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Welcome to Dashipedia. This resource is intended to throw some light on the creative process behind Jonathan Pinnock's short story collections Dot Dash and Dip Flash. In many ways, this is nothing more than a vain (in more than one sense) attempt to burnish the reputation of the author as a writer of short fiction. However, it is also possible that some may find it interesting and, indeed, instructive.

Also, Wikis can be fun.

The inspiration behind each of the stories in the books may be found here (insofar as the author can remember it), along with any unusual trivia and/or amusing anecdotes.

Dot Dash

There are a total of 58 stories in the book - 29 dots (the very short ones) and 29 dashes (the not-so-short ones). This is how they appear in the table of contents:

• Not So Much a Rough Guide
• rZr and Napoleon
• The Drought
• Convalescence
• Surveillance
• Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions
• Steaming
• The Amazing Arnolfini and His Wife
• Pulse
• Breathe In, Breathe Out
• Fair Trade
• Nature’s Banquet
• Internal Affairs
• Return to Cairo
• Think Tank
• The Problem With Pork
• After the Rapture
• Natural Selection
• Less Than Deadly
• Possible Side Effects
• Misunderstandings
• Mr Nathwani’s Haiku
• The Experiment
• Anniversary Feast
• Perfect Moment
• How I Became a New Man and What Good It Did Me
• Love Story, Day One
• The Guitarist’s Inheritance
• Love Story, Week One
• So What Are You Up To These Days?
• Love Story, Month One
• Fishermen’s Tales
• Love Story, Year One
• Hidden Shallows
• Opposites
• Advice re Elephants
• Big Teeth
• The Birdman of Farringdon Road
• Making Conversation
• Piss and Patchouli
• “I Love You”
• A Plague of Yellow Plastic Ducks
• Frogs
• Mirror, Mirror
• Inbox
• The Magnolia Bedroom
• Tribute Act
• The Last Words of Emanuel Prettyjohn
• Bad Grammar
• Farewell Symphony
• Under the Statue
• At Nana’s
• Proper Job
• After Michelangelo
• Sidelong
• Canine Mathematics
• Upwardly Mobile
• Somewhat Less Than Thirty Pieces

Dip Flash

There are a total of 39 stories in the book. This is how they appear in the table of contents:

• The Picture of Mrs Tandoğan
• The Meaning of the Rabbit
• Phosphorescence
• Phocoena phocoena
• Oddly Enough, It Wasn’t About Larry Walters At All
• Sleeping With The Fishes
• Dinner With Sylvia
• I Think We’re a Clone Now
• The Alternative Electrician
• Role-Play
• Too Old for Suzuki
• Limbo
• Adagio Assai
• The Sculptor’s Mistress
• Ariadne and Her Lover
• The Language of Angels
• Ventriloquism for Dummies
• Room 31
• Rare Meat
• Camembert
• Teamwork
• Pioneer
• A Whole Bloody Century
• Special Relativity
• Hay. Pee. Ah. Wrist.
• GAR
• The Unsleepers
• 99942 Apophis
• The Long Road From Ilam
• Graffiti
• ’Ello, ’Ello, What’s All This Ear, Then?
• The Canonisation of St Geoff
• Financial Engineering or Whatever Shall We Do With Grandma?
• Wood
• Dagenham Rules, Henderson's Variation
• Embarrassing Dad
• Oh, How She Changed!
• Hairdressing
• Around the Block