Short Stories

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In mags, anthos, journals and on the web...

A.J Kirby's stories are available in a variety of formats - in print, on the web, or on podcast. Here's the full catalogue to date:

Publishing History, Short Stories

  • 'Scato-Illogical', published in the Wild Wolf Publishing horror anthology, 'Wild Wolf's Twisted Tails' May 2013
  • 'Multiple Choice', to be published by Freedom Forge Press in their 'Freedom' anthology, June 2013.
  • 'Behind the Scenes at the London Tour (St. Pauls to Borough Market leg)', published in the Exaggerated Press's Wordland 3: What they saw in the Sky anthology.
  • 'Ted The Stud's Bucket List', published on the All Due Respect Crime Fiction Blogspot, April 2013.
  • 'The Miracle in the Clearing', published in Writing Tomorrow Magazine, Spring 2013.
  • 'Between the Pony-Tail Palms', to be published by Buenos Aires Reader, Spring 2013. 
  • 'Mister Magpie', published by TM Publishing in Burgundy Grove Magazine, March 2013.
  • 'The Side Effect of Yeah-Yeah Pills', published in Perihelion Science Fiction Magazine, January 2013
  • 'Deafening', to be published in The Big Book of Strange, Weird and Wonderful III, December 2012.
  • 'Every Generation Throws a Hero up the Pop Charts', produced as a radio drama for Listen Up North.com, October 2012. 
  • 'Jellyfish', published in Litro magazine's Ghost-themed issue, October 2012.
  • 'The Gavel', to be published as a limited edition chapbook by The Night Light, Autumn 2012.
  • 'Jesus Saves and Allan Clarke Nets the Rebound', to be published on The Night Light website, Thursday 6th September 2012.
  • 'The Waiting Room Test', published in the sci-fi themed Fiction Brigade collection, September 2012.
  • 'In the Mean Time', accepted for publication in the Sins of the Seven anthology (ed. Jessica A. Weiss) from Wicked East Press, August/ September 2012.
  • 'Point Blank Gross', to be published by The 2nd Hand, September 2012
  • 'Corporate', third prize winner in the Spine Tinglers dark fiction short story competition, August 2012.
  • 'Gavin and the Green Knights', published in 'The Unnatural World' issue of Sein und Werden, guest edited by Allen Ashley. Copies available from here. July 2012.
  • 'Your Bushy Moustache', accepted for publication in the inaugural issue of Big Eyes magazine.
  • 'B of the Bang', published online in the Olympics-themed issue of What the Dickens? magazine.
  • 'Ace Cameron and the Red Peril', published by White House Press, May 26 2012.
  • 'Hunter's Final Prey', to be published on the Dead Ink website, May 2012.
  • 'I Dream of Violence', published on Morgen Bailey.com Flash Fiction Friday, May 25th, 2012.
  • 'Hairy Palms', published in the Terror Scribes anthology (ed. Adam Lowe). ISBN: 978-1907133343
  • 'Doorways', published by Thrillers, Killers n' Chillers, April 2012
  • 'Taken' and 'The Mother of the Bride', published on Morgen Bailey.com Flash Fiction Friday, April 2012.
  • 'Desire' and 'The Birthday Cake', published on Morgen Bailey.com Flash Fiction Friday, March 2012.
  • 'The Claustrophobia of the Cocoon', published by Prole Books, in Prole 7, Spring 2012.
  • 'Sapling', published in the Blank Pages arts zine, Issue 43 from the Blank Media Collective, Spring 2012.
  • 'A Question of Trust', to be published online in the Wordland 1 zine from The Exaggerated Press. January 2012.
  • 'The Pacemaker', published online by The Night Light zine, November/ December 2011 and also as an iPad/ iPhone app (or as an online read here) by Five Stop Stories, January 2012.
  • 'Bed Peace', published as an Amazon single, November 2011.
  • 'The Plight of Chinese Lanterns', published in October 2011's Sein und Werden City-themed issue, Metropolis, ISSN 2046-8601
  • 'The Black Book', published as a Kindle Single by TWB Press,October 2011. ISBN: 978-1-96991-28-0
  • 'Too Many Cooks', published in the Duality 5 anthology, ed. Alexander Beattie, October 2011.
  • 'The Bridge', to be published in the Where are we going? anthology (ed. Allen Ashley) for Eibonvale Press. Expected publication late 2011, early 2012.
  • 'Common Myths and Misconceptions regarding Rita Kendall', published inThe Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies (ed. Des Lewis), from Megazanthus Press.
  • 'For Arts'Sake', to be published in the Dog Horn Publishing Prize anthology, Bite Me, Robot Boy. Expected publication October 2011.
  • 'Finders Keepers', to be published in the Angels anthology from Bridge House Publishing, Summer 2011
  • 'History and Her Story', and 'It's the way you tell 'em', read by professional actors and published as audio files by Listen up North.com. June 2011.
  • 'Just Desserts', published in the Duality 4 anthology, June 2011.
  • 'The Dancing Queen's Last Dance', and 'Mistletoe Pompoms', published online by The Night Light, May/ June 2011.
  • 'Write Off', published in the Minus 9 Squared magazine anthology, May 2011.
  • 'Alfie and the Home of Tomorrow', to be published in the Home Tomorrow anthology from 6e Publishing, May 2011. 
  • 'Psychopompery,' published on-line in the Sein und Werden 'Monsters' issue, April 2011
  • 'The Curious Case of Jenni Wen', published in 10 Journeys, the 2010 short fiction anthology from Legend Press in May 2010. Buy now from here.
  • 'Flat Thirteen', 'The Milky Bar Kid is Dead', and 'Son of a Preacherman' published in the Dog Horn Publishing Masterclass Anthology, CABALA, available to purchase now from here. Pub, Halloween 2010
  • 'Hairy Palms', to feature in the Black Label Books Halloween anthology 2010.
  • 'Teeth', and 'Third Degree', published in the Vampires, Ghosts, Zombies anthology from No Tree Books
