Rebecca would like to apologise for the long silence; she is currently taking a short break from short fiction writing to focus on a novel-length work.

This site will be updated in the near future with recent publications which were already in the offing when she made a start on the longer work.

In the meantime, Rebecca is currently editing and writing for the relaunched Pagan Friends Webzine in her spare time; well worth a look.

Rebecca's short story 'Cherry Picking', along with a short commentary by the author, will be appearing in the upcoming Crimson Pact anthology. She has also been invited to contribute a longer fiction piece to the next edition which she is keen to make a start on writing.

The short story, 'The King of Cats' will be appearing in Pill Hill Press' upcoming Told You SO anthology.

We are waiting for confirmation on contract details for several other publications and will let you know as soon as these are okayed!

Some Recent & Upcoming Publications:

A flash fiction piece entitled Broken Pieces will be featured in Primalzine.
The Inner Child will be appearing at 365 Tomorrows.
A flash story entitled Cherry Picking will appear in the upcoming Crimson Pact Anthology.
The microfiction piece Shadows recently appeared at FlashShot.

Rebecca's children's poem Purple Goblin will be featured in April's edition of Stories For Children Magazine.

The Red Skies Press anthology Their Dark Masters, which features one of Rebecca's short stories, is now available to purchase through the Red Skies Press website in advance of it's release through Amazon.

Rebecca's short story 'The Perfect Shoes' will be appearing in Pill Hill Press' Daily Frights 2012: 366 Days of Frightening Flash Fiction (Leap Year Edition) anthology

Two of Rebecca's short stories will be appearing in upcoming anthologies from Static Movement:

Revisiting Youth will be appearing in the Fountain of Youth anthology, and Beyond The Closet will appear in Closet Monsters.

Rebecca's short story Attack of The Zombie Hamsters will be appearing in Static Movement's upcoming Unquiet Earth anthology.

Rebecca's short story A Beautiful Lie will be appearing in Bewildering Stories, and the flast fiction piece Dining With A Mermaid has been accepted for the 2012 edition of Pill Hill's Daily Flash:366 Days of Flash Fiction.

Rebecca's poem Making Waves is now available online at the Cherry Blossom Review.

Rebecca's short story, Caging Diana, will be appearing in the upcoming Red Skies Press anthology Howl: Echoes of the Hunt Edited by Mark Crittenden.

Rebecca's poem, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche will be appearing at The Camel Saloon.

Three of Rebecca's untitled short poems will be appearing in Heavy Handed Ink's upcoming chapbook NitTwitts, scheduled to be released in May 2011.

Look out for an untitled microfiction piece by Rebecca which will be appearing in Seedpod Publishing's Twitter fiction feed @seedpodpub on the 30th December.

The short humour piece FAO Gnome Man which has previously appeared on The Short Humour site will be included in their upcoming paperback anthology People of Few Words- Volume 3 along with a collection of forty nine more of the best short stories featured on the site during the last year.

An Update From Rebecca

My apologies for the long break in updates; I would like to reassure you that I will be returning to writing soon. In the meantime, this site has been updated to include new and upcoming publications.

Many Thanks

Due to a combination of personal illness and circumstances, Rebecca has had to reduce the amount of writing she is currently doing. Not to worry though; in a few weeks, she will be returning and we will be revamping the site in celebration!

Some more forthcoming appearances

Rebecca's poem Jazz Echoes will appear in Magnolia's Press on 17th September.

The (non-)poem Gremlins is scheduled to be featured at Danse Macabre's Du Jour section before the end of the year.

The short story Bringing Home The Beach will be featured in the upcoming horror anthology Seasons In The Abyss (Bloodbound Books).

Wishing, another short story, will be appearing in the December issue of Long Story Short

Another short story, Blinking, will appear in 69 Flavors of Paranoia, Issue 2 Volume 2 (the October/November issue).

And don't forget to look out for more articles by Rebecca soon to be posted at Butnu.co.uk and New Old Traditions.

Rebecca's poem And They Fear Bereadsticks is in this month's issue of the Seahorse Rodeo Folk Review

Rebecca's story Thrall's Sacrifice will be appearing in Red Skies Press Their Dark Masters anthology edited by Mark Crittenden, a collection of vampiric fiction.

Upcoming Appearances

Rebecca's short story Riveted will be appearing in FlashShot, a webzine of fantasy microfiction.

The short story Remaking The Raven, will appear in September's issue of EMG-Zine (the Raven Issue).

