Half a Dozen Star Jumps

A woodpecker who creates sculptures for the opera singer he adores, a sculpture that collects the thoughts of the people who touch him, ghosts of owls that portent death in the castle, a secret night-time visitor finding his own way to say goodbye, mobile phones that metamorphosize into fruit on the strike of midnight and help stitch a marriage back together and the last survivors on earth – on the moon. Metaphysical, anthropomorphological, spiritual and fantastical this collection of short stories stretch and bend the imagination, explore the nature and endurance of love across time and across space and see how frictions can create fractures.

A woodpecker who creates sculptures for the opera singer he adores, a sculpture that collects the thoughts of the people who touch him, ghosts of owls that portent death in the castle, a secret night-time visitor finding his own way to say goodbye, mobile phones that metamorphosize into fruit on the strike of midnight and help stitch a marriage back together and the last survivors on earth – on the moon. Metaphysical, anthropomorphological, spiritual and fantastical this collection of short stories stretch and bend the imagination, explore the nature and endurance of love across time and across space and see how frictions can create fractures.

Helen J Beal is the author of three novels - Thirty Seconds Before Midnight, Rich in Small Things and Riding a Tiger and a collection of short stories - Half a Dozen Star Jumps. Helen is a British writer living in Chichester on the south coast of England and is an English Literature and Language alumni of London University.