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A collection of twelve stories, downloadable in print or as mp3 recordings, by Tony Birch, Matt Blackwood, Barry Dickins and Cate Kennedy. The stories in this collection are based on the following idea:
Imagine standing in a laneway.
A laneway that you've never explored or one that you've walked down hundreds of times before, and from your mobile phone, an author reads you a unique story set in the very place that you're standing.
The stories in the collection can be located on the map at http://www.mystoryworld.com.au/map.php
Contents
* Contents derived from the 2012 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Stan, a plumber close to retirement, has been called to fix a broken pipe that has leaked, causing a flood in a basement. The waiter who shows him the leak reminds him of his son. As Stan fixes the pipe, he thinks about his family, who are lost to him now.
Steven is writing a report for his boss but is distracted by thoughts of his former girlfriend, Anna. Anna has gone to Europe to think things over. Steven does not want to admit to his family that she has gone, so he pretends she is ill and cannot make it to Christmas celebrations. He imagines fleeing his job but does not follow through.
Betsy is a street artist who draws people for money. She is sketching a homeless man when a paying client comes up. Betsy gives the client what she wants, rather than a truthful portrait.
The narrator is a homeless man, a former schoolteacher, down on his luck. He generally sleeps in a shelter in West Melbourne. One day, rushing to get to the shelter on time, he falls and sprains his ankle. As he is limping towards the shelter, some drunken men come down the laneway, so he hides to prevent himself from attack. When he wakes in the morning, he finds a young homeless girl sleeping nearby. They begin to talk.
Dominic gets a job as a porter in a hotel. The hotel is in Equitable Lane, where his Uncle Max used to run a boot-making business. One night, when Dominic was a child, he had spied his uncle Max with a beautiful woman. Years later, the same woman walks past Dominic as he stands outside the hotel.
The narrator, who works in a cafe, tells the story of Alice, who seemed to have the perfect relationship with her boyfriend Martin. The narrator's friend Annie, the maitre d', is more sceptical, claiming that perfect relationships don't exist, and that either Alice or Martin will eventually cheat. When Alice seems sad, and Martin subsequently appears with a different woman, Annie's predictions are confirmed.
The narrator, a woman, reflects on the destruction of buildings in Whitehart Lane, a place where she went to find oblivion in opium after the stillbirth of her son.
The narrator tells the history of the site of St. Francis’ Church, from the time when the forest was first logged, to the present day when flooding occurs because the trees have gone.
As a boy aged twelve, the narrator ventures into the Adams Gallery, where he sees Australian landscape paintings for the first time. He discusses art with the manager of the gallery. When he gets home, his parents speak of mundane things, but the boy looks up at the sky.
