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.

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State of Denial: Iain Kelly’s new novel for these ‘Interesting Times’

There’s an old Chinese curse that wishes the unlucky recipient to

Live in interesting times

Now, no one – be they Brexiter, Remainer, environmentalist, climate change denier (Donald Trump, I suspect, might be all of the above, depending on what time of night he’s tweeting and how much cheese he ate before he snuggled up in his jammies) – could say the early 21st century isn’t just that

Interesting.

We have an American President who spills his scrambled brains in public at any time of day or night, who slams a free press and pulls his country back from environmental reforms at a moment of global catastrophe.

We have a British Prime Minister who behaves like a despot, illegally closing parliament when it doesn’t agree with his policies, sacking long time supporters when they do the same, is determined to drag the country towards an economic abyss because his backers have gambled big on a no deal Brexit.

We have a sixteen year old girl with Aspergers talking more sense, being a better leader to a generation than a whole room full of squirming, suited, self-serving politicians …

Interesting times indeed.

Perhaps this is why Iain Kelly’s State novels resonate so deeply.

Set in a world post huge environmental collapse, in an undemocratic state that controls every aspect of peoples lives from what they eat to how they spend their time and what medication they can take.

And yet, even here, revolution smoulders.

State of Denial (the second of Iain’s State Trilogy) is out today.

It is election time in The State, the citizens prepare to vote. A journalist from the Capital City, Maxine Aubert, heads north to report on growing resistance to the powerful ruling Party. Ex-police detective Danny Samson returns to the City he once fled, leaving behind a new found peace in the wilderness. Together Max and Danny become entangled in a burgeoning opposition movement with links to Danny’s past. Soon they learn the ruling Party will do whatever it takes to remain in power, and one life is all it takes to spark a revolution.

A novel for our interesting times.

Here’s a link to Iain’s site.

And if you’d like to read a previous interview I had with Iain on the release of the first State novel – A Justified State – see here.

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 …