Launching Walking Backwards (+ fiction offers & flash submissions)

The short fiction in Walking Backwards is very human and very distinctive.

"With Walking Backwards Charlie Hill gives us dense fragments of closely-observed lives, obsessive interiors and broken, unspoken loves. The result is touching, funny, melancholy.”  AL Kennedy

“Charlie Hill dissects the solitary, dignified struggles of day to day life with great tenderness – his stories are beautiful and moving, a balance of cool observation and tenderness. A brilliant collection.” Catherine O'Flynn

“Charlie Hill writes artfully about the gaps between people, of those caught out by love or hushed by pain, or others seeking order within chaos, solace in the face of change.” Catherine McNamara

The title story from the collection may be enjoyed below.

R.R.P. £6.50

ORDER a copy of Walking Backwards now using the paypal link below.

Walking Backwards (with package & posting options)

Walking Backwards (with p&p for delivery in UK) £7.50 GBP Walking Backwards (with p&p for rest of the world) £12.99 GBP

Walking backwards

The man who walked backwards lived in a house for people who had no house to live in. The house was called Ilfracombe House. I don’t know why.

When I moved into Ilfracombe House, I met the man who walked backwards. He was always there, walking backwards through the house. He walked up and down the stairs backwards, in and out of the lounge backwards, through the kitchen backwards. He even walked backwards along the hall.

One day, I asked the man why he walked backwards. He said he’d read that our hearts only beat a certain number of times before we die, and, if this were so, it made sense that we could only take a certain number of steps too. Each time we took a step forwards then, we were literally moving a step closer to the end of our life. Whereas, if we walked backwards, we were moving away from it, cheating death a step at a time.

It’s been a while since I saw the man who walked backwards. I don’t live in Ilfracombe House any more. I’ve moved. I live in a house called Barnstaple House. I don’t know why. But I think about him every time I see people walking forwards, moving step by step towards the end.

FICTION BUNDLES (UK delivery only)

Continuing or National Flash Fiction Day celebrations, a three-pamphlet fiction bundle,containing Charlie Hill's Walking Backwards, Jude Higgins' The Chemist's House and Carrie Etter's Hometown, may be purchased for just £18 (including packing & postage for the U.K. only) using the paypal link below. This offer is valid until the end of July 24 (U.K. time).

3 fiction pamphlets offer (with p&p for U.K. only)

3 fiction pamphlets offer (with p&p for U.K. only) £18.00 GBP

SUBMISSIONS

The V. Press flash fiction (NOT poetry) submissions window will also be open for the next month (30 days)  (until July 24). Please check out the submissions page  for how to submit work, making sure to follow all the guidelines.

(N.B. We are not currently open to general poetry submissions. However, if you are a poet already in discussions with us about a specific manuscript, this month would also be a good time to submit, before we re-open to poetry submissions generally.) Thank you.