The One With The Maggots ...

It may seem churlish to keep grumbling about the heat - not to mention perpetuating the image of the 'whingeing pom' - but even with things a tad cooler today the climate's still able to throw up a lovely surprise or two.

Take this morning, as I trudged blearily into the kitchen ... and felt something squish underfoot. Looking down it became apparent that a large portion of the tiled floor was actually moving. Come on, you've read this post's title, you can guess what's coming:

They might not have been as big as the Pertwee variety, but to witness so very, very many of them migrating from the bin to the other side of the room made them just as memorable.

We can only have emptied the bin a couple of days ago, but it seems the flies that abound in this weather have been extremely busy in the interim. Maybe the heat is making their eggs hatch faster, I don't know. But even with the legion slithering across the floor, the inside of the bin itself was still teeming, alive with squirmy little buggers. I barely had time to get rid of them them all before my wife and kids appeared to see what was going on.

I'm just counting myself lucky they weren't spiders ...

Better news from the Interweb - I found out last night that Just Us, my story for last year's Voices collection, made it onto HorrorScope's recommended reading list for 2008. I'm not entirely sure who of the people mentioned on the website actually compiled the list, but it's flattering to be mentioned, so thank you, whoever you are.

Now to settle back and wait for the day's big announcement. Exciting, huh?