Old Man Jeff is this old guy I talk to who hates money. I caught him the other day, burning a five dollar bill. “Don’t burn that!” I said, snatching the bill from him and immediately placing it in my pocket. “You burning any more of these?” “Gimme that back,” he said. “No.” The old man, who was normally gentle …
Posted by Dean on Mar 8th, 2021 in
Jude,
short storiesThis is a story about a story. Which is incidentally about another story. It’s a story about me telling you, the reader, about a story a dear friend told me. “Dear friend,” my dear friend told me. “Listen to this story.” “Fine,” I said, pretending to be interested. “Tell me this story.” “It’s a story a dear friend told me …
Posted by Dean on Mar 31st, 2020 in
short storiesThere was an oldish man and an oldish woman and some experts believe that at varying points in their lives, they had fallen in love with each other. But the pair was old now, and the concept of falling in love seemed like an oddity one could only discover in books. Now all the couple had for each other was …
According to some friends, she came from old money but also owned some tech startup, and according to some friends, she’d just raised one hundred million dollars… So began my plan to find as many ways as possible to rip her off.
Sometimes I still think about you. Sometimes I imagine you looking at my Facebook profile and being a little impressed and a little jealous that you’re not the one doing that thing with me, or being in that place with me, or posing in that quirky restaurant photo with me. But sometimes I imagine you being relieved that you’re not …
Posted by Dean on Feb 11th, 2019 in
short stories,
WritingHave you ever just… thought? Not just regular, day-to-day thoughts, but actual, concentrated thoughts that ask the questions you’re afraid to ask and answer the questions you’re afraid to answer: What am I doing here? Why am I doing what I’m doing? What do I actually want if I strip away my insecurities, my fears and the influence and pressures …
Posted by Dean on Jan 20th, 2019 in
Nights Out,
short storiesThe poor guy and the rich girl had one thing in common: their mutual hatred of each other. This was unfortunate because of two major reasons: One: they believed themselves to be generally good people. But running into each other brought out each other’s worst characteristics, characteristics they found difficult to disguise. And they often ran into each other often …
“Have you met Brisbane’s good luck charm?” Jude asked me. “No and I don’t want to,” I said. I turned to Vail: “Do you want to meet Brisbane’s good luck charm?” Vail had her sunglasses on and she was driving. “Dean,” she started, sighing, “your stories… have I ever told you about your stories? They need to have an arc. …
Posted by Dean on Jul 29th, 2018 in
Anna,
Annabelle,
Ariel,
Candy,
Cassy,
Christie,
Esmeralda,
Hannah,
Hayley,
Jamie,
Janine,
Jude's Girlfriend,
M,
Madison,
Mandy,
Natasha,
Nights Out,
Rachel,
Relationships,
Sam,
Sara,
Selma,
short stories,
The Receptionist,
Thoughts,
Vail,
WritingI used to be a hoarder. I used to never want to let go of anything. Whenever time would try to drag something away from me, I’d pull onto it for my dear life. The other day, I decided to let that part of me go. Especially the part that clung onto old loves. I had too many memories of …
Posted by Dean on Jul 16th, 2018 in
Cassy,
Days Out,
short stories,
Travel“Do you believe in the supernatural, Dean?” This is what Cassy asked me as we sat in a train to the city or whatever. “What do you mean? Like spirits and stuff?” “No…” she said, putting her phone down on her lap. “As in, like, superpowers.” “Like the Avengers?” “Like the Avengers.” “No, I don’t believe in that.” “Well you …
Posted by Dean on Jun 12th, 2018 in
Nights Out,
short stories,
WritingLife would be a lot happier if our penises didn’t get in the way. Penises are like that vegetarian friend of yours who always attends your birthday gatherings — even though it’s inconvenient, you have to go out of your way to make sure they’re happy. This is when I told my good looking friend about the Chant of the …
Posted by Dean on Jun 13th, 2017 in
Christie,
Nights Out,
short stories“Have you ever read the Book of Jonah?” Christie asked me. “The guy who got swallowed by a whale?” “The prophet who was swallowed by a fish.” “No, I haven’t.” “Well,” Christie said with a slight smile on her face, “Jonah was a prophet who kept running away from God. God asked Jonah to do something, but then Jonah ran …
“Dude, you’re wrong. You need to read The Perfumed Garden.” This is what a friend said when I ignorantly asked him if Muslims were always so conservative about sexuality. Instead of actually reading the The Perfumed Garden and coming up with my own opinions about it, I Googled it and found this summary: “Written between 1410 and 1434 for a …
I’ve been writing about Carol for thousands of years now, and tonight will be the last time you hear about her. I’d only promised to write about eight dinners, you see, and you’re probably sick of her by now, and you’re probably wondering what the hell I’ve been up to. What the hell have I been up to? The last …
Carol took a sip of her drink. “My only wish is that I find good music this year. I mean the music in two thousand fifteen was great, and like, I really got into Spotify and Pandora and that, but like, I mean, The Weeknd’s album was pretty good, but really, I wanted more, you know? Do you ever get …
Posted by Dean on Dec 18th, 2015 in
Christmas,
short stories,
Thoughts,
WritingChristmas is about family. Christmas is about being alone. Christmas is about gifts, and food, and handjobs and blowjobs and an uncle who is too drunk, and a friend who is too drunk, and the heat in one country and the blistering cold in another country and a shared moon that kind of hangs over everything: it hides in some …
There are some days when I have great dreams and there are some days when I have no dreams at all. Once, when I was a kid, I lay in bed, fantasising about becoming a magician. I thought about how I was going to become the greatest magician in the world and how much sex I was going to get …
Here’s some news, people. My book of short stories, Surface Children, is now out on the iBookstore for people with Apple devices, as well as other bookstores such as Barnes&Noble. Download it here for iBooks and here for Barnes&Noble.
