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Earlier this month, as World Cup fever spread across the world, a novel idea for a short story came to me. It was a warm Saturday afternoon here in Korea and I was explaining to my girlfriend the history of Football and how it came to be known as s@cc#r by some. With great relish I went into detail about how we English used to batter one another silly in the earliest days of the game (and still do, to an extent!). Pouring out all of the sacred knowledge I had gained from my Sports History lectures (yawn) back in University, the idea sprung upon me with great alacrity.

“EUREKA!” I cried, or perhaps it was, “GOAL!” Either way I meant more or less the same thing.

I spent the evening and the following morning working on an outline for the story and then began writing in eagerness. However, by Tuesday afternoon (which was a national holiday here in Korea) I was dismayed by what I had on the screen before me. Initially, I had toyed with the idea of writing a 2000-2500 word story and yet by that time I had written somewhat close to 4000! Had I lost my touch? I have several short stories in my collection that are less than or equal to the prescribed limits and yet I had blazed on by without even noticing. Perhaps, I thought glumly, it was because I had geared myself for so long towards writing my novel that I had slipped out of the short story mindset.

Realising that the ’short story’ was going to grow into a rather ‘obese story’ by its end, and not being entirely 100% happy with some points, I regretfully consigned the file to my “Unfinished & Edits” folder where it still remains. With a deep breath, I picked up my notepad and pen and started over from scratch. From Wednesday until late Friday I wrote furiously until finally, with seconds to go before the kick-off between Germany v Costa Rica, I held up my pad in glory. I had finished!

Over the following week, up until early Saturday morning (yesterday), I spent my time typing in haste. Making a few changes here and there I eventually reached the end and sat back with pride as I gazed upon the finished article. Needless to say, all of this had been done with the seemingly countless distractions of work and other commitments seeking to pull me away from my task, but seeing it there before me had made all of the late nights (early mornings?) worthwhile.

Writing this short story has, of course, meant that I have had to take a break away from writing my novel, “Throne of Ice”. That has put me some two weeks behind an already tight schedule and has served to temper my original euphoria. Still, this short story has been the first completed work that I have done since 2003 (which was a short story that I wrote for my girlfriend’s birthday and was entitled, “A Short Tail”) and therefore well-worth the delay it has caused in my other work. It is also the first in just over ten years that I have written concerning the setting I am dealing with presently in my novel-in-progress.

The story is entitled, “The Chalice”, and is set during a period of history in my world that would come to be known as ‘The Great War’. This is the war that I often refer to in my novel (set some years afterwards) which brought about a great many changes to the world and its people, changes that were both good and bad. This story takes place towards the end of that war and is written in spirit that has enveloped our own world during this month. It is, I feel, a slight move away from the level of seriousness that I normally add to my stories.

All-in-all, the ’short’ story ended up at a little over 6400 words in length (which is much less than what the other version would have finished at!) and covers 24 A4-pages. I could have reduced this by removing certain segments and limiting the dialogue but I was entirely happy with what I had written and decided against it in the end. I also created three separate covers initially and my final choice can be seen below. It was made by photo-editing an old poster promoting the 1962 World Cup in Chile (Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the Final). I added some touches to it here and there and increased the shadow after removing the football from the picture entirely.

And so, without further ado, here it is!

1. Download the PDF file by clicking on the either the link or picture below.
2. Save ‘The Chalice.pdf’ to your hard drive.
3. Double-click the file to open. Enjoy!
4. If the file does not open then that probably means that you do not already have Adobe Reader. In order to read ‘The Chalice’ you will need to install Adobe Reader first (it’s free!).
5. I would appreciate any comments (good or bad) on the story. Please either make them here or send me an email (you can find my email address by clicking on the ‘tab’ at the top of this blog entitled ‘The Author’). Thanks.

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“The Chalice”

* I no longer utilise the eBook compiler mentioned below. The ebook format now is just a PDF file, which makes it easily accessible to all computers no matter what you run on it, whether it be OS X, Linux, or Windows. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, the eBook compiler that I use only works for PC’s running Microsoft Windows (3.1/95/98/ME/XP). There are ways of getting it to run on Linux (via Wine) but I have no idea with regards to Mac’s (sorry). The reason for using this eBook format is that I have an interest in protecting what I write (I don’t want to stumble upon my own work while browsing someone elses blog!) and this is the only secure way that I know. So, to those of you that are not running Windows, my apologies. Perhaps you can read it on a PC at a friends place, while at work, or maybe while at an Internet cafe.

I have checked the story for errors but having been pressed for time there may well be some hiding away that I overlooked. Some may even be glaringly obvious to you that I, having wrote it, missed entirely. Despite this possibility, I hope that you enjoy reading “The Chalice” and I would gladly welcome any constructive comments, be they good, bad, or just plain ugly. Again, please feel free to place your comments here, in response to this post, or send them to me via email. Finally, if you happen to be a literary agent or publisher (or know of one) and want to take a chance on me then please get in touch.

Come on England!