I am delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of my latest collection of short stories, Dead-heading Roses in the Museum Garden and Other Stories, in mid-March 2026.
Some say there is but a thin dividing line between tragedy and comedy, victory and defeat. Many of the protagonists in Dead-heading Roses in the Museum Garden and Other Storiesfind themselves treading just such a line — and often falling on the less desirable side of it.
Consider the bride abandoned at the altar, the young woman being told ‘no’ in the Social Security office, the man whose declaration of love is rebuffed.
Occasionally tragedy strikes in a very real and physical sense — yet balanced against the negative are moments of hope, redemption, opportunity.
Whether mundane and humdrum or challenging and spiritual, in Dead-heading Roses in the Museum Garden and Other Stories we are given insights into such lives and such outcomes — and thus surely a private lens through which to view our own lived experience.
Ian Gouge - Writer 