Catch of the Day

By Simon Haynes

Ken and Steve reluctantly give up their lawnmowing duties for a weekend of fishing, booze and male bonding. Unfortunately the fish aren't biting, supplies are running low and worst of all ... the beer just ran out.

Then, without warning, an alien colony ship arrives in orbit, and that's when Ken's problems REALLY start.

A 4000 word short story by the author of the Hal Spacejock series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon Haynes
• Release date: Nov 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465709271

Simon Haynes

Simon Haynes lives in Western Australia, where he divides his time between herding deadly spiders, dodging drop bears, and making up wildly inaccurate sentences like this one.By day he's an author. By night he's also an author.He loves wry, dry humour, and his hobbies include daringly inserting the letter U into words where -- in some parts of the world at least -- this simply isn't the done thing.As for his genre-spanning novels, they include epic fantasy (with robots), scifi comedy (also with robots), middle grade humour (featuring robots AND the wanton use of the letter U), as well as a series of historical mystery novels set in 1870's London. (No, of course there aren't robots in those. He's not completely out of his mind.)When he's not writing Simon is usually renovating his house, sim-racing online, using twitter (@spacejock), gardening, tweaking his book covers, pondering the meaning of the universe and reading, and if you think it's easy doing all that at the same time you should see what he can do with a mug of coffee, a banana and a large bag of salt.When he's not making outlandish claims he likes to count how many novels he's written, and how many genres he's written them in. (Lots and too many.)Finally, if you want to hear Simon reading one of his award-winning stories, you'll find an enticement to join his newsletter here: spacejock.com.au/ML.html

Book preview

Catch of the Day

A Short Story

Ken reluctantly gives up his lawn-mowing duties for a weekend of fishing, boozing and male bonding with his best mate Steve. Unfortunately, the fish aren't biting, supplies are running low, and worst of all … the beer just ran out.

Just when things appear to be at their lowest ebb, an alien colony ship arrives in orbit, and that's when Ken's problems REALLY start.

© Simon Haynes 2011

All Rights Reserved

Bowman Press

Bowman Press

Stock images © depositphotos.com

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Catch of the Day

Ken Green leant on the weathered rail and stared out to sea. The sky was deep blue, the horizon tinged with red and orange where the sun's last rays duelled with encroaching darkness. In the distance, a strip of heavy cloud hovered on the skyline.

Ken raised his can of beer and drained it with a gurgle. He burped and scrunched the can, then tossed it into the nearby bushes. The decking creaked as he crossed the verandah to the screen door, which groaned as he forced it open. Inside, the hallway was a confusion of fishing gear: rods, nets, poles and oars propped against the walls and strewn on the floor. The screen door banged, and Ken's