Iain Kelly’s State of Denial: Santa finally comes to Bristol

Dismal old month, January.

The weather’s awful, Christmas a distant memory, the only signs it even happened being stray pine needles in the carpet and the need to slip into elasticated waistbands for the first quarter of the year.

However, I have found an answer to the winter gloom, something to lighten the long trudge to spring –

I have become my own Santa.

As I apparently wasn’t good enough to deserve Iain Kelly’s latest book – State of Denial – from the real Santa, I thought I’d cheat and order a copy for myself.

And there it is, above (apologies, Iain, for the terrible photograph, especially as your covers are so wonderful! Did you know he designs them himself?).

I haven’t delved in yet, but anyone who read the first book, A Justified State, will share with me a need to know just what happened to beleaguered detective Danny Samson, how he’s fared living under the controlling, sinister influence of the State, especially after his earlier shenanigans.

To read more about the trilogy, pop over to Iain’s blog here.

Or just skip straight to your territory’s Amazon and buy the first two State books, links here.

K. Rawson : Hitlist

 

 

Anyone who spends time exploring the wide open plains, narrow gorges, warm shallows and chilly depths of WordPress will be aware of what a wonderfully creative slew of people there are out there.

Every time you discover one of these people it’s as if you’ve stumbled across a nugget of gold, a precious stone you can hold in your palm. And because of the intimate nature of reading, you can feel that discovery is all you’re own, a wonderful secret few others have seen.

But there are some discoveries that should be shouted from the rooftops …

Those of you who take part in the writing prompt What pegman saw will have already discovered the talented writer and fellow Friday Fictioneer K. Rawson‘s stunning short fiction, but did you also know that she’s written a novel for young adults with a great premise and the most timely of subjects?

K herself describes the book as

‘a YA Novel about a teenage girl who writes a computer virus to get revenge on cyberbullies’.

Do take a read of the preview above.

 

Iain Kelly’s ‘Collected Sketches’ on Amazon

Image: Pixabay

 

It’s my pleasure to share the news that talented writer and Friday Fictioneer , Iain Kelly has self-published a collection of his short stories on Amazon. Available on Kindle and in good solid paperback, the collection has to be the perfect New Year’s present to yourself. So, if you’re wondering what to do with those Amazon vouchers or the tenner Aunty Mabel sent you, here’s the answer.

In Iain’s words …

Collected Sketches is a series of short stories and flash fiction exploring human nature and the world that we inhabit. Sometimes funny, sometimes scary, from the everyday to the imagined future, exploring locations across the globe, these stories reflect the globalised society we live in today, the recent history that has led us here and the future we may have already created.

And if you’re still in any doubt, here’s the opening to the first story.

American Blues

Having been named after the 32^nd and 26^th Presidents of the United States of America, Franklin Theodore McDairmid had not lived up to his father’s expectations. Only his father called him Franklin, his mother and grandparents always called him Frank, at school he was Frankie, at college Frankie T. or Frankie T. McD, around the neighbourhood he was known as simply F.T. McD. The reduction of his name as he progressed through life mirrored his father’s receding hopes for his only child.

It had gone badly before birth. His twin brother hadn’t survived in the womb because Frankie had monopolised their mother’s blood and food supply. Whenever Frankie was given into trouble as a child he was sure he was being held responsible for this fratricide. His mother passed away when Frankie was five years old from liver cirrhosis. His father raised him with strict morals and rules and little practical guidance. Occasionally when they tossed a baseball to each other in the park or went to the movies or ate ice cream at the beach, Frankie imagined they had a loving relationship. When his father met Doris and she became his step-mother, Frankie was left to find his own way into manhood …