Welcome! Come in. There’s music.

Hi. I’m David. I have a new flash fiction story launching today at EGM Shorts. Please do check it out.

It’s a tricky business, working out how to launch a website.

After all, the ostensible business of a website is to declare to the internet: “This is who I am.” In many ways, it’s one of an author’s best tools for making a good first impression. Well, that and writing something everybody wants to read. But there’s an order of magnitude between wanting that and making it happen. Let’s stick with what’s under our control for the moment.

I don’t consider myself much of a salesman; still less so when I’m the product. I’ve considered a few different ways of going about the business of self-promotion, from splashy Facebook ads to DM-spamming my Twitter followers to producing a viral book trailer and –

Well, okay, no I didn’t.

Even if I thought those things would work (they wouldn’t) and not irritate everyone who came across them like a mild but virulent rash (they would), I’m about as far from an aggressive self-marketer as it’s possible to get.

I’ve never craved attention; as a matter of fact I’d rather hide as far away from it as I can get. I was into my forties before I even began to overcome my terror of speaking in public. Even after a couple of best man speeches and a job that sometimes puts me in front of a skeptical audience, I’m far from comfortable being in the spotlight.

But I do love to tell stories. I like making up worlds and monsters and societies and the characters who love them, or fight them, or save them. I love a sly turn of phrase and a sharp exchange of dialogue. I love a twist in the third act as much as a creeping sense of inevitability. I love my characters, be they wise or weary or hopeful or doomed, and I love them all the more if they crack a joke on their way out the door.

I love my stories, which are much closer to me than any ice-breaking trust exercise or risque anecdote about youthful hijinks.

I’ll let them do my talking for me.

* * *

All of which is a roundabout way of reiterating my new flash fiction story debuts this week:

“Incidental” is appearing in the February 2016 collection of EGM Shorts over at Evil Girlfriend Media, edited by Jennifer Brozek.

Please do check it out. If you enjoy the story (or perhaps you may prefer one of the other stories you find there) drop them a comment or an email to let them know.