by Tammy’s parents disappear under magical and mysterious circumstances. Tammy must “slide” through a portal into a magical world, and then embark on a journey with some magical creatures to seek out her parents, particularly her mother. Tammy is missing her parents and her fellow magical creature travellers are either missing something or have something broken. Only...
1 THE ROBOTIC FLY THE HAMILTON CHILDREN, Stephen, Madison, Paul and Jade, aged twelve, eleven, nine and seven, respectively, were happily enjoying their last Sunday summer picnic before the beginning of the autumn school term. They were relaxing on some mowed grass in a clearing in the middle of some of the woods just inside the grounds of Black Park...
1 THE CREATIONIST FUNDAMENTALISTS IT WAS JULY 2401, and still no sign of life had been found anywhere but on the Earth. The consequences of this fact had serious social, spiritual and political repercussions. The Space Agency was the last outpost of science and technology. She was an island of hope, floating alone in a sea of religious self-righteousness that...
1 A RARE ARRIVAL THE DILAPIDATED RAILWAY station lay sleeping in the searing heat of the American Southwest desert sun. It was just a single wooden platform attached to a simple wooden building. Opposite the platform, on the other side of a single glistening steel track, sprawled a thirsty sun-baked sandy desert with a heat haze, making it seem...
1 CHASING A MYTH IT WAS HAPPENING twenty miles west of London in the county of Berkshire, England. On a scorching summer’s day in the middle of June, the chase was definitely on … Along the old winding, Saint Mary’s Road, deep in the heart of the highly populated village of Langley, sped eagerly two forest-green grammar school uniforms—and, of course,...
1 THE PROFESSIONAL DUMMY DEEP IN THE bowels of the London Palladium, Argyll Street was a corridor filled with dressing rooms. Each dressing room door had a bright gold star painted on its outside. On one particular door, the name of the act currently occupying the room was papered beneath its gold star: The Great Bentley and his Talking...
1 A HEARTLESS CRIME Aberdeen. Friday, 2nd August 2013 DARKNESS FINALLY FELL and began to cool the effects of a sweltering day as a light breeze swept down a tranquil Sunnyside Road near the University of Aberdeen. The huge grey-stoned tenements that lined one side of the street hid a ghastly secret … Two streets away, a pair of police...
1 Anthony the Ant Gets Lost THE SUN WAS dropping heavily, huge and red, at the end of a summer’s day. Anthony was an ant, and Anthony was lost, very lost indeed. “Oh dear,” moaned Anthony, “The sun is disappearing, and the stars are coming out to twinkle, and I’m lost.” Anthony stopped walking, sat on a pebble,...
PROLOGUE ONCE UPON A … Hmm? What is that missing word? In the world way, way into the future, everyone has forgotten it! For this is a fairytale from the future and not from the past—although a Fairy of the Past does come in to it! In this future where Amy Ivystone lives, thick forests, lonely mountains and roaring rivers dominate...
1 THE NEO MIRROR Anil Choudhry knew that no moving parts and a relatively flat design meant escape from poverty. His determination—his obsession—had cost him everything. So here he was, all alone in his government sponsored work-unit applying his moulding machinery to the formula and materials that should produce a near as damn it flat section of mirror, two...
1 72 FRITH STREET THERE ONCE WAS a young girl, only six years old and very short for her age. She was the smallest girl in her school, and her name was Sally Murphy. She was an only child and lived with her father Martin Murphy. On the very day she was born, her mother died. Sally always asked, “Was...
1 MAGICAL BEGINNINGS “Mum, this is the end, isn’t it?” said seven-year-old Tammy, looking with her big sad green eyes at her mother. “The end of what?” asked her mother, who also had big green eyes, but her green eyes showed no signs of sadness, in fact, quite the opposite, her big green eyes showed signs of playful excitement. “The...