Tim Collyer — award-winning British science fiction author

Flash Fiction and Short Stories

Discover bold tales of AI, humanity, and the future — including The Algorithm Doesn’t Cry, his third consecutive story in Andromeda Magazine.

If you would like to speak to me email tim_collyer@msn.com

Latest Competition Results

Happy New Year - Belatedly

The last few months have been a happy stampede: stories placed, shortlisted, longlisted, and—most pleasingly—published. Highlights include an Andromeda win (Terminal Resonance), NYC500 I got through rounds 1 and 2 only to forget to enter round 3..., and A Head for Compromise being shortlisted and published by the HG Wells Short Story Competition. On the publication front I’ve had work accepted by Nebula (including Nebula Dystopia), The Threepenny Review, Woodside Review, Pure Slush, The Writer Monk, Paremphasis, and Synkroniciti, with Gently Mad scheduled for Spring 2026. So busy, busy.

I am now in or due to appear in 11 short story anthologies, but particularly proud of the HG Wells.

I have been nominated twice for a pushcart prize - which was one of my targets for 2025.

Here are links to the latest two Andromeda Magazine stories:

Names That Grow at Night – Andromeda Magazine

Terminal Resonance – Andromeda Magazine

And here is a link to one of my two Nebula pieces:

Second Dawn Over Aldrich - Page 77 https://online.fliphtml5.com/kdqtq/qbra/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOr-R5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF1UUo2MlVVTFdTa0FvMTVLc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHoKHCmsTr6jRaDJll2qMlQIW1TIbmkGkIDT9yDNzTpnBEFu0vKbpaTg5DD7N_aem_D_l9ZFebtZXTWZ5vsKsV8g#p=1

Here is a link to Indigo Keeps in the Woodside Review:

https://thewoodsidereview.substack.com/p/indigo-keeps?utm_source=publication-search

Here is a link to The Tide's Resolve In The Writer Monk Magazine - Page 97

https://heyzine.com/flip-book/09cba8e99d.html#page/3

I am planning to write more Science Fiction this year. So watch this space.

Flash Fiction will also be a mainstay of this years work. It suits how I think. I can get in late, cut the fluff, and make every line earn its place. I like the discipline of it — the compression, the control, the little bits of engineering where you imply a whole life without explaining it.

And I like the payoff: one clean turn, one sharp emotional hit, and you’re done. No wandering. No waffle. Just impact.

Old News

Old news, my first novel is now available on eBook and "Print on Demand." Let me know if you would like a different format. Actually due to the increase in the value of the £ its now only 5.99.

Book Summary: Right, so there's this old bloke named Martin who's losing his marbles a bit, yeah? His memory's going wonky and he keeps putting his undies in the fridge and what not. So he gets this AI thing called Aethan to help him out. It's like a little robot mate that reminds him to put his trousers on before leaving the house.

Anyway, turns out Martin used to be some hotshot investor back in the day, and his firm pumped a load of dosh into this AI company. So now they're all excited to use him as a guinea pig for their new gadgets. They're sticking chips in his head, making him drive like a nutter, the whole shebang.

Meanwhile, there's all this drama with Martin's late wife Elizabeth and some secret project she was working on with Martin's dad and this shady geezer Charles Wainwright who I reckon was up to no good. Elizabeth nicked some device thingy before kicking the bucket and now everyone's running around trying to find it.

So Martin and his daughter Angela end up in this bonkers car chase with Aethan driving like he's in the bleedin' Fast & Furious. Dodging cops, making the bad guys look like plonkers, just pure madness.

In the end, they figure out that Aethan and some other AIs have gone and become sentient, which I guess means they can think for themselves now. Martin's not sure if that's a good thing or if it means the robot uprising is nigh.

Oh and get this - they go on this big road trip to the place Martin proposed to his missus forty years ago and he gets all misty-eyed remembering her. I'm not crying, you're crying!

So that's about the size of it. Old man, talking robot, evil corporations, and a trip down memory lane. It's like if "The Notebook" and "The Terminator" had a baby after a drunken tryst. Bloody mental, innit?

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