Featured Writing on Tall And True

No disrespect to you and your beliefs, but I don't believe in an omnipotent being. And although logic tells me there must be life elsewhere in the universe, I think it unlikely that aliens will ever contact us. But that hasn't stopped me from exploring these possibilities in my short stories.

I don't recognise him. This could be his first visit to the gallery, but I know his type. Middle-aged with middle-of-the-road artistic tastes. He'll stand in the foyer and sneer at the paintings, muttering, "A waste of taxpayer dollars." And then he'll spot me hanging on the far wall.

I've written stories for flash fiction competitions and challenges since 2020. Over the years, I've met and chatted with fellow writers and judges, but only online. So it was a double delight to attend the Not Quite Write Prize's Amanda Scotland's flash fiction workshop at Writing NSW and meet her in person.

Friday evening peak hour, and I'm driving home via the local Chinese restaurant. The queue at the nearby petrol station stretches until the weekend. I'd skip it, but Mel reminded me about the kids' Saturday school sports when she texted me to collect takeaway for dinner tonight. And I won't have time to stop for fuel while ferrying Tommy and Tess across town tomorrow morning.

Before I became a dad at forty, I was an uncle in my thirties. I loved playing uncle with my nieces and nephews, and from the experience, I knew I'd love being a dad, too. Some of my nieces and nephews are now in their thirties. But my youngest niece is nine, and she likes to write stories with Uncle Robert.

The four of us went on a cheap surfing trip to Bali in our twenties. We rented a beach bungalow, hired clapped-out two-stroke bikes, haggled over tie-dyed singlets in the markets, and ate on the streets. It was a long time ago. But I've never forgotten the week I spent in bed, writhing with "Bali Belly".

A trip to springtime Japan clashed with the April 2026 Not Quite Write Prize. I've submitted a story for every flash fiction competition run by the Not Quite Write Podcast since July 2023. But I couldn't dedicate a weekend to writing a 500-word story while holidaying in Japan with my family. So I wrote a haiku.

I set off in my son's old HiAce van on a road trip to Uluṟu with my 14-year-old dog, Jet, in September 2025. We spent six days at Uluṟu's Ayers Rock Campground, Jet resting while I walked and rode a bike at Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa. Neither of us was keen on the long drive home in the van.

Episode 107 (8 December 2025): Bernie sat by himself on the far side of the emergency department waiting room. Elsie and Rita were sitting together, near the doors to the operating theatres. Elsie was sobbing, and Bernie wanted to console her, but he couldn't face Rita's wrath again. "It's all your fault, Bernie!" she'd shouted at him.

In 2019, approaching the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I found a timely book in a secondhand bookshop: The Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961 – 9 November 1989 by Frederick Taylor. The book inspired me to write about my contrasting visits to Berlin as a backpacker in 1987 and 1995.

Two disclosures. Firstly, I've known Ashley Kalagian Blunt for several years, from her work at Writing NSW and conversations on social media about our writing projects. Secondly, I am not a big reader of crime fiction. But I know it's a popular genre, and after binge-reading Dark Mode, I can see why.

The writer John Banville observed, "Memory is imagination, and imagination is memory. I don't think we remember the past, we imagine it." I have vivid memories of my early childhood (I believe they're memories, not imagination), which is why the #5YearOldSelfie challenge on social media caught my eye.