When you want to extract information from a man... kick him in the Labradoodles. In the latest award winning podcast 'Embezzlement and Labradoodles' we have a slightly longer short story which features a super-villain and bondage restraints. But not in a sexy way.

Will I ever get tired of referring to this as an award winning podcast?

Probably not.

Short-short story 'Romance on the Buses' has been published on the website Short Story. Check it out on their site or read more short-short stories (including that one) here.

Another new piece of flash fiction for your enjoyment, this one is something of a ghost story so gird your loins and ready yourself for a chilling tale of ghosts, granmothers and slippers in These Were Your Grandmother's.

Just a little update to let you know that the short-short story 'Romance on the Buses' has been accepted to be published on the website Short Story - a library of the best short stories on the web.

It should be up at the beginning of July but why not check the site out in the meantime?

Just had an email letting me know of a new review of 'Dial M For Monkey' by one Adrian Graham whose blog not only says nice things about my short stories but also flatters this website.

Of course Adrian must be a man of taste to spot these things and he can only be commended for passing the message on to others. Go and visit him and tell him as much, and tell him I sent you.

The more eagle eyed of you out there will have noticed a new section pop up in the navigation of the site in the form of 'Subscribe'.

This is pretty much a collection of subscription methods you will no doubt have noticed appearing over the past fe months and it contains:

• Subscribe to the Award Winning Podcast (I know I keep banging on about it but I did win)
• RSS Feeds - currently you can subscribe to the updates feed (to read these updates or the story feed (unsurprisingly to get the stories)
• Short Stories by Email - for those of you not already subscribed I decided to ditch the mailing list as I just didn't ever send anything to it. In its place is a simple concept - you subscribe and each time I post a story on the site I'll also send it to you by email

It hardly seems possible but, as ever, all of this is free. There is more to come but that, as the saying goes, is another story for another time (ie. when I get the chance to program the changes...)

And finally there was another mention in the newspaper about me winning the podcast award, you can check it out in the Press Coverage section. 

Then you've come to the right place - the short story podcast's last stand. Or something like that. Is it Ray that's a metaphor? Or podcasting? Why is everyone worried about Ray? And does anyone realise he's just a nob reference?

This month's installment is a reading of 'Worried About Metaphor' wherein I can finally reveal exactly what The Hoosiers, The Lemonheads and many more were on about all this time.

Just a quick note to let you know that there was a lovely little front page article in the News Post Leader featuring yours truly. It has just gone out in print all around the region so keep your eyes peeled.

For those of you who don't know what newspapers are you should check out their website which features a scary photo of me looking like Paul Merton and holding an iPod.

Happy times :)

For those of you subscribed to the new email jiggery pokery on the site then you will already know the cards I have up my sleeve. For the rest of you I have posted a new thrilling flash fiction tale on the site.

Entitled 'Let's Get Kraken' it combines high adventure with what is my finest pun-title to date (if I do say so myself).  So what are ye waiting for? Giant squids ahoy me hearties.

Yarrgh. 

I'm just back from the awards ceremony and incredibly pleased to announce that justice was done and thanks to your stalwart support, dear reader, I was the proud winner of the Best Podcast Award at the North East Digital Awards.

Thank you to everyone who supported me and voted and thank you even more for listening my podcast blah blah. Without your support it wouldn't have happened.

And if you haven't already subscribed why not click and subscribe to the award winning podcast. I'm off to get a glass of delicious red wine.