Polyscribe Mike Fox

20th September
Huge thanks to Renée Sigel for entering my collection Blurred Edges into the Firecrackers 2027 Awards for Independent Publishers, hosted by CLMP (Community of Literary Magazine and Presses). Such a validation from Sigel Literary Press.

7th September 2026
Hannah Kate's stunning review of my new collection Blurred Edges published by Sigel Literary Press is now available here circa 62 minutes in. Tremendous thanks to Hannah for her thought, care and insight. It's deeply appreciated.

30th August 2026
Honoured that the wonderful @HannahKateish will be reviewing - my new short story collection, Blurred Edges, next Saturday at 2pm on Hannah's Bookshelf, North Manchester Radio. Hannah's a very insightful reviewer, and considered reviews offer such a good opportunity to reflect on a piece of writing. I'll put a link up to the show when it becomes available.

Also, Just had my first Goodreads review for Blurred Edges, and what a beauty! Thanks so much to Nod Ghosh for her kindness and thought. You can read it here

23rd August 2026
Reviewing my existing stories for a future collection, I'm struck by how many overlaps there are - occurrences, linguistic tics, characters' behaviour and even names. Most could be dealt with in a communal edit, but I wonder now how many stories by well-known writers were deemed unsuitable for collective publication because of this. Always learning...

5th August 2026
Not wishing to get ahead of myself, but I'd say my forthcoming novella, A Space for Opportunity, is just about ready to go. To my knowledge publication is still planned for sometime in the autumn, but no fixed date yet. Set circa 1971, a rock band embarks on their first tour, described by that rare thing, a literate roadie. A van that's undergone significant welding, unis and polys, social secretaries, Melody Maker, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Bunjies, The Marquee, combustible valve amps - all there in memory. Distant places, distant times...

21st July 2026
Deeply appreciative of this generous and acute review of Blurred Edges, by Livi Michael. a writer whose work I greatly admire. When I returned to writing stories thirteen years ago I never dreamt they might gain a review like this. Thank you, Livi! You can read it here

18th July 2026
Following a chat with a writing friend, I've been re-editing an old story, my first on returning to fiction. It's called Fergal's First Gig, is based on memories of a talented childhood friend, and was written in 2013. It won second prize in the Bedford International Story Competition, though the judge quite rightly said it was over-written. I've long wanted to revisit it, but trying to edit it now is like working with another writer's prose. Les temps perdu...

6th July 2026
Just a quickie to say I've updated my Goodreads page, so if anyone should be so kind as to wish to review Blurred Edges (or indeed Things Grown Distant), you can find the link to do so here

16th June 2026
It's strange to be writing this so soon after my new collection Blurred Edges has been published, but my thoughts are already turning towards my next project. In the autumn, Ballerini Book Press will be publishing my first novella, A Space for Opportunity, and it occurs to me that the title is prescient in a way I hadn't anticipated. Thirty plus thousand words seems a lot of space to a confirmed short story writer - more room for stuff to happen, for characters to develop and, because it's written in the first person, more opportunity to give the reader a sense of the narrator's quirks and life experience, as well as the era in which the story is set (circa 1971). The book is already written, but much thought and many tweaks are still being applied. Exciting times...

7th June 2026
Ultimately, I suppose, the passing of time is best measured by events, happenings that are meaningful, that lend what can seem the arbitrariness of life some structure and resonance. When I first submitted a story to Fictive Dream I could not have foreseen what a fundamental part this wonderful online journal would come to play in my development as a writer. I know, from conversations with other authors, that I’m not alone in feeling that way about a journal that has evolved, with what in hindsight seems inevitability, into a peerless compendium of the contemporary short story.

Fictive Dream is meticulously archived by its superb editor, Laura Black. If, like me, you have consistently submitted stories there over these last ten years, you might be privileged to see how your writing, and that of many other authors, has changed and evolved over that period of time. Few public endeavours in this modern world offer such continuity and constancy. I’ve spoken to a lot of writers whose stories have appeared in Fictive Dream. They all say the same thing. They love Laura for the courtesy, consistency and sheer quality she brings to the publishing process.