  • 'Gold Water', to be published in issue 4 of Beautiful Scruffiness Literary Magazine, autumn 2010.
  • 'Hand me Down', to feature in the Drollerie Press ghost story anthology, September 2010.
  • 'The Tennessee Nostradamus, to feature in Black Label Books zine, November/ December 2010.
  • 'In Eddie's Slipstream', published online in TheNight Light magazine.
  • 'In Vino Veritas', published in Issue 2 of Pages of Stories magazine.
  • 'Write Off', short-listed for the Writers' News short fiction competition, May 2010.
  • 'The Just in Case Fund', short-listed for the Whitby Abbey Pure Inspiration short story competition. Story appears in the competition anthology, published by English Heritage, which is available to purchase from here.
  • 'The Pacemaker', to be published in Underground Magazine, Spring 2010 edition
  • '9 Steps to Happiness', to be published in The Night Light zine.
  • 'The Broken Egg-Timer', 'Sleep's Slippery Tentacles', and 'Transformation Sickness' published in the Dark Hoard anthology, May 2010. Buy now from here.
  • 'The City Speaks', published in Minus 9 Squared magazine 'place' themed issue, Easter 2010.
  • 'Background Noise', published in Radgepacket 4 from Byker Books in March 2010. Buy from Amazon
  • 'Court Out', to feature in A Fly in Amber online magazine, March 2010.
  • 'My mum's tougher than your mum', features in the Platinum Page magazine.
  • ‘Zombies do the funniest things', to be published in New Voices in Fiction Magazine anthology, ‘Where have all the good zombies gone?', due for publication early 2010, ISBN: 9780955063176
  • 'Smokers' Corner', published on the ABC Tales website, January 2010 and selected for the showcase magazine.
  • 'Marley & Son', published on-line in Arthregeum magazine, December 2009.
  • 'The Businessman's Redemption Song' published in Telling Tales Magazine from Meadow Publications, autumn 2009 issue
  • 'Lip Service', published on-line on Wamack: A Journal of the Arts, August 2009
  • ‘Jodie Foster and the art of ventriloquism', published in The Front View magazine from The View from Here, July/ August edition. ISSN 1758-2903
  • 'Politicking', published on-line by Byker Books, July 2009.
  • Untitled story published by Megazanthus Press for Nemonymous 9: Cern Zoo (Story cannot be named for contractual reasons.) July 2009. Available to purchase from here.
  • 'Plastic Baggage' published on-line by Blank Media, June 2009
  • 'Chewing the Cud', published on-line by Blank Media, June 2009
  • 'Moore's Law of Relationships' published in Clockwise Cat magazine, June 2009.
  • 'The Game of World Domination', published in the Earlyworks Press short fiction competition anthology, Loretta's Parrot and other stories. Buy now from here. ISBN: 978-906451
  • 'The Ninth Circle', published in Jupiter SF magazine issue 24, April 2009. ISSN 1740-2069 Purchase a copy here.
  • 'A galaxy far, far away', published by Legend Press in their 2009 anthology, 8 Rooms. Buy here. ISBN 978-1906558093.
  • 'Ten years down the drain', published on 5th April 2009 by U.S website, Short Story Library.
  • 'Grant Mortar, Investigative Reporter'; serialised on the Home Defence UK website from March 2009.
  • 'Skeleton in the Closet', accepted for publication as a downloadable podcast by Shortalk: publication delayed until October 2010; Print version published in The Thinking Man's Crumpet magazine, February 2009.
  • 'Distance', published on-line in the first issue of Pumpkin magazine, January 2009
  • ‘Me and My Shadow', published in January 2009 in Champagne Shivers annual magazine.
  • 'What got Garry Gorman's goat?', published in November-January issue of New Voices in Fiction magazine
  • 'The Pacemaker', short-listed for the Mere Literary Festival Short Story competition, October 2008
  • 'The Sugar Footprint', published by Necrology magazine in September 2008 issue
  • 'The Sticky End of the Wrong', published in the New Voices in Fiction magazine anthology, Ten Nails. September 2008
  • ‘By Hook or By Crook', published in the first issue of Underground magazine, August 2008.
  • 'Last Chance Saloon' and 'Sleep's Slippery Tentacles', published in August-October 2008 edition of New Voices in Fiction magazine
  • 'No two Snowflakes are the Same', features in the 'Sein, Cos, Tan' issue of Sein und Werden (Summer 2008) : to purchase your copy, please follow this link.
  • 'Survival of the Fittest', third place in the Golden Visions Magazine Freedom Writing Contest - (story published in the July 2008 print edition - ISSN1940-817X)
  • 'How to Kill an Hour', published in Nemonymous 8: Cone Zero anthology: July 2008 (ISSN1474-2020)
  • ‘The Allotment', published on-line by The Second Hand (US Literary journal), April 2008.
  • ‘Think Tank', published on-line by Sein und Werden: March 2008
  • ‘The Game of World Domination'; short-listed for the Cinnamon Press Short Story Award 2008
  • One Wish Foundation', published on-line on Huddersfield Literature Festival website: March 2008 (Story was runner-up in the Creative Writing Competition 2008
  • 'Business as Usual', published in Word Weavers General Fiction Anthology 2008: Of Shadows and Substance Buy now
  • ‘An Army Marches on its Stomach', published by Graveside Tales in Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths anthology: October 2007, ISBN 978-1-904646-47-1 
  • ‘Day in the Life', published by Skrev Press in Texts' Bones journal: August 2007, ISBN-10: 0980133807/ ISBN-13: 978-0980133806 
  • 'Second Prize', winner of third place in the People in Action charity 25th anniversary short story competition.
  • 'Too Many Cooks'; short-listed for An Ink Writing competition 2008
  • 'A Question of Trust'; short-listed for Writers' News magazine competition (March 2008)

