It’s not too late to grab your free copy of Tales from the Crying Room – currently the # 2 best seller on Amazon’s World Literature Short Stories Top 100 Free list.
Free till the US time zones catch up with the rest of the world and Friday ends. Grab it quick.
Cheers.
In anticipation of Black Friday – Tales from the Crying room is free to download from Amazon today and tomorrow. Free every other day on Kindle Unlimited. Also available in paperback.
Three full short stories
Family Obligations – A female private investigator meets the family from hell. Chaos ensues when a demon tries to enforce his traditional contractual rights over his offspring.
But we’re not in Alabama, now, are we?
Mark’s Mistake – The devil came down to Mark’s house, she was looking for a soul to steal. Can Mark outsmart the devil? Many have tried. And failed. But Mark has special abilities.
Pssst… Mark… She gave them to you. Remember?
Oops.
Olaf’s Quest – A Viking warrior bites off more than he can chew when he underestimates three local girls in a winter wasteland.
One radio play
Fiddlesticks – Corporate politics, office relationships, lies, deceit, dognapping, and bodies buried in the backyard.
And 20 snippets of Flash
At weekly meetings, aspiring writers are often expected to write something at the drop of a hat. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes the exercise spawns a semi-decent idea, that can be tweaked and prodded into pretending it’s a real story.
These aren’t those.
These are the ones left bleeding on the floor of the operating theatre. They are not full stories. Just bits of scenes. Paragraphs. Flash fiction. Snippets.
Most writers leave these tucked away in private notebooks. That’s probably where they belong. But on the off-chance anyone wants to peek inside the mind of an aspiring writer to see how ideas develop – and often die – here’s your chance to read 20 ad hoc short shorts that might at least raise a smile.
Now available on Amazon in eBook and paperback format.
Previously published – digital format only – as five separate eBooks.
Check out Graham Downs’ monthly newsletter, which features – amongst other goodies – an article on yours truly.
Till next time.
Cheers.
It’s not too late to grab your free copy of Dancing in Valhalla – currently the # 1 best seller on Amazon UK’s Horror Comedy charts.
Also available from Amazon.com. Free till the end of today.
Cheers.
Down in the snug of Mike’s Tavern, the world was a much rosier place. Darker and dingier, certainly, but nevertheless rosier. With half a dozen pints inside me, and a couple lined up on the bar, I was ready to face the world once more.
“Who’s it going to be then, eh?”
Ian had wandered off with Scottish Jimmy after the first few rounds, probably to get his gear ready for the gig – although it hadn’t been too clear from the grunt and nod with which he’d departed – so I’d decided to see what could be accomplished on Mike’s pool tables. There were several challengers, and they weren’t all bad, but they were up against someone who wasn’t just playing for entertainment. This was how I kept body and soul together most days, playing pool for drinks, the odd bar snack, and even the occasional cash reward. Playing for money was tricky, though. Your average punter didn’t mind losing a beer. That’s what it was all about, having a couple of laughs, buying a round, trying again. But when money was on the line, it was a different story. Some guys took it personally.
Still, it was better than mugging old ladies at ATMs, or begging for change on street corners. And still safer than selling drugs.
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick, set in the clubs and bars of 1980s Johannesburg. Available on Amazon.
Or in paperback from Curiosity in Pretoria, and The Real Mackay in Blairgowrie.
One of my other books – Dancing in Valhalla – is free on Amazon, today and tomorrow. Go grab yourself a copy.
And I’ve just released Tales from the Crying Room on Amazon. Previously available only in a local paperback. Now free on Kindle Unlimited, and available worldwide in paperback.
Till next time.
Cheers.
Fresh from the printers. “Flambe, A Silk Tie Murder, And The Rooibos Baby“. Short stories from South African authors, most of them set in and around South Africa.
So far available only in paperback. eBook/Kindle version coming soon.