Today it’s both an honour and an emotional moment to offer my story, Going Central, as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations. The fact that it’s the twin of a previous story that appeared in Fictive Dream underlines the value of such long association, so rarely possible in the online literary world. Thank you, Laura, we all owe you: yours is a stellar achievement. You can read Going Central via my Stories page here

5th June 2026
This morning I’m proud to announce the launch of my new story collection, Blurred Edges, published by Ballerini Book Press. The twelve stories I’ve selected come from the hundred and fifty plus I’ve written over the last thirteen years. I’ve picked them because I feel they represent the best of my writing – simply that. The stories are contemporary, and might be called social realism, except that anyone reading them will encounter a house responsive to its inhabitant, a woman who communes with the dead, and a man who channels his inner yeti. Genres are there to be stretched, aren’t they?

The book’s cover features a drawing I’ve loved for decades by my old friend Geoff Staden, which makes the whole thing seem more personal. In giving me this opportunity, Renée Sigler, owner and editor of Ballerini Book Press has backed me to the hilt, and I want to thank her for her kindness, generosity and expertise. I feel very fortunate that this moment has come about. You can order Blurred Edges here

1st June 2026
It's a great joy to be invited to take part in Fictive Dream's 10th anniversary celebrations. I'll be contributing a very London-based story called Going Central, which will be published on Sunday 7th June. I'll say more then, there's much to say...

31st May 2026
Apologies to anyone who has been waiting to receive my new collection, Blurred Edges, from Ballerini Book Press. There have been some technical hurdles to overcome, but publication is now scheduled for 5th June, and in the meantime orders will be sent out. I'll say more soon, but in the meantime thanks for your patience.

10th May 2026
Rather marvellously, my friend Tom Eliot suggested I might write a story about a meeting between his uncle, the composer and light baritone, Clive Carey, and a certain George Pattison, keeper of Cape du Couedic lighthouse on Kangaroo Island, off the southwest coast of Adelaide. Clive Carey, amongst many other accomplishments, was a collector of folk songs, and sometime around 1926 he learned a number of shanties from George Pattison, which he subsequently recorded and performed in concert. Not too much is known about how this came about, but a letter from GP containing song lyrics, plus some rather alarming personal details, exists in archives at Cecil Sharp House. So after gleaning what I could I was left to invent the rest. As a lifelong folkie I was only too happy, and honoured, to give it a go. A fair draft came out quite easily, so after some polishing I'll start to seek a home for it.

4th May 2026
It's splendid on this Bank Holiday Monday to be able to announce that my new story collection, published by Ballerini Book Press is available for preorder here Special thanks to BBP's marvellous Renée Sigler for kind and patient editing, expert formatting and book design. More info to come in due course...

23rd April 2026
Apropos the previous post: formatting has begun, and the design of the book is well underway. In short, things are on track. Meanwhile, some really beautiful endorsements have come in, and Richmond has suddenly realised it's spring...

9th April 2026
Just a quick update about Blurred Edges, my forthcoming collection from Ballerini Book Press. As things stand, publication is still set for 20th May, with a launch either at that time or shortly after. I'll say more when I know more.

6th March 2026
Further to the note below, I first came across Gwen John’s quiet, magnetic paintings about twenty years ago, when they were exhibited jointly with those of her brother Augustus. She was less well known then, and I’d not previously heard of her. I was immediately taken by the silence in her work, the feeling that it came from a still, private place, and yet, one could sense, was offered to the world with assurance. I was also intrigued that she allowed herself to return to a theme again and again to refine it, a permission I have subsequently borrowed in my writing.

More has come to light since then. It transpires she was not the demure spinster of repute. Demure spinsters in the early twentieth century did not tramp about France unaccompanied, support themselves as life models, or go to Paris specifically to seduce Auguste Rodin. I learned of this and more from two biographies: Gwen John a life, by Sue Roe, and Gwen John Art and Life in London and Paris, by Alicia Foster. Both are excellent and much in agreement. If you can get hold of it, there’s also a tender and humorous portrait in Augustus’ biography, a very singular read.

And so… My story, A More Interior Life, takes its title from a line in Gwen’s later diaries, at a time when she increasingly felt drawn to looking inward. Her affinity with nature continued to grow, and even in her sixties she was still given to tramping the countryside around her home in Meudon, not in the least averse to sleeping out beneath the stars if the need arose. The story is imagined, but based on fact, and there’s a quote from Augustus that I allowed myself to make up, though I understand it’s the sort of thing he was apt to say.

