I have a new story up at Daily Science Fiction!

It’s my third publication there, and the first with a conventional narrative structure.

It’s a good example of the short stories I like to write these days – very short, psychological sci-fi in the vein of Philip K Dick. I have a few others like this completed and seeking homes, and some more in the works. Writing them is like solving a satisfying puzzle – how do I turn this weird idea into a supershort story? It provides a nice, relatively quick burst of dopamine whilst slogging away at my neverending novel edits.

This one could be doing with a content warning or two. There are mild, non-graphic references to torture, alongside nightmarish depictions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the asylum seeking experience.

It’s working title was Hostile Environment, as it’s intended as a critique of the UK’s immigration policy of the same name (basically discouraging immigration by being a heartless horrible bastard). Rock Hard Place is a loose synonym of this phrase, as well as a play on words merging two references of a popular idiom. Hopefully you’ll see why once you’ve read the story.

Find the story here. I hope you read and enjoy.