This collection contains my very first scribblings, when I realised that if I did not depart from the self-destructive path I was on, the future would not be stretching very much further for me. The stories and accounts within are what emerged from of a mind in turmoil; eighteen constructs hastily reported as they were viewed, playing out in the theatre of the mind.

Few are constructed stories; being the teetering first steps of a writer in training and reaching for a new way of life, not knowing a hell of a lot about the art. The remainders are memories and impromptu conjurings, hastily written down as they played out for me, shaped somewhat by the benefit of hindsight, and leaving me to wonder about the nature of the human animal and the mechanisms of the imagination. It has taken me far too long to revisit the short story format, a format so well suited to existential concerns. But at last, in 2021 I was again able to return to the short story with enormous delight!