The Flying Mile

A novella

2016

Limited first edition: 100 numbered copies

Dad lives as a ghost in our house.

Only Mum and I can see him.

He looks at us as we address him, but does not speak.

He is there when Mum has guests and he is there when we eat, silently watching us across the table.

He does not age as we age, something else is happening to him: he is getting younger.

The Flying Mile is a standalone novella.

It takes its title from a remarkable stretch of road near Omokoroa, New Zealand. Known locally as The Flying Mile, the mile-long descent has long been associated with speed trials and record attempts. The road provides both an important setting within the novella and the image from which it draws its title.

Like all of my fiction, The Flying Mile was written using the streaming method. There was no outline or predetermined destination. Instead, the story unfolded as it was written, allowing its own structure, characters and relationships to emerge. Looking back across my writing, recurring themes and images become apparent—not because they were consciously pursued, but because they repeatedly surfaced through the creative process itself.

Written in 2016, The Flying Mile was released in a limited first edition of one hundred numbered copies at the launch of the juncture exhibition in Katoomba on 19 June 2026.