Enormous thanks to The Lonely Crowd editor John Lavin, for making this very personally meaningful piece Story of the Month. You can read A More Interior Life via my Stories page here

25th February
Absolutely marvellous news! My Gwen John story, A More Interior Life, has been accepted as a Story of the Month by the much esteemed and very literary journal, The Lonely Crowd. Once I know more, I'll tell you more...

21st February
Sherry's Shorts is a wonderful forum for the short story, broadcast on Highland Hospital Radio primarily for patients, but now reaching into the world beyond. The latest of my stories to feature is Avie, beautifully read by Benjamin L Wray, and based on lingering tales (some doubtless apocryphal) about the great traditional singer Anne Briggs. Avie is a little way into the show, but I recommend listening to it all - the readings and stories take you to another place. You can find it by clicking here

20th February 2026
My minor obsession with medieval saints continues today with the publication of a new story, A Meeting in the Groves of Assisi, in the exemplary literary journal Exacting Clam. It surely can't be possible to frame the medieval sensibility within the lens of modern psychology, however the legends surrounding St Francis will probably baffle and intrigue as long as mankind is on this planet. I visited the Basilica of St Clare in Assisi once, and am still haunted the peasant faces in the frescos - you feel this was what they really must have looked like. So... Francis, a man of mood swings, meets Clare in my story. You might almost call it a romance.

Also, if you haven't come across it before, I can strongly recommend Exacting Clam, true bastion of literary fiction, essays and poetry. Issue 20 is a marvellous compendium, and amongst other delights features two previously unpublished stories by the great David Wheldon. You can order it via my Stories page here

9th February 2026
The mixcloud recording of yesterday's Hannah's Bookshelf is available now. I'd recommend listening to the whole show, especially if you haven't come across it before - it's a superb platform for anyone interest in fiction. But if you just want to hear my interview it's circa 63 minutes in. Huge thanks to the wonderful Hannah Kate for being such a kind and welcoming host, it was a joy to return. You can listen to yesterday's recording here

8th February
Inspiration for a story comes in many forms – an image, a memory, an overheard remark and so on. Soon, or more likely eventually (in my case), that tiny spark will emerge, sprout, metastasise – choose your own metaphor. Basically, a story will grow. Just now and then, however, reality needs toning down to become credible fiction, something I’ve learned the hard way. Who for instance would believe in a ninety-three-year-old practising sculptor, who cut and prepared the timber she worked in herself, while also driving to central London each week to play cello in a string quartet?

Such was the inspiration for Maggie, who takes centre stage in my story Creatures of Our Time, which appears in the superlative Fictive Dream today. If you think Maggie’s a bit much, you should have seen the original.

It’s a particular honour to return to Fictive Dream as it approaches its tenth anniversary. I’ve been privileged to be featured in its pages almost from the start, and seen it expand and blossom into an international compendium of the contemporary short story. It’s universally loved and respected, as is Laura Black, its peerless editor. And no wonder. You can read Creatures of Our Time via my Stories page here

(Also) 6th February 2026
Yesterday, at short notice, I had the opportunity to record an interview with the fabulous Hannah Kate for her radio show, Hannah's Bookshelf. It will be broadcast this Saturday February 7th, between 2-4pm on North Manchester FM. You can listen to the show live by clicking here on Saturday, or I will put up a link to a recording once it's a available. We will be talking about my forthcoming story collection and novella from Ballerini Book Press. For more info click here

6th February 2026
Apologies, my story, Creatures of Our Time, will now appear in Fictive Dream this Sunday, 8th February. I'll put up a link once it's out. Very sorry for any confusion.

16th January 2026
What better way for a short story obsessive to pass the time than to take part in Jonathan Gibbs brilliant A Personal Anthology Series? Twelve outstanding stories by twelve brilliant writers. You can read my selection here

13th January 2026
Very uplifted to hear from Laura Black, Fictive Dream's superlative editor, that she will be publishing a new story of mine, Creatures of Our Time on February 8th. The writing year begins!

26th December 2025
I hope you had a peaceful and happy Christmas as our world takes such strange turns. Just a note to say I was delighted to take part a week or so ago in Jonathan Gibbs' endlessly intriguing A Personal Anthology series. If you haven't come across it, authors are invited to choose twelve short stories that are personally meaningful, and to give reasons for their choice. I don't have a date yet for when my selection will come out, but once it does I'll put it up here. There was a lot to think about...

