The Ants
Deep in the ground, in a delicate labyrinth of millimetre tunnels, live ants.
Read MoreColours
Her eyes were blue. They probably still are. An understated grey-blue, neither pale nor dark, a shade which haunted both my dreams and my waking thoughts for every hour of my life during that time, and for years after. Sad eyes, looking at me from behind the glasses which she disliked so much, but which had become somehow synonymous with her image in my mind. My memories of that blissful time will always be of that grey-blue which attracted me so. And of silver, the silver light that played between her hands as she created.
Read MoreBlack Cat's City (Schippeitaro)
Hey, you. Yes, you. Don't look at me like that. Come over here. I haven't seen you around before. Enjoying your stay in the city? Hah. Of course not. Who could enjoy such a filthy, worm-ridden hole as this? This city has gone to hell these past few years. Drugs, crime, gangs. The gangs control everything. Steel wool couldn't scrub clean this city’s soul.
Read MoreThe Quarry Issue #10 is live! →
The Quarry Issue #10 is up and running! After all the blood, sweat and words put in by my class and the editorial team, it's good to go!
The Quarry is an annual journal put out by Macquarie University, to showcase work from the graduating class. I was on the editorial team this year, and I helped edit several of the pieces up there.
Things I had a more direct role in are the fiction editorial, which I had a minor hand in writing, and Intro to House-Ape Studies, which is a story I wrote!
A physical version is coming out in a few weeks, which you can buy here.
Cover art by Ailie MacKenzie, Design by Teresa Peni
Valley
The rain was falling, but it wasn’t a sad rain. It was a cleansing rain. Birds flitted through the air, singing and ruffling their feathers at the welcome bath. Old trees greeted it with open branches: eucalypts, bark burnt to iron-black by bushfire, already sporting new growth. Fresh bright leaves sprouted into the clean air, from branches cleared for them by the fire. The ground below was already layered with crisp undergrowth, clamouring to fill the emptied spaces between. And below even that were the shoots of baby gums, germinated by flame.
Read MoreEmpty Nest
The last boxes are taped up, the rooms are empty, and the walls are bare. The sharp, stale smell of a decade and a half’s worth of accumulated dust hangs in the air.
“Jason?” Mum calls. “Can you take Daisy for a walk before the truck gets here?”
Before the Eagle
Far below, Prometheus faced his brother Atlas across the mountain path. The battle raged around them. Smoke and ozone stung the air, carried against the two siblings by the whipping wind. Shock and anger burned in Atlas's eyes. And there was something else there.
Ah, right, Prometheus thought glumly. Betrayal.
Dubious Honour - Part 2
Elya continued to fly the Supernought as they fled back to the bridge, which was not an easy journey given that his suit's jets, and several of Delton's bones, were broken. The ship was accelerating at full power now, away from the nucleus-forsaken rock behind them. Without the ship's inertial muffling, they would have been no more than red stains on the rear walls; even with it they were struggling to move against the acceleration.
Read MoreDubious Honour - Part 1
The dead ship hung in space, spinning slowly. With active surfaces disabled, its hull mirrored the distant stars perfectly. Even without stealth measures it was visible only by the constellations it altered as it passed before them, blotting out stars and replacing them with new ones. As it turned, however, the craft’s interior became visible, exposed by jagged sections of missing hull. There were no sparking cables, no vapours leaking from smashed pipes. Just a broken eggshell.
From the launch bay of the SDU Dubious Honour, Delton watched the incongruous opening draw closer as the Semartus ship matched the Supernought’s velocity. She floated in the airlock with a dozen other crewmembers, both Darax and Semartus, vacuum suits ready and sealed.
The Planet Eater
The Planet Eater swung around the yellow star and closed in on his prey. The blue planet swelled into his view, emerging from the milky strew of stars. He could feel the radio waves emanating from it; see the spectral lines of molecular oxygen in its atmosphere, its swarm of tiny satellites. This was a planet at the peak of its lifespan. His mouth started to water.
Read MoreFinal Lover
Gosh, I wrote some dark stuff in high school. This was another thing I wrote while we were studying The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Final Lover
I hang above her and I stand beside her, silent and patient.
When the world burned there was no shortage of companions for me. But where now is the sport? I drift above everything, everyone, and every minute I take a new lover into sweet oblivion with me. They think to resist me, mostly, but they all come eventually.
Read More
Copyright (Extension 2 English Major Work)
Hey, everybody. I thought I'd share my Major Work from Extension 2 English, which I did in 2012. It actually made it into the Young Writers Showcase 12, which is a collection of the best major works from the year. I'm not saying mine was one of the best, but... Would the Board of Studies lie to you?
Anyway, my full major work is here:
It's a collection of short stories set in a dystopian future in which copyright law has become a controlling factor in the world. I think it's kind of neat.