Welcome to the archive! Sometimes, you don’t want to wade through a mire of textual flotsam about culture or planning, and you don’t want to taunt yourself by gazing at instagrammed picutures of food I ate (shortly after). I understand. So here’s a quick list of all the fiction. Please, share and enjoy!
Text.
Silver - Originally intended for the Bad Dollar project. A man tries to shortchange a Beirutian fortune-teller, with unfortunate consequences.
Eleven Very Short Stories: SXSW - SXSW is a big thing indeed. I wanted to report on it in some way, but I didn’t think any one perspective would suffice. So I took eleven. (my most successful piece to date. The internet, huh?)
Eleven Very Short Stories: Summer - Seasons are unique in that they change some element of the condition of life for everyone at once, and yet the nature of the change is different for everyone. Have a browse of the world.
Pedals - An attempt at a Year-2 of the SXSW stories project, where we wrote fiction about SXSW from underheard perspectives. Also me trying to exorcise the guilt of the rickshaw-rider. Full project, including Ravi’s brilliant fiction, here.
The Day The Memes Ran Out - SXSW EP Track 1. A marketing culture built on memes comes crashing down when they stop being made. Post-apocalyptica for the tumblr generation. (Bonus! I did an audio version for National Storytelling Week, if you feel lazy.)
A-B - SXSW EP Track 2. A bankrupt app developer submits to an unusual form of UX testing to pay his bills. But Just how much flow is healthy?
The Song - SXSW EP Track 3. A song’s journey from thought to reality to digital dissemination.
Beautiful Lines, Pt.I - SXSW EP Track 4. An AI receives an unusual proposition - to become a coder’s muse.
Lowly Trinity - Classic missed-connection fiction that everyone in London seems to write. In the style of a bad James Joyce.
A Sort Of Charity Month - What does Movember look like in 2043?
For Sale - I did a novel, and there’s little more to be said about it than the fact that a) it exists, and b) if you haven’t done NaNoWriMo yet, take it on and learn something about yourself.
The Field - Connections are missed and made for young Simon, in the middle of a rural festival. My first try and short fiction for NaNoWriMo - and the first story I ever performed, for Laura and Lauren’s Arty Party. Gives you a nice taste in the mouth, I tell ya.
The Bombs - A little practice world-building about a subterranean version of London in preparation for NaNoWriMo.
Cheese Toastie Night - Guest flash fiction from Paula Vampre - my workmate-turned-housemate.
I Fell Down - A consequences-style story relay between me and mum when I went home for a weekend. A blind man’s adventure goes to a dark, dark place. If you’ll pardon the expression.
A Wish For Jackie - A guest post like no other. The final piece of fiction from Dave, Mum’s husband of one month, before he died. It’s got an ending like no other - for more reasons than one.
Audio.
Introducing Robotify.me - I’m working on a little side project with BBH Labs, and they were nice enough to let me try and introduce it with an audio piece. This is me trying to do a Radiolab :)
Non-Fiction/Planning.
A Good Story - At the APG’s Battle Of Big Thinking in 2010, I took the stand in favour of stories. This is still one of my Top Three Scary Talks. Can you tell?
Tis The Season To Be Truthy - Between truth given entertainment polish, and entertainment that claims truth, what is truth now? I tried to work it out for Labs. Warning! Contains Pro-Wrestling.
The Power Is Yours! - When the advertising model is irrevocably damaged, what’s a brand to do to earn its place in the world? At Campaign’s War Of The Words, I tried to work it out.
The Museum Of You - Remember Intel’s Museum Of Me? I thought it was scary and I tried to work out why.
Other Stuff.
One&Other: William’s Return - Do you remember when Anthony Gormley took over the Fourth Plinth in Traflagar Square and made it platform for people to do stuff? I do, because I got an hour and used it to tell the story of William VI, who was meant to be the plinth’s statue. My first true Big Scary Thing. It got a quite a lot of attention, and even a mention on the TV show, which my mum helpfully recorded on the sky+.
Speaking Budget - My mate Gary and I tried to give the 2012 budget a voice on the day of release. Didn’t go far, but good fun to write.
TaleTorrent! - At 2011, drew to a close, Internet Week asked us to consider how we use the internet. I hosted an event that asked us to consider how the internet’s used us. Eight storytellers, eight true stories, all on video. Zombies, car crashes, and a proto-version of my Dave story. Part One, and Part Two.
A Very Special PSA - A compilation of all those bits in cartoons where the main characters would break the fourth wall and tell you not to take drugs, or to recycle, or to look both ways when you cross the road. I wonder if they’ve worked?
Restless/the3six5 - The3six5 is a diary, written by a different person each day. Here’s what happened to me on the 7th of June, 2011.