Rebecca's photography and an interview feature are scheduled to appear in the Spring issue of Dark Gothic Magazine.

Rebecca's poem Be Careful about the importance of internet safety for children has been made into a short video by Ceri Jones. Take a look on youtube.

Rebecca's short fiction piece Falling will be appearing in Issue 4 of Blink-Ink.

Her short poem Excuses will feature in Issue 9 of KillPoet.

Rebecca's poem Creatures of Remorse will be appearing in The Dark Fiction Spotlight and her mixed media piece Kisses will be appearing in Pocket Smut magazine.

Rebecca's short story Divorcing The Night is now available to read in Atlantean Publishing's online magazine Awen (Issue 8, 'Hidden Things').

As well as having a short story featuring in issue 13, Rebecca's photography will be featuring on the cover of Sex and Murder Magazine Issue 14.

One of Rebecca's micro-fiction pieces has been used by Thaumatrope, a SF, fantasy and horror Twitter magazine.

You can follow them on Twitter @thaumatrope.

Rebecca's work is featuring in today's Handful of Stones, a collection of moments of clear thought.

Rebecca's short story Read Me A Story is now live at Camroc Press Review.

As an apology for the lack of fiction posts for a little while, here's something a bit longer (and weirder) than usual from Rebecca:

Wrapping

Sticky children with sticky hands; gumming up book pages with grasping, greedy little fingers. Tapping on the pet shop cages (clack! clack! clack! Mommy I want one of those!) where shell-shocked multi-colour rodents cower in plastic houses. Cramming their stubby, chubby digits into their stubby, chubby noses… Sticky children are the worst of all.

Halloween… Faces caked in paint, fake blood and too much chocolate oozing down onto ragged bin-liner capes and pillow-case costumes. Fingers grasping (always grasping! always wanting more!) sticky sweeties, clutching handfuls of melted drumstick lollies, toffee coated apples, heat-deformed milk chocolate mice. Banging on doors with insatiable fists (trickle treat mister!). Throwing eggs while someone cowers behind the unwelcoming door. Viscous yolk and fragments of shell dripping onto doorsteps.

And Christmas? Shaking, poking, pawing at foil-wrapped boxes, sloppy kisses for distant relatives (on the cheek? on the lips? come kiss gran’ma precious!) with greasy turkey-smeared faces. Chocolate santas with chocolate reindeer melting under plastic trees to be smeared over walls, floors, faces… Even the snow (the crisp, clean, magnificent snow), torn up to make snowballs and snowmen, yellow snow, full of filth, turning to muddy slush in clammy mittened hands.

Even Summer days! Hours spent trailing sunscreen and melting ice-cream along overcrowded beaches, prodding demoralized donkeys with plastic spades and pawing at gaudy postcards (wish you were here…) with vinegar and chip-grease hands. Running in parks with muddy knees poking through frayed jeans or fixing bikes, smeared with brake oil.

Oh, and the parents! Oh god, the adults… Reeking of cheap perfumes masking stale sweat and desperation they oil their hair and paint their faces. Yellow nails chewed to the quick, flaking multicoloured varnish. Preening, pointing, smoking, stroking, scratching crotches and fluffing hair with ever-vacant faces…

The thought of them repulses me! Tugging on the hem of my sleeve with grubby hands, grimy fingers; ruffling my hair as they smile their wide, white smiles. I shudder even thinking about them. Kisses hello, kisses goodbye, greasy spittle-coated lips puckered out (pucker up!). Touching, touching, always touching… Unavoidable! Inescapable! Intolerable!

That is why I am going to wrap myself.

I start at the feet, pulling the clear plastic as tight as I can. I am wearing gloves so I am leaving no fingerprints behind. No defilement. I wrap the plastic around both legs, pressing them together, working up towards the knee.

I used to watch them from the window as they walked by; chewing gum like cows with cud, open-mouthed, blowing multicolour spit bubbles (pop! spit! start all over). Or taking loud gulps from brightly coloured bottles, passing them round, sharing spittle with a friend.

I bind the knees tightly, overlapping the plastic edges, round and round. Several layers thick; the roll is plenty thick. I will be impenetrable, untouchable in my armour. I will be like a paladin; pure and untainted. I pull the plastic taut over my thighs, my hips.

