Yes, this is my bragging page, with successes to date (mainly post-2015 when I started submitting again - before that submissions had been by post, back when I’d previously sent stuff off to no acclaim whatsoever), and some stories available either directly or via purchases. Further down you'll see some stories actually on this website, but seeing as I've had a few successes now, this is where I'm going to put them.
BOLD means you can get to the story (or a performance of it), while normal text is saying where it was published/performed.
You can buy collections of the published stories (at least the ones where any exclusive agreement has expired) on my books page, here.
2024
The Memory Shack, a story partly inspired by seeing the small building Peter the Great built in St Petersburg, and partly by getting older, was published by Every Day Fiction.
Swan Song was published in storysanctum.org, inspired by a Slough Writers inspirational walk.
2023
These Three Remain was published in a US-based magazine Heart of Flesh issue nine, with a theme of ‘Recovery’.
The Grey Voice, a story about a foghorn (as you do), was published on the Every Day Fiction website.
Keith and Jack’s Annual St Patrick’s Day Barcrawl was published in Culture Cult’s Lost Anthology, volume 1 (here).
Wicked Shadow Press have published A Hundred Words to Live in their “Wicked Flashes of Fantasy” anthology.
A Skull on the Moscow Leningrad Overnight Sleeper was published in Jerry Jazz [online] Magazine.
Sunset on the North 500 was published in Wild Word online, a story about a couple touring the north coast of Scotland, mostly inspired from my parents’ reaction to touring the US back in the 50s.
Echoes of the Storm was published by Lawrence House Centre for the Arts.
The Inn of the Black Wolf was published by pocket-fiction.co.uk.
Ten Thousand Hours of Love was shortlisted for the Parracombe Prize and is being published in their 2023 Anthology (here).
Eleanor’s Engagement was produced by Nobody Reads Short Stories Any More. (Video)
2022
A Scene in the Nebbiolo Wine Bar published in CafeLit, prompted by “a glass of red wine”.
The play Heart of Lightness was performed as part of Reading’s Progress Theatre’s WriteFest 2022.
One Bar, Four Percent Charge, published in The Prompt Mag, and also one the Slough Writers Group “One Night 500-Word Fiction” competition.
O Canada was published in Havok’s Daily Story Collection (members-only after its initial publication date, sadly, although you can also get it in an anthology here since it was one of their season winners). You can hear me read it out in what ought to have been a publication, but seems to go to a dead link now. But here’s the YouTube video of me reading it - sadly way more monotonically than my usual style. Sorry.
2021
“The House Whisperer” anthology, mentioned in 2020, is part of an anthology shortlisted for an award. Woo! COVID still going on, so I’ll take what I can get. Proof here. It didn’t win, but still - did my little bit to make an anthology.
The Only Language She Didn’t Understand, published on pocketfiction.co.uk (link gone dead, but still - it was published).
SweetyCat press published my short story “She Has To Die” in a 175-author (!) anthology “Stories and Poems in the Song of Life”, available to purchase here.
2020
“The House Whisperer”, my closest to a horror story, published in “Trickster’s Treats #4: Coming Buried or Not” which was a charity anthology in Australia.
COVID didn’t help submission rates this year, as I’m sure you’d understand.
2019
No Law Against It, published by Instrinsink
The Once and Future Garden, written after one of the Slough Writers’ Group’s inspirational walks - this one around Taplow.
After The Funeral, a story of a conversation at the funeral of a wife’s mother, published in Virtual Zine.
Canal Turn, in Gypsum Sound Tales’s “Solitude” edition, available to buy here.
An Empty Vessel, published in Writers Forum magazine October 2019.
The Price of Freedom was published in EscapedInk.com’s “Tall Tales and Short Stories Volume One” (the link is to the “interview with the author” from which you can buy the anthology.
“Barood, Purveyors of Jerusalem’s Finest Absinthe” was published in Audio Arcadia. Definitely the best story written entirely on a barmaid’s notepad while drinking absinthe.
Both “Hind Etin” and “Into the Fog” were shortlisted by the Farnham Flash Fiction competition, and were published in their anthology, available here.
A flash fiction piece, “Too Much Information”, was published on Every Day Fiction.
My story “Three Wishes”, which I first send to a magazine in the 90s and they said “we considered it borderline and have no doubt you’ll get it published somewhere” was finally published in the Strife and Harmony anthology, linked above, over two decades later.
2018
"Right On, Says John" got the following comments from the Grindstone Literary judging panel: We read a lot of work that broaches dark subjects. Often times, they are to do with death, depression, and suicide. It's an ever-present cloud that hangs over society, and it's one that few ever dare to look up at. And few who write about it as Robert have are able to do so in a way that not only draws attention to it as a growing issue, but are also able to capture the bravery and fortitude of those that it affects. We loved this story, and we're proud to showcase it in our shortlist.
Southport Writers placed my story "Closer to the Edge" third in their short story competition.
“A Fallen Soldier of the Great War” won the Berkshire Music and Arts Festival Nine Whyle Cup for fiction.
A humorous short story, "The Problem With The Fridge", obviously in no way inspired by my time in an office environment, won joint 1st place at the Slough Writers Group "Humorous Short Story" competition, and was runner-up in the Writing Magazine "Epistolary" competition. Enjoy.
Shooter Lit Mag ran a satirical poetry competition, into which I submitted my retelling of my namesake (first name, but every second male in my family was named after him, so it counts) Robert Burns's address to a haggis. Mine is "Ode to a POTUS" and came second.
A poem which won the Slough Writers Poetry competition was published in Alternating Current’s “Spectral Lines: Poems About Scientists” - the title is “Robert Hooke, on Isaac Newton”, telling the story of the achievements of the former and the bitterness of the latter.
2017
"Spring Forward, Fall Back" won second place in the Exeter Writers' "Wow" 1000-word short story competition. Published in the "Creative Writing Matters" anthology:
My poem "Wendigo", appeared in the poetry anthology "A Face in the Mirror, a Hook on the Door". In North American mythology, a Wendigo eats two things, and two things only: human flesh, and moss. In my poem, I attempt to cast light on this oddity.
My short story "Troll Bridge", appears in the "After the Happily Ever After" anthology published by Transmundane Press.
"Jerusalem Wormwood" won second place in issue 191 of Writers' Forum. (You'd have to pick up the magazine to read this one - sorry)
