Irvine Welsh’s story is about a tiger on the loose in Murrayfield, with confusion among staff at the zoo. So, as I said, not an authentic escape, but a fictional one appropriately researched!

Love her work. So gloriously fucked up.

First snow alongside the Tweed.

"Daybook" by @nateknapp.bsky.social. Incantatory. More here: www.thisissplice.co.uk/fiction/dayb...

@addisonzeller.bsky.social is another of this year's return contributors. 'Barb City Manor' is a longer take on the form he debuted with, in three flash pieces, last year: a story that announces a direction and moves forward... but ends up off the map: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...

Time for a tour de force: Sam Glover's 'On my heels'. This is the second time I've published Sam at 3:AM, so I'm doubly assured that he's one of the best -- strangest, boldest -- writers of short fiction in the UK today: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-magazi...

The art of the insidious is, to some extent, the art of the particularisation with an eye for incongruities: that's what I took from Skyler Melnick's 'The Giant Orphan Girl': danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-magazi...

I love excess in fiction. In short fiction, though, the constraints of the form make excess hard to achieve -- and that's even more true for flash fiction. But David Sheskin has found a way to give flash a maximal quality, ludicrously and exponentially: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-magazi...

Stories about grief are a dime a dozen and rarely aim for much more than the writer's catharsis. 'Instructions for Shooting' by @jpseabright.bsky.social is one of the rarities that finds a different shape for the story of grief: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...

A type of fiction I've got a soft spot for is the sweet/silly scenario floating above a chasm of despair. That's Christopher Farrington's 'It's All About Love': danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...

Dark and disturbing, but with the disturbance as an undercurrent -- a susurrus, not a thunderclap -- is 'Les Story' by Charles Mines. I liked that I couldn't and still can't find the "why" of this fiction; I can only feel it: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...

'Furniture' by Emilia Ong is basically my highlight of the year, a great privilege to publish at 3:AM. And I was thrilled, but not surprised, when Emilia popped up on the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize shortlist in summer -- she's the real deal: danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...

I'd usually leave this until year's end, but now seems like a good time for it. So here's a look back at short fiction at 3:AM in 2024: one shout-out per day until they're done, with notes on why I went for each piece. First up, J. Billings' 'Automatism': danieldaviswood.substack.com/p/3am-fictio...