Showing results by author "Matt Shaw" in All Categories

People laughed at him when he said he wanted to be a movie star, and yet here he was - the biggest night of his life - collecting his Oscar for "Best Actor". Grinning like an idiot, he couldn't even recall the speech he gave to the camera...The camera and a room full of actors, directors, and producers - people who used to look down their nose at him whenever he had a new film coming out (usually an over the top action film with huge explosions and slow-mo gun battles). They're not looking down their nose at him now though.

If I am to be damned with slim chance to yet redeem myself than for why spend the rest of my waking days in trying to make amends when I can but face my demons early and enjoy the warmth offered from the free flames of Hell? You say that this is the fate that awaits unless I change my ways and wants and yet the man you’ve shown is the one whom I am and am proud to be. The what-if is all but weak, the kind of man seen staggering down a street with not a penny in his pocket and yet still taken for a fool by those passing by.

Twelve housemates enter a house as part of a bold, new television show. All they know is they're to have their actions monitored 24 hours a day and compete in a series of tasks with the knowledge that - at the end of the show - one of them will walk away with 100,000 pounds. But all is not as it seems, and the truth - and danger - becomes apparent as soon as the doors lock them in on their first night, and the first of the 12 is murdered....

My daily step count. Progress reports. Special guests. The show is evolving! mattjshaw.substack.com

February 14th and my wife is looking at me with hope in her eyes. She has just given me a card and a bottle of my favourite drink so I presume she is hoping for something similar in return. I have nothing but the shovel I'm hiding behind my back. Valentine's Day is a joke. A day made up, no doubt, by people who sell cards and flowers. A way of conning us out of our money as we feel duty bound to "prove our love" for one another. Well this collection is not about proving love. This collection of stories is all about sour, bloody violent love. They say love hurts. They're not wrong.

Mark and Helen's relationship is in a rut. They don't really sleep with one another anymore unless Mark instigates it, and even then, Helen's heart isn't really in it. She just goes through the motions to keep him "happy". Mark doesn't understand why but, being a typical man, he doesn't really ask the important questions, either. He just hopes that, one day, things will improve by themselves. And luckily for Mark, that's exactly what happens. After a trip to the dentist to have a tooth extracted, Mark inadvertently stumbles into Helen's hidden fetish.

Sometimes people do not have much time in their lives. Deadlines are looming at work, kids are playing up, dinners need to be prepared, errands need to be run. That is where short stories fit so nicely into their lives. A quick little escape to another world whilst battling with the stress of everyday life. A quick listen here, a quick listen there.

From Matt Shaw ( Sick B*stards) comes a new short story dealing with grief, loss, and redemption. A short story filled with twists and turns, ready to make you feel a wide range of emotion.

Before you go "behind closed doors" with Matt Shaw's anthology - Shaw invites you into the exclusive penthouse and private life of Duncan Whitfield; a man who has lost nearly everything with only his home left to be taken. Desperate to keep some dignity and claw his way back to the top of society's elite, Whitfield comes up with a plan to raise the necessary funds to clear his mounting debt. But is it too late for him?

It was supposed to be a nice family vacation. Their first time out camping. Quality time with the family - more about communicating with each other as opposed to whatever electronic devices got them online. But from the moment they got lost and gave up looking for the camp site, opting to stay in a pretty-looking field deep in the country, things start to go from bad to worse, and soon they find themselves running for their lives.