17th December 2025
Sorry to have been quiet for so long, but there is a reason. Today, much to my delight, I'm able to announce that I have joined the new author contingent of Ballerini Book Press for the 2026-2028 publishing season. This will mean amongst other things that Blurred Edges, a full collection of my stories, will be published during the first half of 2026. Huge thanks to Editor Renée Ballerini for her kindness and trust in my work. You can read more about this, and the five very talented authors also joining here

18th October 2025
Delighted to say that my longest 'short' story, The Apparent World, is now available, having been broadcast yesterday on Sherry's Shorts, a wonderful programme devoted to broadcasting short stories for patients to listen to via Highland Hospital Radio. 'The apparent world' might be a Buddhist phrase - I heard it from a Buddhist. Immediately it spoke to me of things seen, things illusory, and things just beneath the veil of our understanding. The story involves an unnamed Scottish island and a small community seeking another way of life. You can read it via my stories page here

17th October 2025
Delighted to return to Fragmented Voices today with a tiny story, Amongst Others, Unnoticed. It’s based in fact, about the confusion of having to reframe what you thought you knew, and the permeable membrane between the public and private. You can read Amongst Others Unnoticed via my Stories page here

15th October 2025
If thirty thousand words makes a novella, then I seem to have written one. I've been fiddling with it for several years, as can happen. Never thought to submit, until last month a writer I admire asked to read it and said I should. I'm tempted, but wonder - is there a home for a 30K novella in this world?

October 2nd 2025
Just heard that my longest 'short' story, The Apparent World, is going to be broadcast on Highland Hospital Radio during October. I'll say more when I can offer links, but I'm so chuffed that it's being read by Benjamin L Wray. Ben read a previous story of mine, and did a terrific job. Thanks again to Sherry Morris who hosts Sherry's Shorts and who set up this terrific project for hospital patients.

September 12th
It’s a great pleasure to be a guest author in the fabulous From the Heart series with Amantine Brodeur. Questions about the short story, of which I have thought much, always provoke reflection. Where am I now with it? Where was I then? It’s an exacting form, always demanding precision and conciseness, always dangling the holy grail of the perfect story, just beyond reach. I’m also honoured that Amantine has taken time to record an extract from my Confingo collection, Things Grown Distant. You can read my answers to Amantine’s questions, and hear her beautiful reading, here

5th September 2025
The Shape of Moments, coming out in Fictive Dream today, represents a new opportunity for me. Two stories, two characters, and the chance to revisit a sequence of events from an alternative perspective. A twin story, Backgrounds, appeared in Fictive Dream in May, and some readers kindly wanted to know more. So Paula’s take on a small suburban happening now joins that of Davy. How we perceive, how we remember, how we interpret – is there such a thing as objectivity? You can read both versions on my Stories page here

7th August 2025
It can be prohibitively difficult to publish historical stories ('historical' apparently now includes anything more than forty years old). So when I heard from Jacob Smullyan that he would be delighted to publish my St Francis story A Meeting in the Groves of Assisi in his very literary and eclectic journal Exacting Clam, I was pretty much ecstatic. I'm not religious, but there's something about the medieval mind and religion that I keep returning to. Such a distant but intriguing element of human experience. The story will come out on the 1st March 2026.

26th September 2025
My story Backgrounds (published 4th May in Fictive Dream) attracted some very welcome curiosity from readers, several asking to know more about the characters Paula and Davey. In response, and having written Backgrounds in the first person from the perspective of Davey, I returned to trace the events described from Paula's point of view. Previously I'd read a number of novels in which narration is shared between protagonists, and I enjoyed approaching this possibility within the constraints of twin short stories. The result is called The Shape of Moments, and I'm delighted to say it will appear in the excellent Fictive Dream on the 5th September. I wonder what readers will think this time...

16th June 2025
The trope of two men walking together offers so many possibilities that I’ve returned to it several times. The sense of movement through landscapes that provoke thoughts and memories appeals to me, as I hope it does to readers. Both the past and present are available, either as dialogue or snatches of internal reflection, and things are said that might not be in other circumstances. Because of this I’m especially delighted that my story Some Rural Nirvana will appear today in the excellent Argyle literary magazine. Grateful thanks to David Estringel and his team of editors for displaying it so beautifully. You can read it via my Stories page

15th June 2025
Honoured and delighted that an old story, My Past is not My Future, was featured on Sherry's Shorts on Highland Hospital Radio yesterday, along with stories by Sherry (Morris) herself and Mary Beth Stuller. Especial thanks to Benjamin L Wray for his careful and nuanced reading. You can listen to the show here