Contact me if you’d like a copy – burningrosesnovel@gmail.com
Or you can get them directly from Rae, who coordinated & edited the book – raewrite01@gmail.com
Follow the Sharp Pencils creative writing group, where these various authors hone their skills, at www.Facebook.com/sharppencilsjohannesburg
JOHN WEST
Jovial John
has won awards and even small amounts of money for his scribblings over the years. One of his stories was recently longlisted in the top 200 entries out of 5 000 submitted to the international Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
He now divides his time managing client finances, writing novels and short stories, and growing old disgracefully. John’s published work can be found at www.amazon.com/author/burning, and you can follow his weekly blogs at https://web.facebook.com/BurningRosesNovel/
PETER BARKER
Precise Peter
is a sort of retired accountant from the Travel Industry. He has had a passion for writing since he was a child. He has one published novel in the romance genre, and is working on others when not contributing to anthologies. He is married to Audrey and they have seven grandchildren. Peter’s published work can be found at mybook.to/AmzCupid
RAE NASH
Writer Rae
writer, dreamer, editor who writes whenever she finds a bit of paper and a pencil. Much of her writing has been educational text. Her Reflection will be ready for publication soon. She coordinates the Sharp Pencils Creative Writers. This book is one of its achievements.
BRUCE McKENZIE
Bachelor Bruce
a maths and science master, storyteller, Winner of SA Writers College Short Story Award, continues to enchant with his unique contrivances.
ANDISIWE HESHULA
Adventurous Andi
was born in Queenstown and went to school there. She took her life in her hands as she hopped on a train to start a life in Jozi, the City of Gold they call it, to find why they also call it the City that never sleeps. She has done so successfully, and works in corporate banking. Writing has been her passion since she was a little girl, and when she is not insanely working or having fun in the Jozi hotspots she journals her incredible experiences of the City.
ROB BRADFIELD
Right-away Rob
is a pensioner who wanted a good hobby for his retirement.
He loves the English Language and was once the editor for a small workplace publication. Impressed with the idea of writing, he wrote letters to Newspapers and submitted a regular column for Homeless News, although he is not homeless. He is a regular member of the Sharp Pencils and has gained much knowledge there.
ERICA PENFOLD
Effervescent Erica
researcher by trade, creative writer and poet by experience. Erica lives, works and breathes language in Johannesburg, South Africa. During union hours, she writes about public healthcare and access to medicine. Outside of her 9-5, she writes poetry, is working on her first novel and belongs to the Sharp Pencils Creative Writers. Her poetry has featured in New Contrast in print and PoetryPotion online. smarturl.it/poetrypotion
JULINDA SCHROEDER
Judicious Julinda
a career journalist and a novice writer, who is slowly finding her voice in narrating the story of her life and that of her family. After more than three decades of churning out ‘industrial-style’ editorial copy, she has now decided to try her hand at creative fiction writing. Although she grew up in the middle-class suburbs of Pietermaritzburg in what was then Natal, her roots lie in the desperate poverty that was in part the result of the Second Anglo-Boer War.
GRETCHEN HALEY
Gaddish Gretchen
wears many hats, often the red ones, and you can bet there’s always a story brimming. Her novels are diverse, like her taste in music. Her characters are spicy, like her food. She loves to entertain and she’s always watching.
Gretchen’s novel, Tubby, has been accepted for publication by Penguin Random House.
COLETTE AIKMAN
Crispy Colette
passionate greenie who has a great interest in all things natural and eco. A novice writer and avid reader of authors and genres. She belongs to the Sharp Pencils Creative Writers group and writes poetry and her version of Haikus, which for her evoke the experience and feel of a moment.
JASON WERBELOFF
Juggernaut Jason
is a bestselling sci-fi novelist with a PhD in philosophy. Likes chocolates, Labradors, and zombies (not necessarily in that order). He’s the author of the sci-fi thriller series, ‘Defragmenting Daniel’, two novels, Hedon’ and ‘The Solace Pill’, and the short story anthology, ‘Obsidian Worlds’. His books will make your brain hurt. And you’ll come back for more: author.to/Werbeloff
TOM CONSIDINE
Tardy Tom
Tom is a high flier. He writes plays about murderous Ducks in the Baskervilles, smuggling pork chops by camel, and the saga of husband Basil who murders his wife Rosemary. In his spare time, he hangs out in Dubai posing as an Indian looking for a deal. He has sold plays to unsuspecting Brits.
We locked the doors behind us and pocketed the key. Mick had ways of finding his way back inside. And if he couldn’t, well… we probably wouldn’t be there when he tried. On the way out, I picked up some mail from the other tenants’ boxes. Nothing interesting. Mostly bills, with a few heartfelt family letters mixed in for good measure. And there was a free sample of some new aftershave, but that ended up in the nearest bin along with the rest of the junk.
