New Works

Got two books ready for the publishers today, FROM JABBERWOCKY and HEARING VOICES, ten copies of one and twenty of the other. These kinds of numbers are pitiful, of course, but ten readers compared to none still feels kinda slinky, even if it does cost me not quite an arm and a leg but more like a shoulder blade and a collar bone instead.

It’s brill getting new books, even though, in all honestly, they are more like thick pamphlets really. They don’t have a spine, but I can cram up to twenty thousand words in there (half a short novel’s worth) while maintaining a size 16 font, all within a glossy colour cover of my invention. My very first, 18 months ago, was only size 12 text, which transferred from screen to page smaller than I would have liked.

A friend suggested I Ioad up some books into a suitcase and then hawk them on the street with signs saying something like THE BEST CUTTING-EDGE FICTION YOU HAVE NEVER READ. He also made the suggestion that I should dispense of my 50 Shades of Grey parody, 50% Rude (which incidentally isn’t a parody because it was penned before 50 Shades of Grey), outside cinema doors when the 50 Shades movie comes out. Is he fulla great stonkin’ ideas or what? This same guy also gave me an appreciable quote for the front of a novel, after reading the synopsis. It goes like this: “Has Quite Literally Splattered His Mind Onto The Page.” I love the word ‘splattered’ in that. That word really makes the sentence. I’d stick that beauty on any front cover of mine any day. Thanks Luke.

Yeah, FROM JABBERWOCKY was originally going to be called FROM FANTASIA, but I came across the jabberwocky word and loved it, hoping it would fit the bill when I looked up what it meant. I was hoping it was a place, an exotic island or summet, but it turned out to be a nonsense poem from Lewis Carrol, which just about fit the bill due to its relationship to Absurdia, which I enjoy writing. Hey, I’m an indie, I have full control over the titles of my works. Hell, I loved that word so much I didn’t really care much for definitions, I just simply wanted to use it. It does sound like a place somewhere though, wouldn’t you agree? A one way ticket to Jabberwocky.

HEARING VOICES, at 17,500 words, took only ten days to write. That’s some going for me, that is. I wrote a short called VOICES, VOICES back in 2010. The difference between then and now is that VOICES, VOICES were not real voices, they were only sub-vocal thoughts of varying content in the head of the main lead. Now, fast-forward four years, and HEARING VOICES, actually hearing them, both inside and outside the head, is not to be confused with substance abuse or illness. It’s a real...well I was gunna say phenomenon, but instead I say always look at the science of something, the science of things is where you find the answers.