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Short Stories by David Gardiner
Updated with many new stories 1st January 2014

If you have visited in the past you will have noticed that the site was extremely cluttered with practically every story I have ever written since leaving school, most of them very old and best forgotten. Well, in order to minimise your boredom I have now pruned away as much of the dead wood as possible and included only those stories in which I feel I can take a certain measure of pride.
        Most of these have appeared in one or other of my collections, in small magazines, or in other collections or anthologies, such as the annual Voices From The Web series published by UKA Press, the (now defunct) literary quarterly La Fenêtre edited by Deborah Rey, Tales for a Long Flight edited by John Griffiths, the Gold Dust Magazine Solid Gold anthology, or the annual anthology of Fish prize-winning stories.
        The stories range from comedy to some very dark material. I won't try to introduce them, because it isn't really for me to say what a reader is going to find in a story. With a short story the author does only half the work, the other half is the responsibility of you the reader. Each goes to the well and draws something slightly different. That's the way it's meant to be.
        If you like these stories you might like to consider buying one or other of my two collections, each of which contains twenty-five of what I believe to be my best stories, linked together by the perverse ramblings of The Rainbow Man, a wandering Irish sage, tramp and storyteller who inhabits my dreams and nightmares.

Short Stories (Word counts are approximate)

(2000 words) Celia's Shrine
(2500 words) Knight Errant
(1500 words) Ellen and Aubery
(1250 words) The Counsellor
(2700 words) The Other Woman
(5000 words) The Lies of Sleeping Dogs
(5000 words) The Oracle at the Adelphi
(5000 words) Bottom Feeders
(5000 words) Letting Go
(3700 words) The Battlefield Philosopher
(4000 words) Collateral Damage
(2000 words) Lettie
(4100 words) Intelligent Design
(2000 words) Trick of the Light
(3800 words) Hyve
(1500 words) The Go-Between
(2500 words) The Dragonslayer
(5000 words) Immaculata
(1600 words) Cinderella's Slipper
(2000 words) Witchcraft
(1275 words) The Rainbow Man
(1000 words) Wee Hughie
(1750 words) Shell
(2150 words) The Hand of God
(2100 words) The Surgeon's Tale
(2700 words) Closing Time
(4655 words) Services to the Community
(1450 words) Letter to Mammy
(4000 words) A Man of Letters
(2150 words) Inseparable
(2200 words) A Collaboration
(2800 words) Pigeons and Patriots
(1900 words) Lost Property
(2350 words) A Visit to the Zoo
(3700 words) Swimming at Rogie
( 950  words) Bowing Out
(1600 words) Reunion

(2000 words) Blind Date
(4700 words) Life's Work
(1350 words) Man the Pumps!
(1680 words) The Lodger
(2825 words) Miss Sally
(3685 words) Promises
(1000 words) Neighbours
(3625 words) Light of the World
(2175 words) A Time of Innocence
(2250 words) Storm Clouds
(1600 words) Lilac Wedding
(3990 words) Palermo Nights
(8600 words) Sam
(3400 words) Hitch
(2200 words) Billy Joe
(2700 words) Imbalance
(1600 words) Suit Single Lady
(1500 words) New Gloves
(1370 words) The Runner-Up
(3700 words) The Other End of the Rainbow
(1300 words) Drusilla
(2600 words) Memories
(2600 words) The Prodigal Son
(1900 words) When Knights Were Bald
(2125 words) Family Matters
(1300 words) Harpsichord
(3225 words) The Truant
(2000 words) The Arrangement
(4960 words) The Summer of Dust
(4200 words) Cambridge
(1900 words) Checkmate
(2000 words) A New Beginning
(1450 words) The Claddagh Brooch
(2100 words) A Walk In the Park
(2400 words) Flat Mate
(1300 words) Full-figured Woman, 29
(2300 words) Room Service



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