Delirium Tremens

THE WRITER'S LIFE | FICTION Just over two years ago, a dog theme cropped up in my short stories. First, there was A Girl, Frank Burnside and Haile Selassie , the story which won Writing Magazine's 'Life-changing' story competition last year, and which became a children's book, now being used in some family learning classes. It's the story of a young girl, dealing with loss and life's changes, helped by her talking dog, and by wishing for 'not-things' to happen. That story was written when I was sofa-surfing, then lodging with a family, whose dog died. They'd lost a friend and family member, and that's what the book is about. After that, I moved into the flat above the pub, where the landlady acquired a very small dog. It was while I sat in the bar one night, watching the little thing, that I decided to write an antithesis to my children's book. I was only in the bar for a while, so t his is flash fiction, coming in at just over 50...