This year has been all about cheating. I cheated, I helped people cheat, my friends cheated, I was even cheated on for a while. Funnily enough, there was a brief period of time when the loads of cheating seemed abnormal – immoral, even – but the more it absorbed me this year the more it seemed like a natural, expected …
Posted by Dean on Oct 12th, 2015 in
Days Out,
Hayley,
Jason,
short storiesIf I gave you the opportunity to escape the life you’re currently in, would you take it? Where would you go? What would you do? How would you make things different? Being up north was my escape, even though I had no idea what I was escaping from or how I wanted to make things different. All I was doing …
“Life will kick you in the balls, and when it realises you don’t have balls it’ll kick you in the pussy,” Jason laughed, even if what he said wasn’t funny. Jason is my childhood friend. He’s stocky and angry looking and something about his face makes him look racist. We were in his kitchen, talking, and he was drinking beer …
Things I liked out about Anna: she loved The Weeknd, she loved mixing music and had a following online, she brought Surface Children with her wherever she went, she regularly bought her parents dinner. Things that annoyed me: she secretly loved chaos, she loved destruction, she enjoyed the drama in walking away from the flames. I walked out of work …
. . . 1. YOUR SMALL TITS 2. YOUR FLAT ARSE 3. YOUR BIG THIGHS 4. YOUR PRETTY FACE 5. YOUR INFINITE SMILE 6. HOW YOU SHAVE YOUR ARMS 7. YOUR MONEY 8. HOW YOU ALWAYS GAVE WHAT YOU HAD (WE THOUGHT YOU WERE A DAMN SAINT) 9. THE FOURTH TIME I MET YOU 10. YOU MADE ME BELIEVE I …
Mandy and I had a fight right after coming home from one of my book signings. She yelled and I yelled but to be honest, none of the things that came out of our mouths were actually new. We fought about what we always fought about: money. We (she) decided then and there to end it, and I walked over …
Break up a bit after Easter. Lost for a while. Happy for a while. Nothing much for a while longer. April comes. Excel at work. Make a few thousand dollars. Make a few friends. Meet a few people. Learn a few new songs. Nearly complete a book. Look at photos. Buy food alone. Buy clothes alone. Buy alcohol alone. Watch …
Posted by Dean on Mar 13th, 2014 in
Ariel,
Crappy News,
Jamie,
Nights Out,
short storiesLife has been stupid lately. I was hired by the luxury car dealership to be their copywriter/designer/marketing person/driver, and as I happily accepted their offer and happily accepted their stable pay slips everything else outside my working life began to deteriorate: I wrote less, I saw friends less, I boxed less, I woke up at five in the morning every …
Posted by Dean on Feb 14th, 2014 in
Letters,
Relationships,
short stories,
WritingWell, picture this. The year is like, two thousand fifty or three thousand fifty or whatever, and the world is still the same old bullshit that it is. There are still cars that go on the road, and like, your bedroom, the one at the far corner of the house, is still a mess. It still has that strange smell …
Posted by Dean on Nov 21st, 2013 in
short stories,
WritingI’ve been flicking through some of my old stuff lately. Here’s a short story I wrote a few years ago, which I thought I’d share with you: The easiest part about it was that she didn’t love him. They didn’t meet in a bar. They met at a party, through friends of friends and they shook hands and introduced …
