
Brindley Hallam Dennis
BHD Writes short stories. Many have been published & performed - often by Liars League, in London, New York & Hong Kong. He has won several prizes and awards. His novella 'A Penny Spitfire' was published in 2011 by Pewter Rose Press, and a collection of short stories, 'Talking To Owls' followed in 2012. In 2010 Unbound Press published 'That's What Ya Get! Kowalski's Assertions'. Writing as Mike Smith, he has published poetry, plays and critical essays - the latter mostly for Thresholds, the International Short Story Forum. Pewter Rose Press has a collection of his essays on the short story form in preparation. He blogs at www.Bhdandme.wordpress.com and his stories appear on Vimeo at BHDandMe. He tweets @BHDandMe. He has recently experimented with self-publishing for Kindle?amazon, producing several short story collections, including, Departures, The Man Who Found A Barrel Full of Beer, Other Stories & Rosie Wreay and, in collaboration with fellow CUT writer Marilyn Messenger, Ambiguous Encounters.
Credentials
Brindley Hallam Dennis in 60 seconds
When did you start writing?
1967 Burton Upon TrentWhat do you love about Short Stories?
Brevity. Their gem-like quality.Their cutting facets, their sharpness, their sparkle, their durability. They last for centuries and still make you laugh, or cry, or even both!Do you write in other forms?
Yes, but not as BHD. Mike Smith, my alter ego, writes poetry, plays, and essays - sheesh!What distracts you from writing?
Necessity (and BBG)Outside of writing, what are your other passions?
I have an unhealthy relationship with a big, black electric fretless bass guitar, that I call BBG.What is your favourite book?
Weep Not My Wanton by A.E.Coppard. (or The Little Farm, by H.E.Bates)Who are your favourite writers?
V.S.Pritchett - Try his story 'The Fall' , Lewis Grassic Gibbons - it's his use of language, and in particular of punctuation, which I love. and James Joyce - for the novel Ulysses, but also for short story, 'The Dead.'Where is your dream location?
When I was young I loved remote places, but as I get older, I value people more and more.What one item would you put into Room 101?
Probably me, on reflection....Do you have any advice for new writers?
Try something else....I wish I could do better than this, but it does seem like good advice. I'm surprised I thought of it. Another might be, don't value the writers, but the individual writings, and don't look to be valued yourself, but want it for your writing. Care about the writing more than about the responses to it. I'm a romantic. Sorry about that.ebooks by Brindley Hallam Dennis:
Shooting Stars
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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You’d be a fool to risk it these days, with no witnesses and only memory to guide you. All you can recall is little details, as sharp as a story painted on shattered glass. The summer of seventy six you took a temporary job with a film company working in the English Lake District.
Twenty-Five Tenpenny Tales
Brindley Hallam Dennis
£2.49 Added
A collection of twenty five flash fictions.
"It frightened him when she walked out alone like that in the early evenings and in the mornings.
Sometimes he watched her from the upstairs windows, a flickering upright between the hedgerow trees beyond fields. She ranged a little further every time, in widening circuits of the empty space between them.
Sometimes he tried to follow her, though not to catch her up, and by the time he’d put his coat on and the heavy shoes – the fields and tracks were often wet and muddy after rain – she was too far ahead for him even to be sure that he was following; not merely walking in his own unravelling circles.
Sometimes, when walking out like that he knew that she was one side or another of him, perhaps ahead, and felt they were like planets in their orbits, or rather comets. Their orbits were not perfect circles around the house, but stretched, elongated ellipses.
Sometimes when he walked, searching for glimpses of her through the trees along the rides and lanes, he would glance back towards the house and see it setting like a sun, glinting in the early morning light or lit with yellow panes at evening in its deep cut windows..."
Contributory Culpability
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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Morning walks, an irrational fear, and a story of past, lethal transgression revealed.
"A few years ago I took a cottage in West Cumbria for a week to get some peace and quiet while I worked my way through a large number of documents. I'd been called in as a specialist by the legal team of a multi-national that was defending itself against a negligence claim. Finding the smallest shred of evidence to suggest that the so-called victims have contributed to the disaster can save you thousands in damages, tens of thousands, millions even, if it's a class action.
The cottage was one of three old quarrymen's cottages sitting on a hillside beyond Rowrah in the back of end of nowhere, where the remains of old railway lines wind their way between the rounded foothills of the English Lake District. I worked long hours that week, breaking off for a sandwich at lunchtime, and driving down to the local pub for supper, and then doing another couple of hours before I turned in. One treat I allowed myself was a brisk walk in the mornings, after dawn, but before the sun had crested the curved summit of the hill behind the cottage..."
Dawn Chorus
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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On the road, escaping from a confrontation a young man unexpectedly returns home, but when his friend retells the story, does he get it right?
"Billy and Geoff had gone down to London, with a few of the others. They were staying over in somebody’s house, so they were on their best behaviour. But the folk they were staying with turned out to be OK. Because no-one had eaten yet they all went down the local pub, which served chicken in a basket which was all the rage in those days.
Now, Billy was having difficulties with his woman at that time, and Geoff was fooling around with anyone, on account of having comprehensively fallen out with his own woman a few weeks before. So, what with the drinks, they were getting on each other’s tits. Then Geoff started giving Billy hard beans about the way he was treating Sam – that was Billy’s woman – and saying that if he wasn’t careful somebody else would do the Doctor John on her, somebody else will, you know? So Billy told him he could effing well have her, and he took himself off into the night..."
Final Accounts
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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Ten flash fictions of last words, last actions, and last loves......
"Wilson didn’t know he had only one week to live, whereas Seymour had been warned that he would die within the year. He was already too ill to drive, so he asked Wilson to take him to see her.
Wilson was reluctant, but they had been friends for decades.
Take a week’s leave, Seymour said.
Wilson’s wife, knew the value of friendship, and she told him to get on with it. You never knew what they meant by ‘within the year’. Why, it might happen the next week, who could tell?"
Personal Calls
Brindley Hallam Dennis
£1.29 Added
A mobile phone in the wrong hands, can lead to who knows what messages in the wrong ears....
Out of the Wood
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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The stranger walked into the bar-room just after six. Bernard didn't usually talk to strangers. He rarely spoke to anyone.
A Feast of Flash Fictions
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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Ten Flash Fictions, from 449, to 96 words short...illicit affairs and railroad crashes, murderous spouses and vengeful neighbours.
The Cover Story
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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Apparently, this story was going to be 'disqualified with merit' from an Earlyworks Press competition...but that was too ridiculous...so they gave it Second Prize! It's on of the stories in Talking To Owls (Pewter Rose Press) and you can hear it read on Vimeo.
The Turkey Cock
Brindley Hallam Dennis
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This story is about proportionality:
The taxi rank was tucked against the wall downhill from the station......
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