Silk [Extract]

“And I’m interested in the way writers have been pulled in different directions; the choices they had between their work and the other things in their lives – personal things. How they maintained their – their integrity, if they made sacrifices, or compromises. How people choose, if there is no one right choice, no one right outcome?” His voice tailed away for a while. “These are different issues I suppose… but they’re part of what interests me in writing. We don’t talk about these things – in the group - but I think they’re just as important.”

Jan felt uncomfortable – she was not sure how to reply. She felt that everyone should be free to write of their thoughts, their ideas, their dreams, as they wished. She was glad she had no such difficult choices to make – but she couldn’t imagine that anything might stop her from trying to become a writer, hoping to publish what she’d written, to hold her own work in her hands.

From The Clock Museum and other stories

Published in June 2021 by Chaffinch Press.