How can you help the reader care about the character and what happens to her / him / it? And how can you catch that snippet of life – of story – and end in a way that both satisfies and intrigues? With great difficulty, that’s how. But, as I say, I love a challenge.
When I wrote ‘The Perfect Pet’, I wanted to write a story on the theme of pets. But I wanted to write about an unusual pet – one that didn’t actually exist. This really opened up my imagination and I had great fun creating this marvellous beast.
I also decided to break with convention a little. Instead of writing a piece of straight prose, I wrote the story in the form of a letter from a boy to his father. In the letter, the boy explains that he’s got into a spot of bother with the said marvellous beast…and so the story unfolds.
Thanks to Aquila for giving me the opportunity to share ‘The Perfect Pet’. I hope the children enjoy reading it and I look forward to writing some more!