Broken Rules and Other Stories6 Comments
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Broken Rules and Other Stories

Barry Lee Thompson

Thanks to everyone who’s supported Broken Rules and Other Stories this year. Whether you read the collection, for work or pleasure or both, or it’s on your to-read list, or if you simply visited this website, it represents a donation of time, one of our most precious resources, and I appreciate it. There’s more info on the book at the Transit Lounge website. While you’re there, why not browse through the other titles on their list, including those lined up for release in 2021. You can buy Broken Rules from Readings and many other bookstores in Australia. Most will post … Continue reading Broken Rules and Other Stories

Broken Rules and Other Stories12 Comments

SHORT FIC THOM

Barry Lee Thompson

The other day a friend showed me the copy of Broken Rules they’d picked up from Footscray Library. The book had been carefully covered, a catalogue sticker affixed to the spine. Seeing this was as thrilling as seeing my book in a shop for the first time. In some ways maybe more so. There’s something wonderful about libraries and the books within them. Their permanence, for one thing. An illusion, I know, as old stock can be cleared from the shelves (and sold off, one would hope). But still, a library book holds more potential to reach multiple readers than … Continue reading SHORT FIC THOM

fiction6 Comments

Colours

Barry Lee Thompson

When he’s nostalgic, it’s pale blue like seaside cottages. Circling seagulls in morning harbours, old-fashioned cream cakes, the damp wood of rickety beach-huts. Ease is liquid green, like late summer afternoons. The lazy buzz of insects in settled heat, the sweet anticipation of the evening ahead. Anxious is the colour of commuters in a cold rush of urgency. It’s frantic, the sound of doors closing on a crowded train, the smells and tastes and harsh fabrics of commerce. Continue reading Colours