Category: Short Story
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Better Tomorrow
By Joab Gilroy “I can always be better tomorrow than I am today, right?” I say as I take a seat in the booth across from you. We’re in a diner, about as generic as they come, and you’re eating the same thing you eat every day. Two eggs, soft-boiled, three slices of white toast…
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Blackbirded Post-mortem
I’ve been haphazardly writing up a post mortem for Blackbirded after each chapter was published. Here it is, barely cobbled together into a coherent post. I don’t know if this will be of any use. What I do think is of use is The GAP Bonus Episode podcast on the story, a post-post-mortem featuring myself,…
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Blackbirded Afterword
Thank you so much for reading Blackbirded. I am very proud of how this story turned out. I will break down more of my thoughts on its construction at a later date, and I’ll share those here below. But for now I wanted to thank you for making it this far in my story. And…
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Chapter 10
Anna watched in horror as the Guwin-gan stomped across to the two parts of the youngest tracker. The beast lifted his top half like it was a sack of laundry. The few organs still left in the boy tumbled out, loose clothing from a sack with no bottom spilling onto the ground below.
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Chapter 9
Jocko had seen the Gympie Gympie at work before, seen what it did to people who touched it, but that was always a brush. A glancing blow and then agonised screaming for hours. Days even. Fellas topped themselves over it, usually after weeks without sleep. But he’d never seen anything like that before. Never a…
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Chapter 8
The soft wet earth of the rainforest swallowed Terrence with ease, the dirt giving way readily. The old man got a shallow grave, but he got one all the same, and by the time they were finished night had fallen.
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Chapter 7
David was the first on his feet at the sound of the gunshot. Captain Gifford wasn’t a man who fired for no reason: if he pulled the trigger, he wanted something dead. David belted flat chat into the forest, and he could tell the others were close behind. He wanted to slow down, to let…
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Chapter 6
Terrence left his group to the sounds of jeers, and he let them wash over him. Once upon a time he might have beaten the lot of them for it, but he’d learnt better. A poke in the ribs could hurt or it could tickle, and only the person poked could decide which. Words were…
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Chapter 5
David felt a hand shove him forward, and he turned to see the station owner’s son standing over him. “I know who it is,” Jocko said, his annoying whine somehow even worse than normal. “It’s Big Joe. If you reckon it’s a big guy, he’s the one. He’ll be heading back for his pop.”
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Chapter 4
Jimmy picked up the trail quick enough that they didn’t need to backtrack much. Out here, on the edge of the bush, the trees and the sand waged an endless war, one fought over inches and centuries as each side gained and lost the upper hand.
Joabyjojo 