Freshly converted into e-book format is one of my earliest short stories, “The Last Cigarette”. It can still be viewed on the website, but now can also be downloaded for free onto Kindles, iPhones, iPads, Nooks, Kobos and the like. Simply visit my e-book section, right-click on the link and download it to read on the device of your choice.

Thanks to my proofreader and technology monster Steve who has helped with making the download of such things possible, and the talented Mr Cuss, who has designed a cover for the e-book version of The Last Cigarette. If you want to get in touch with him for any work, his e-mail address is on the inside cover to The Last Cigarette.

The Last Cigarette was a story which took three different stabs at an ending. I was still studying CCE Creative Writing at the time. When I was first in the short story module, it was to shorten my prose work, however I fell in love with the genre. I always had short fiction on my shelves, but never really acknowledged it before. Given the task of picking a short story writer to talk about, I took in the works of HP Lovecraft. On returning from that evening, I realised my shelves were mocking me. There were several other, more interesting short-fiction authors sitting on them, including my beloved Italo Calvino and Kelly Link.

My first short story was “Love’s Headlights”, and I believe The Last Cigarette is the third, however it was the first story I was really proud of. When I was stumped with an ending, we were studying Chekhov. I loved the way he ended his stories and aimed for something which was not necessarily a fixed ending, the fate of Tony is up in the air, and yet it’s still an end to the story which I hope satisfies the audience.