A Modern Life is a collection of thirteen short stories for time-pressed readers. A reflection on the challenges of living in the twenty-first century, A Modern Life covers a multitude of contemporary themes and styles and are categorised as “sweet” for the lighter stories, “salty” for the serious ones and “sweet and salty” for those with a mixture of humour and pathos. The collection opens with five humorous stories all featuring strong elements of slapstick comedy. The introductory story “Pork Chops and Promiscuity,” a tale of lesbian lust, sets the precedent for the remaining four comedic tales of office life, male striptease, amateur sleuthing and graveyard frolics. The following “salty” stories include tales of marriage, murder, suicide, child abduction, war, corruption and death. The collection ends with the "sweet and salty" story "Fantasia", set in the near future when Walt Disney awakes from cryogenic suspension to discover the world is not quite as he expected. A Modern Life is a diverse compilation of stories for readers who like to be thoroughly entertained with original comedy and thought-provoking contemporary drama. A versatile and original voice, this is Jane’s first collection of stories which was a precursor to her début comedy novel, The Changing Room. This edition also includes the opening chapter of The Changing Room.

“I would not change a single word” - Hilary Johnson Authors' Advisory Service on the short story A Modern Life.

“ ‘No Returns’ reads more like a prose poem, full of exquisite turns of phrase.This is a desperate woman’s life in miniature, full of sexually poignant poetry and glimpses of everyday strangeness. A worthy winner.” Ray Robinson, author of Forgetting Zoe and Electricity on the short story No Returns.

“ReadWave are enormously pleased to publish Jane Turley's chilling but poignant story, The Princess and the Thief, and we're even more delighted that we can bring this story to readers across the world through our Worldreader program.” Rob Tucker, CEO Readwave

From the sinister to the sentimental and the sublime to the slapstick, A Modern Life is a diverse compilation of stories for the reader who likes to be thoroughly entertained with original and thought-provoking fiction.

Word count; 31,000 including the opening chapter of The Changing Room

Jane Turley lives in the UK. She is a wife, mother and very bad cook. She has written for the BBC and for the literary ezine The View From Here. She also writes the blog The Witty Ways of a Wayward Wife which can be found at www.janeturley.net