Short Fiction
Please enjoy the following samples of short stories available for download:
The author pictured at the World Heritage Sun Temple in Odisha, India, with the sign that inspired the short story, ‘Be Careful, Otherwise…’. published in Transnational Literature. “The temple city of nearby Puri and the eccentric guests of the ex-maharajah’s palace, now the Z Hotel, are worth a thousand stories. I’m pleased to have added to the rich genre of traveller’s tales in Mother India.” - Lesley Synge
The legendary Z Hotel in Puri, Odisha where the author stayed in 2014.
Lesley Synge, The Writer’s Apron, work-on-paper, c 2003
“The draft of my award-winning story ‘Apron Strings’ was used to create this, my first piece of visual art. It’s looking a little worse for wear now I admit but hey! it is a couple of decades old, and has seen the world - in a group show that toured Australia, South Korea and Canada (Provincial Spirit Apron Exhibition). My grandmother inspired my story. She lived in the old gold-mining town of Mount Morgan in Central Queensland and kept a stack of exquisitely embroidered aprons in a linen cupboard, always wearing a more practical apron - although still a handmade one - to cook. I inherited them all when she died and one in particular inspired the short story, ‘Apron Strings’.
Any work holds the potential to evolve into something else, in this case a collage. Poems, stories and essays all carry possibilities for second, third or fourth lives. When a work gets a second life in a different form, it’s usually unexpected. I’m thrilled that the curators of Provincial Spirit Apron Exhibition invited me to contribute.” - Lesley Synge