Raymond G. Taylor
Bio
Author living in Kent, England. Writer of short stories and poems in a wide range of genres, forms and styles. A non-fiction writer for 40+ years. Subjects include art, history, science, business, law, and the human condition.
Stories (154/620)
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Far far away from me
Sedna made the final approach, unaware of her proximity to the icy, rocky comet. Her solitary mission: the first ever comet walk. Suspended animation was necessary for the three-year flight, to preserve water and oxygen and to protect the astronaut from the effects of isolation until she could be reawakened.
By Raymond G. Taylor6 days ago in Fiction
The story that wasn’t
The Summer That Wasn’t? Yes! I thought. This is the one. This will be my first success as an author. $200 first prize will set me up in my new career as a world-famous writer. That night I dreamt about signing copies of my book at a gala launch event.
By Raymond G. Taylor2 months ago in Fiction
Who could she possibly be?
Early evening would often find me sitting by the village green after a walk. It was here that I first saw her. I thought she looked familiar but couldn’t be sure. Once, I went to speak to her, but she was gone before I got close enough.
By Raymond G. Taylor2 months ago in Fiction
Oblivion: three
Having rearranged various appointments and assured my features editor I would later file the articles that she was expecting from me, I headed to the bank. Fortunately there was nothing I needed to submit to the news editor. Why I was taking such trouble over all this, I really did not know. Perhaps it was just the investigative journalist in me.
By Raymond G. Taylor5 months ago in Fiction
Oblivion: two
The Institute of Directors is a stylishly elaborate Regency-era building at 116 Pall Mall, roughly halfway between Trafalgar Square and St James's Palace. The Palace of St James is the most senior palace in the UK and is where the Queen grants audience to foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries. It is used on ceremonial occasions and has a its own guard of honour. It is like a smaller, more discreet, and older version of Buckingham Palace, being built by order of King Henry VIII. I have never been inside the palace though I had walked past it enough times.
By Raymond G. Taylor6 months ago in Fiction
Blank page bites back
What do you write on a blank page? Oh the fear, the excitement, the anticipation of that first word, the first sentence. Fear of getting it wrong. Ordinarily, I would not be particularly phased by the prospect of a blank page or, as in my case, a blank screen. On this occasion I had taken myself away for a one-man author's retreat to a lonely cottage on Dartmoor. Birthplace of many an Agatha Christie Mystery and bleak setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles, my least-favourite work by Arthur Conan-Doyle.
By Raymond G. Taylor6 months ago in Fiction
Out of oblivion
"You don't exist." "And yet, here I am." O ~ o ~ The first time I met him I was working in London as a business reporter for the Financial Times. It was 1999. I had started to get all sorts of strange calls about the millennium bug, about the end of the world, the end of humanity and about climate change. This wasn't one of them. It was a regular call from one of my regular PR contacts. One of the more reliable PR firms in a business not noted for its reliability.
By Raymond G. Taylor6 months ago in Fiction
