Briar Day

By Peter M. Ball

Published here as a stand-alone chapbook, Briar Day is a short, slipstream story about masculinity, fairy tales, and the narratives we tell ourselves. Also available in the collection The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales.

Everyone remembers where they were when the briars first choked the city. Everyone celebrates the anniversary of their rescue from the rampaging dragon and the mysterious curse that afflicted Brisbane.

 

But not everybody is in the mood to celebrate the anniversary of Briar Day, and for two old friends with terrible memories of the day, the annual celebrations are nothing but a source of heartbreak.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eclectic Projects
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781922479211

Peter M. Ball

Peter M Ball is the author of more than fifty short stories and six novellas, along with essays, RPG material, articles, and poetry. His short stories and non-fiction have appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Shimmer, Dragon Magazine, Writing Queensland, and Apex Magazine, and has been included in several Year’s Best anthologies. He’s previously taught creative writing at Griffith University and the Queensland Writers Centre, spent five years as the manager of the Australian Writers Marketplace, and convenes the biennial GenreCon writing conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Book preview

Briar Day

THANK YOU TO THE ECLECTIC PROJECTS PATRONS!

This chapbook is produced and supported by the patrons of the Eclectic Projects Fund.

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Peter would like to extend his thanks to Margaret Ball, Kate Eltham, Jodi, Nicole Strickland, Meg Vann, Sally, Jennifer White, Maggie Slater, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Dave Versace; Catherine Caine, Kathleen Jennings, and Lois Spangler for their encouragement and support.

BRIAR DAY

AN ECLECTIC PROJECTS SHORT STORY

PETER M. BALL

Eclectic Projects

CONTENTS

Briar Day

About the Author

Keith Murphy Urban Fantasy Thrillers

Also By Peter M. Ball

Thank You For Buying This Eclectic Projects Ebook

BRIAR DAY

Iasked Jay what he was doing when the thorns came, because that’s what people do when they get together on Briar Day. He sighed and rolled his eyes at me. I thought we weren’t going to talk about it.

We weren’t. We’d run into each other at a seminar for the ANZ, one of those pre-arranged ‘accidents’ we set up around this time of year. Jay picked the bar on Elizabeth Street because it showed no interest in the day, a quiet place hiding behind a narrow flight of stairs and fading sign. The kind of place people went to drink, not party or reminisce. 

That had been four hours ago, and now it was getting late. I should have been home with Annie and we both knew it. Jay looked ready to tell me so, so I said: Come on. Four years we’ve been doing this. You’ve never been curious, ever?

Jay sighed again. He signalled the waitress in cherry-red Docs, put in an order for another round of drinks. She smiled and I smiled back, gave her a twenty to cover our order. Jay scowled at me, drummed his fingers on the