4th May 2025
It’s been a while since I published any new fiction, so it’s especially pleasing to return today to the brilliant Fictive Dream with a story called Backgrounds. It’s a distant relative to a piece that appeared in Fictive Dream in January 2024 called Going Out Somewhere. Sometimes a character settles unobtrusively in a writer’s mind, only to reappear, in this instance three fictional decades later. Just possible that I had Sickert’s Camden Group paintings somewhere in my thoughts too. You can read Backgrounds via my Stories page here

April 25th 2025
Very happy to learn this morning that my story Some Rural Nirvana will appear in the Argyle Literary Magazine on June 15th (as if that day wasn't auspicious enough, it being my wife's birthday). A return to a favourite trope of two men walking together, remembering and, in this instance, travelling towards a lost England. Grateful thanks to editor David Estringel for giving my story a fine platform.

April 6th 205
Not often that I post twice in one day, but I was thrilled to learn this morning that my story Backgrounds will appear in the superb Fictive Dream on May 4th. It's rather an amalgam of a piece, set in contemporary Camden, but I hope with something of the feel of a Sickert painting, from when he was part of the Camden Group. I'll say more when it comes out. Can't wait...

April 6th 2025
Just finished a story about St Francis of Assisi, and am left with so many questions. What would he be diagnosed with now, in this age when every behaviour is psychologised? Why is it that fascination with saints endures even when interest in religion declines? Does anyone believe in miracles anymore? Would we like to believe in them? The story doesn't answer any of these things, but it made me think.

March 1st 2025
Delighted to make my first appearance in the very literary Exacting Clam with this review of David Wheldon's brilliant story collection The Guiltless Bystander, published by Confingo. You can read the review here

February 18th 2025
It’s been a quiet time writing-wise – much re-editing of old stories, not too much new writing. So it’s great today to return to Bulb Culture Collective to explain the background to a favourite story, The Subtext of Skin, and generally pontificate about my approach to the delicate act of writing fiction. You can read The Subtext of Skin and the interview here

December 21st 2024
Terribly pleased that my story Absence, published earlier this year in Fictive Dream, has been chosen as an editor's pick by the wonderful Laura Black. If you missed it first time round you can read it by clicking here

December 4th 2024
Just in case you missed it and would like to catch up, here's the upload of my recent bookish chat with the fantastic Hannah Kate. Hannah has a terrific archive of interviews and other writerly things on her website. Her show is a gem. You can listen to it here

November 15th 2024 2024
Overjoyed that my story, Chapels of Light, appears today in the brilliant Fragmented Voices. For a couple of decades, in various capacities, I worked in the homes of older people in west and north London. Every now and again I would meet a ‘Mrs Tripnort’ – elderly, self-possessed, bohemian, and speaking in perfect sentences. The Mrs Tripnort’s always had a tale to tell, and I often wished I could record it to share with the world. Even then they were a dying breed. This story is a tribute to the Mrs Tripnorts I was lucky enough to encounter, and to a voice that’s in danger of becoming lost. You can read Chapels of Light via my Stories page here

November 13th
Congratulations to Sherry Morris for her delightful and valuable show on Inverness Hospital Radio. Really pleased to take part with my story Absences, first published in Fictive Dream, and beautifully read by Catherine MacNeil. You can hear Catherine's reading, at 15 minutes 26 seconds in here There are three other beautiful stories too.

November 10th 2024
It's always a privilege to have a story featured in Fictive Dream. I wonder has any online journal developed the same reach, or accumulated such unconditional respect. Today I’m honoured to return with a new story, Another Presence. As we grow older the past lengthens, or at least our part in it. Time suggests we can revisit, but can’t go back, because what we would go back to has gone: we are not what we were, and neither are the circumstances we might hope to find. And yet… You can read Another Presence via my Stories page here

October 28th 2024
And another thoughtful review of Things Grown Distant. Many thanks to the kind, anonymous reviewer from Bookmunch. You can read it here

October 20th 2024
Just a heads up to say that on November 2nd Hannah Kate will be reviewing my Confingo collection Things Grown Distant on Hannah's Bookshelf, on North Manchester Radio. Hannah's show runs between 2 and 4pm. If you'd like to listen on the day please click on this link

October 16th 2024
A couple hours after the entry below a review arrived from The Manchester of Books. Still reeling in shock frankly. It's available to read here