I’m changing the content of the upcoming second volume of Pure Escapism slightly. One of the short stories, namely The Village, hasn’t worked out as well as I would like, so I am pulling it out for now and, once it is fixed, it will appear in a later issue.
Replacing it is a short story that is perhaps the oldest one I’ve got that is worth reading – it dates back to ’91 or ’92, when I was still a teenager. To have something from my teenage years actually decent enough to read is a rarity.
The story was one I wrote for Writers Workshop class. I may actually have the original one around somewhere, but it would be hard to find, tough I remember the plot quite well. The story itself came from an exercise where we were shown a painting and had to write a story from it. The painting was of an old, slightly sad looking man, wearing a Spanish Conquistador style helmet with a red plume. The story itself is a bit different, which lends itself well to the more experimental feel of the second volume.
The story is called The Duel, and I look forward to it being available soon, once volume two is finally finished.