SHORTS ON SHORTS: 'The Future Husband' by A.J. Ashworth

Just before Christmas, Salt Publishing had a few of it's short story anthologies on special for Kindle, including  this one Somewhere Else, Even Here. So let me just show you the Goodreads synopsis so you can understand why I might have found it intriguing...


A girl meets with danger on the beach when she is lured away by a strange boy; a  
bereaved wife enlists the help of a mysterious woman to perform rituals that will bring her dead husband back to life; a boy’s anger at his absent father leads him towards an act of destruction in the basement of his school.

I'm a few stories into it at the moment and one of them has definitely left an impression....


In a nutshell...

A woman is watching a man from a far as he examines an Egyptian museum exhibit. She may have have had a few fantasies about him in the past... (sorry that makes it sound flippant when it really isn't)


My favourite quote...

" It says she's been scanned and X-rayed to find evidence of her past - disease or abnormality in bone and flesh; the arthritic afterglow of birth in her pelvis; the age at which she died after breathing in too much sand from Egypt's many dry and dusty desert storms."

I just love that phrase 'arthritic afterglow of birth'. Yes, I'll say it again ARTHRITIC AFTERGLOW OF BIRTH.

Ok, I'll stop now.


Bits and pieces I'll take away...

It's concise and rather beautiful and this is what I love in short stories. Whenever I try to write one, it always ends up being that little bit too long. I guess the more I write, the shorter they get? Maybe? Hopefully? Not too short though. I'm not sure I really get flash fiction.

So far, this anthology has been an interesting read, and I'll keep you posted if any more nice little nuggets crop up...