Story.Book is the 2011 Annual Anthology from Unbound Press/Spilling Ink Review, and I am thrilled, and a little astonished, that I have a story included in this collection of excellent prize-winning short fiction.

The last time I entered a writing competition was in high school and I didn’t even know I had entered it until I was told I had won it. 20 years later, I have finally entered my second and have made the shortlist! I won’t leave it quite so long for the next one.

I hate hospitals. I love hospitals. I frequently write about or mention them in my writing, and after the publication of my story In Hospital Greys, it seemed a fitting time to reflect on that a little. I wanted to delve a little deeper, but perhaps not right now. One day I’ll pick the wound a little more.

The Drowning Man was my first piece of published fiction, and appeared in Issue 3 of Spilling Ink Review. It’s a dark, twisted take on a love story, and – at least partially – inspired by the song of the same name by The Cure, from their classic 1981 album, Faith.