    Sample Story: An Army Marches On Its Stomach

    This story appears in Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths, edited by Colleen Morris and Joel A. Sutherland and published by Graveside Tales. Meet a man who lives life at breakneck pace, a man who has inherited his father's fast food restaurant chain, but in making changes to the place, has quite literally trampled all over his father's grave. He's revamped a once charming little place as a soulless identikit plastic hovel which pokes fun at his father's old-time appeal. He was a war veteran, a hard-man...

    Meanwhile, something is lurking in the shadows behind the restaurant. Something which has murder on its mind.

    Could the two be connected?
     

Skeleton In The Closet

'Skeleton in the Closet' has appeared in print and as a podcast. Please visit the 'Catalogue 2' page in order to find out purchase information regarding its appearance in Sein und Werden's 2008 Summer issue, 'Sein, Cos, Tan'...

..if you can't wait that long, click on this link for a local radio podcast of 'Skeleton in the Closet'- which was given a 15 rating by the Bradford Radio station, BCB. And by the way, it's the author reading it... 

 If this doesn’t work, what you need to do is visit http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/, then click on the 'presenters' tab on the left hand side of the page, then look for someone called Joe Ogden, and it'll link you up to a local arts program called ACT Now. Click on this link, and you'll be able to download 'Skeleton in the Closet' from here. Be warned, it has a 15 certificate.