Starting life under the title A Fall of Night and Other Scenes from a Land of Shadows, the outline for this novel was first sketched out in 1992. However, numerous other things got in the way, and I never got around to putting in any serious work on it. Since then, the project has been officially, and indefinitely, put on the shelf. Three brief extracts are presented here, because I couldn't really bear to let them disappear completely.
Old Friends
The Lane
By Clearer Light
"Rules of Engagement" is my longest work of fiction. The negative comments about this, and the amount of time it took, resulted in me giving up writing for about three years. However, I'm still reasonably proud of it.
By contrast, "Trackers" is extremely short and was received favourably. Appearances to the contrary, it's not intended to be an extract from a longer work. I do have more of an idea about what's going on than is said, but not enough to turn it into a decent story.
S. Arrowsmith (siona@chiark.greenend.org.uk)