A plastic cocoon. My chrysalis. I am wrapping myself like a larvae. Once I am inside, tightly bound, maybe inside I will change, transform myself. Maybe I will emerge someday as someone else. Maybe then I will understand the joy of these little daily contaminations…

I wrap my waist, my chest. My feet are tingling. I ignore them. I wrap my shoulders, slower now, struggling to move. No more sticky fingers, no more grabbing, grasping hands, smearing, sticking, greasing my skin. I wrap my neck. My breath rasps in my throat (in…out...in…out…).

See what they have made me do? Squeezing every orange on the shelf, tapping every apple (here’s your change mister! wiping his face on the back of his hand). Licking the plate clean, gravy dripping down their chins. Licking their fingers when they turn the page. Sucking their fingers when they bleed. Kissing it better… Kissing only makes it worse.

I wrap my head...

Rebecca's short story 'An Independent Mind' is now available to read at Sillymess.

Rebecca's first article for Simply Woman Magazine about Windowsill Herb Gardening is now available to read.

New articles written by Rebecca are now available to read online; visit These Old New Traditions to read A Floral Feast or Zombie Digest to find out about real life 'zombies' such Clairvius Narcisse!

Rebecca's short poem Valleys (containing adult language) will be featuring in Hobo Pancakes in the upcoming issue.

More Up-Coming Appearances!

We are excited to announce a number of upcoming appearances of Rebecca's work in various publications:

Rebecca's mixed media (photography/poetry) piece Crimson Moment will be appearing in issue 14 of House of Horror.

The short fiction piece Corpus Erotica will be appearing in Sex and Murder Magazine.

The poem Overlording, which has featured on this blog, will be appearing in Vox Poetica.

A review written by Rebecca on the classic short story The Vampyre by Polidori should be available to read at Anything Horror later today.

The short story Bonsai from Rebecca's blog is now also available to read at MicroHorror.

Rebecca's poetry will be being discussed on Saint FM's Reflections show (presented by the delightful Anthony Mayer) broadcast between 10pm and 11pm. Rebecca will feature provisionally on the 2nd August; fans are welcome to e-mail in to the show on the night

A short fact-based article by Rebecca will be appearing at the Zombie Digest site; we hope it will be the first of many!

We are delighted to be able to announce that Rebecca's poem Sacrifice will be appearing in Cherrypicked Hands.

Rebecca's short story To Dust is now available to read at Thrillers, Killers 'n' Chillers.

Rebecca's non-fiction article on Lavender in The Kitchen will be appearing in These New Old Traditions later today; we hope this will be the first of many contributions to the site!

Rebecca's short story FAO Dragon is now available to read at Postcard Shorts.

The Most Beautiful

You are the most beautiful one of all. That is what they tell me before they die, each and every one of them. They come towards me as if mesmerised, eyes glazing, arms outstretched. They have seen no other of my kind; I am unique in my perfection. I honour them with a quick death.

Once I have devoured them, they tell me other things, snaking around inside my head like little moments of madness. Becoming you was the deepest ecstasy, they tell me. Becoming you has made us complete. Now they are beautiful too. We have become vain together.

I hate the mirrors, though. Mirrors are liars, bitter liars with no true image of their own. They distort me with their dead, glassy eyes, slicking my body with oil and mouldering feathers, shaping my soft, red lips into a wicked, toothless smile. I like to smash them, their fragments reflecting back one hundred little pieces of cruelty as I picked the slivers out of my fingers. I like to grind the shards into dust with my heels. What do you see now? I ask them.

They are soothing me now, stroking themselves over my aching pride. There are no others who compare to you, they promise me. You are the most beautiful of all.

I believe them.

Rebecca's first article is now live at Zombie Command; go take a look!

Rebecca's short story The Reunion will be appearing in the Pill Hill Daily Bites of Flesh Anthology.

Rebecca will be producing some fiction and non-fiction based articles for Zombie Command, starting with an instructional article about trapping small animals for food which will go live this week.

Rebecca's short story Cleaning will be appearing in Litsnack.

Rebecca's short non-fiction pieces 'Superfluous Benches' and 'Do Not Touch' are now live on Butnu.co.uk; these should be her first of many contributions to the site; we look forward to reading them!

Also available to view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJZmDql0CJU

Rebecca's short story Party Girl will be appearing in the upcoming Wicked East Anthology 'Cup of Joe'

Rebecca will now be writing regular pieces for Butnu, 'The online home of fun and boring', the first of which will hopefully be available to read today.

Rebecca's short story The Awesome Cake will be appearing in issue one of the Ponytail webzine. We look forward to reading their first issue which is due out around Mid-September!