This part of Hillbrow had seen better days. Once it had been a trendy part of Johannesburg, with the arty crowd flocking to the high-rise buildings to create their own insulated communities. Now it was the centre of the city’s nightlife, with club-goers, students and wannabe rock-stars fighting for the pick of the area’s flatlands. In the mid-eighties, Hillbrow was the place to be. Kids from the suburbs would borrow a car, pile into the back seat and drive into the Brow for a Saturday night that would make their friends jealous for weeks. The place had nightclubs, strip clubs, hookers, pool halls, bars, gyms, amusement arcades… and the most colourful collection of street life in the city. Both by night and by day.
I’d met a guy begging for money at Highpoint one morning, and we’d started talking. Seems this guy had a house in Observatory, with a pool, and a new car. All of which he was funding through standing at the top of these stairs and harassing pedestrians going about their daily business. Who needed a steady job?
Certainly not me.
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick, set in the clubs and bars of 1980s Johannesburg. Available on Amazon.
Or in paperback from Curiosity in Pretoria, and The Real Mackay in Blairgowrie.
Till next time.
Cheers.
Image was one of the sleazier clubs in town, nestling in the heart of the downtown industrial area. It wasn’t the kind of place your mother warned you about, but only because she had no idea that such places actually existed outside of Dante’s third circle. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, shortly after dawn, the underground club would belch forth a stream of punks, skins and headbangers, who would blink wonderingly at the sunrise, shake their heads to clear the last of the alcohol from their brains, then stagger off to lay low until it was time to start all over again.
I had been there last night, but honestly couldn’t remember a thing after bumping into the two big lads on the roof. This might have been somehow related to the bottle of tequila they’d been passing around, although even that was hazy. Could have been vodka. Or petrol.
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available on Amazon. Also available in paperback.
And on Amazon.co.uk.
Or you can find all my books at Curiosity, the new retail shop open from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am till late, at the Railways Cafe in Pretoria.
And at The Real Mackay in Blairgowrie. They also have a few hundred old books from my library going for as little as R10 each. And several other self-published books by various South African authors. Go stock up for the holiday season.
Remember to keep an eye out for one of my stories in the upcoming “25 Gates of Hell” anthology. And in The Great Void Books anthology “Black Veins”.
And you’ll find another couple of stories in the soon-to-be-published South African anthology “Flambé, Silk Tie Murder, and the Rooibos Baby.”
Till next time.
Cheers.
Once the room had stopped spinning, I pushed myself to a sitting position and looked around. The couch against the door had left behind a trail of beer cans and pizza boxes, and what looked to be a pair of socks dipped in blue paint. The only other furniture in the room was a compact hi-fi, sitting next to a pile of records that had seen better days. A couple of blankets wrestled in a corner, and the remains of a beer bottle lay shattered against the wall not two feet from where I had been laying. A collection of barbells intimidated me from next to the double doors.
“What did I miss?”
A new figure had appeared in another doorway, clutching precariously at the doorframe. It seemed I was not alone in my confusion.
“Fucked if I know. Looks like Mick’s left us in charge.”
Ian staggered back out of the doorway, returning in a minute or so with a Black Label grasped lovingly in each hand. He tossed one in my direction as he opened the other, and I caught it gratefully, holding the soothing metal against my pounding temples for a moment before pulling the tab.
“There’s a couple of ambulances outside”, came Ian’s voice from the balcony on the other side of the double doors. “Who did he kill?”
Using the wall as leverage, I joined him on the balcony, gulping down a good mouthful of medicine on the way. There was an ugly black smudge on my left wrist, and what looked like some kind of purple mutant spider squashed on my right.
“Last thing I remember is meeting you two at the Toxic Sox gig in Image last night. After that, anything’s possible.”
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available on Amazon. Also available in paperback.
And on Amazon.co.uk.
Or you can find all my books at Curiosity, the new retail shop open from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am till late, at the Railways Cafe in Pretoria.
And at The Real Mackay in Blairgowrie. They also have a few hundred old books from my library going for as little as R10 each. And several other self-published books by various South African authors. Go stock up for the holiday season.
Catch me at the Writers 2000 writing event in Modderfontein from 9am on the 9th of November. And who knows where I’ll be after that? Certainly not me.
Remember to keep an eye out for one of my stories in the upcoming “25 Gates of Hell” anthology. And in The Great Void Books anthology “Black Veins”.
And you’ll find another couple of stories in the soon-to-be-published South African anthology “Flambé, Silk Tie Murder, and the Rooibos Baby.”
Till next time.
Cheers.
