“A Giant Problem” • by Judith Field

Fasolt the giant dropped his sack onto the kitchen table, sank into a chair, rubbed his lower belly and groaned.

‘Take your seven league boots off indoors, Bro,’ Fafner said. ‘That supper in the bag?’

Fasolt nodded and dragged out the head of a man with a straggly beard and a pen between the teeth. ‘Eating extra wood and metal might be good for my guts. I haven’t had a road through me since Wotan was a lad.’

Fafner prodded the head with a gnarled finger. ‘Dickens, isn’t it? Last week, Henry James. What’s next, E. L. James?’ He gagged and shook his head. ‘Too heavy. Too slow. Stick to nibbling niebelungen. As our old Mam always said: dwarves keep you regular, but writers block.’

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Judith Field lives in London, UK. She is the daughter of writers and learned how to agonise over fiction submissions at her parents’ knees. She’s a pharmacist working in emergency medicine, a medical writer, an editor, and an indexer. She mainly writes speculative fiction, a welcome antidote to the world in which she lives. Her work has appeared in the USA, UK, and Australia. When she’s not working or writing, she knits, sings, and swims, not always at the same time.

If you enjoyed this story, you might want to check out The Book of Judith: Sixteen Tales of Life, Wonder, and Magic.

 

Amazon reader reviews:

“Judith Field celebrates the extraordinary. It lives in every line of her stories alongside magic, friendly ghosts, and paranormal entities. Each tale also contains human beings who are warm, full of sentience, and often conflicting emotions. Allow yourself to be whisked away to ordinary suburbs where incredible things happen all the time.”

“Judith Field’s talent, or rather one of her talents, for she has many, is the ability to come up with an idea that’s almost laughably simple, then plonk that idea in the most prosaic of settings, and somehow end up with a tale so unique and so eldritch that it stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it.”

“A collection of tales of the fantastic that manage to be sweet, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny all at the same time.”

“These stories present a refreshing fusion of styles. Life, wonder, and magic sums it up—often the fantastic and magical meets the reality of everyday life in a way that I’d imagine fans of Pratchett and Gaiman might appreciate. There are also hints of magic realism and a depth of characterisation that makes the writing truly engaging and a pleasure to read. The fact that some characters make repeated appearances across the stories is very welcome because they are so well-drawn that they stay with you. This collection is by turns funny, absurd, and poignant, and never less than thoroughly entertaining. Highly recommended.”