A man walks into a bar with an Erection Taser™ his girlfriend has made him wear. A grieving mother clings to the memory of her son’s imaginary friend. A Foley artist recreates the soundtrack of his splintered heart. THE BULLY IN MY PILLOW is a collection of flash fiction (and one short story) by Kik Lodge with drawings by Jérôme Fage. It explores fractured humans through stories about GRIEF, LONGING and LONELINESS. It’s bleak, occasionally absurd, with gallows humour never far away.
Paperback
114 pages
ISBN: 979-8-90214-224-9
To be published on August 11, 2026
About Author Kik Lodge and Illustrator Jérôme Fage
Kik Lodge writes short fiction from St Symphorien d’Ozon, a small village in the Rhône valley. Her stories have been included in Best Microfiction 2024 and 2026, Wigleaf top 50 and she has a habit of coming third in competitions. She hosts open mics for European Writers Salon, connecting writers in Europe and beyond through workshops and events.
Jérôme Fage is a cultural mediator in an archaeological museum by day, and at night he draws. He studied Art History and Archaeology and has a thing for what's hidden or forgotten.
Praise for The Bully in My Pillow
“Surreal, sexy and unsettling, the stories in The Bully in My Pillow are often so funny that — like one of its many memorable characters — you might end up urinating on the carpet with laughter. Brilliantly illustrated throughout by Jérôme Fage, in a style reminiscent of the drawings of Edward Gorey, this is a hugely satisfying collection which showcases Kikworld™ in all its demented finery (and very fine it is too.)” - Tim Craig, author of NOW YOU SEE HIM
"To enter the world of The Bully In My Pillow, Kik Lodge's second collection, is to enter a world of desperately funny, offbeat, and often emotionally isolated characters—a woman with a penchant for BDSM having a heart-to-heart with Maria Von Trapp in the waiting room at the gynaecologist's office, a group of judgemental dead people attending a funeral, a husband who detests the way his wife eats toast—tales that lure you in with her tragicomic vision, and demonstrate, through various exaggerated realities, just how vulnerable we humans are at the core. Along with delightful drawings by Jérôme Fage, Lodge lures us with hilarious situations with brevity and wit that few other short form writers can match." - Meg Pokrass, Author of First Law of Holes: New and Selected
“Haunting, deeply satisfying, and decidedly, deliciously off-centre, this is a collection which could only have been written by an astute observer of the human condition. As the protagonist in On the Off-Beat says, ‘It’s about holding the weak beat, not keeping to the common pulse.’” - Sharon Black, author of Things That Fruit in Darkness