This story is from my collection, Open Waters, from the EXAGGERATEDpress. The story started with a simple ‘What If?’ idea – What if the annual invasion of holiday-makers to coastal resorts was exactly that – an invasion. I didn’t want to explain how a world like this could come into being politically or economically, I didn’t have any clear ideas and also didn’t think it would make much of a story. I was much more interested in trying to write about misconceptions, different cultures failing to understand each other, respect and lack of it, and radicalisation. I also wanted to make the location unspecified. There’s no clear location because this could happen anywhere. I was truly delighted when this won third place on the 2011 Aeon Award, run by Albedo One magazine.
