Stratford High School teacher publishes book of short stories

Local author, and High School English teacher, Dan Wood, has published an eclectic mix of short stories. Photo / Ilona Hanne

Do as I say, and as I do.

When Stratford High School English teacher Dan Woodd was asked by a student why he wasn’t also doing the writing task the class had been set, he realised he didn’t have a good answer.

“It was a fair question really, why wasn’t I? So I worked on my own creative writing in that lesson.”

The resultant short piece of writing, aptly named “Lesson,” features in Dan’s newly published collection of short stories “Patches and Traveldust”.

“I’ve always enjoyed writing, and have been gathering quite a collection over the years of stories I’ve written, so it was time to put them together in a book.”

Lesson is a mere half-page long, while other pieces in the collection span over 20 pages, and the subjects and characters vary greatly.

“I don’t have one particular style or thing I like writing about, I often start with an idea or sense of something then expand on it.”

Dan’s genre-crossing collection of short stories is available as an e-book or print version and will be available from PaperPlus Stratford soon, he says.

Review of Patches and Traveldust by Dan Woodd. Reviewed by Ilona Hanne

The mix of stories contained in the book are perfect for dipping into over the summer months, with the individual story length meaning the book can be picked up and put down at leisure, never asking more of its reader than a few minutes of attention.

One of the stories, ”The Taranaki Gate” describes itself as being a pandemic parable, and it’s impossible to miss the references to the Covid-19 pandemic it contains. Like many of the stories in this collection, The Taranaki Gate leaves the reader hanging slightly, in a good way. Loose ends aren’t all tidied up and put away in these stories but rather left as they are for the reader to think over and draw their own conclusions.

Other stories, however, have a clear finish, often to the surprise of the reader, with the ending of “Passage” coming as such a surprise, the whole story needs re-reading in a fresh light. This clever twist of the pen, keeping the reader guessing or even deliberately sending the reader in the wrong direction, makes this book more than just the average collection of short stories.

At times humorous - a clipboard-wielding man becomes an unlikely, but likeable hero when faced with the threat of an apocalypse in The On-Form Saviour, and at other times deeper, Dan takes his readers through an eclectic collection of times and places, characters, and scenarios.

The stories themselves might be short, but they will stay with the reader for a long time.

Patches and Traveldust is an enjoyable read that deserves a place on bookshelves or under the tree this festive season.