Wanna Review White Mexicans?

THE LIST

White Mexicans

Death RRP $19.99

The Greatest Cock That Ever Lived!

Nazi Doctor

A Short Story for Creationists

The Trouble with Jimmy

Sometimes There's Just Nothing on Television

Advice From a Dog

Being Marcus Toberman

Like New

Ultra-Belfast

Fuck-a-versary

My Dog, Bosco

Heroes of Hollywood Boulevard

Daddy

three-b

Us Depressives Know the Truth, You Should Too

Boy with Horn

The Angel of I-580

That Old Black Bastard

Talking to Myself

Alan Noble

And This Other Time in Show Low

Tea for Three

Joey Schaff (aka Genes and Seafood)

The Front Page

They Were Different Times Back Then

Free Bone! [bohn]

This weekend Bone Idol [bohn ahyd-l] is free on Amazon Kindle.  Grab a copy while you can or face the weighty price of $0.99 in the future!  You have been warned.

Synopsis [sɪˈnɒpsɪs]

The sophomore follow-up to Lost Angeles is the semi-biographical tale of author David Louden's alter-ego Doug Morgan as he struggles to connect with his father Jack, his mother Ruth and the working class ideology of "a real job". 

From his early adventure filled days in Poleglass through to the alcohol induced haze of his early twenties Doug's life (much like the city) is one at conflict with itself. Bone Idol [bohn ahyd-l] is filled with humour, sex, guilt and the shameful dream of a boy wanting to create more than a family of haunted heirs.

Short Stories That All Definitely Happened

Though 2014 has passed by without so much as a sniff of any new work it has been a busy year...honest! Since April I've been working on a Noir-Comedy set in Belfast, for which I received an Independent Writer Award from the Arts Council (via NI Screen).  This has gone a long way to help explain what appears, at least on the surface, to be a year of inactivity.

This forthcoming year will hopefully see the realization of months, upon months (upon months) of drafting, redrafting, scrapping, rewriting and hair pulling, as Henry Roscoe hopefully finds a home and I, a regular writing gig.  That being said, in the midst of all the Noir-based antics of Fast City there has been just enough downtime to scrape together a few short stories; just enough to dare to call them a collection and to give that collection a name; Short Stories That All Definitely Happened.

If you're in any way a regular visitor or a frequent Twitter-er you've probably read at least one.  Short Stories will be unleashed in 2015 (date TBC) through Venice Books, CA.  A sample of stories can be founds via the links below, though some will change between now and the finished piece.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Death RRP $19.99

The Greatest Cock That Ever Lived

Nazi Doctor

A Short Story for Creationists

Advice From a Dog

Being Marcus Toberman

“Original, hilarious and very clever.”

-Hugh Cron 

“Really funny.”

-Nik Everleigh

“Not for the faint hearted […] a well constructed, vivde piece of writing.”

-Diane Dickson

“It will divide opinion […] very powerful.”

-Nik Everleigh

“Powerful and thought provoking.”

-Hugh Cron

“Some great lines.”

-Nik Everleigh

“A whiff of Bukowski’s attitude and to the point style.  Snappy and earthy.”

-Adam West

“A witty, self deprecating humour […] the final sentence did make me grin and wince at the same time.”

-Diane Dickson

“Well written and flowed humorously […] masterful design.”

-Willie Douglas

“A rare voice.”

-Anthony Wobbe

“Another entertaining piece of writing.”

-Hugh Cron

“An entertaining read.”

-Kate Smart

“A lot of style to it and dark humour in abundance […] tackles every story subject with ferocity and without fear.”

-Nik Everleigh

Ti Amo Bella Roma

Two incredibly powerful novellas from the most important American writer of his generation. I love John Fante, I love his prose and the guilt of Catholicism he laces throughout his work. Greater appreciation of WEST OF ROME can be found the more you encounter the man's work. Truly magnificent.

Memories of Bunker Hill

TODAY IS the thirtieth anniversary of the death of John Fante, the single most important American writer of the twentieth century.  I'm thirty-two this year so all contact with the man's literature is posthumous and removed but it still has had the greatest effect on me as a person.  When you read Fante you learn to dream, to love, to hate, to cry, to live, to fear, to hope, and to wish.  Emotionally I'm at John Fante Square today sharing a cigarette with Bandini and reminiscing until the dust settles.

Brilliant Bandini

The early days of Arturo Bandini and family as they battle poverty, religion, matrimonial problems and the unforgiving Colorado winter. Wait Until Spring, Bandini is a power, moving, lyrical example of how and what literature can be when it's handled by someone with all the right tools. Incredible...the movie isn't a damn patch on these 210 pages.

Bad Year But A Crackin' Book!

LIKE BROTHERHOOD of the Grape Fante deals with desire, aspiration and the working class trap of the Molise family.  In this template for Brotherhood he sketches a complicated teen who's stuck in his economic restraints and battling against the restrictions to his goals.  Never has a book been so bitterly sweet in it's successes.

Grape Expectations

Fante's Brotherhood of the Grape is billed as his most mature work...because it is.  It's a powerful piece of literature about a family and how there's always another chance to make a connection.  What it creates in emotion and maturity it somewhat loses in the passion you'd get from a character like Arturo Bandini but you can see how every word is beautiful, carefully hand picked and perfect.  There are echoes of 1933 Was A Bad Year and you can see the chapters that influenced Bukowski so greatly.  The man was something truly special, the most important American writer since Henry James?

Finally Fante

The Road to Los Angeles was a long one for this novel's release.  Fante held it back for a reason, it's far from his best work, it's far from the calibre you'd expect from the man but what it is is exciting.  In it's pages you can see the origins and blueprints for so many of his great pieces that are yet to come and for that it's worth cherishing forever.

Fante-tastic!

There's nothing to say here.  Fante is one of the most amazing writers who has ever graced the page and Ask the Dust is a book that will open a door in your mind you never even knew was there.  It's made even better when you read The Road to Los Angeles and you can see his working out, his blueprint for Bandini.

Fante, Fuel & Fun

I GOT MY copy of John Fante's The Road to Los Angeles this week. It's been three weeks coming so I've been really looking forward to it. Ignore the demonic glare of the pug, you get used to her after a while.

I'm currently writing so I'm going to put off reading Fante until I'm done. I love his work and the work of the writers he has influenced, I'd love nothing more than for people to think of his work when they're thumbing through mine but I know myself well enough to know how impressionable my writing can be especially with such a powerful influence.

The missus and I had our first proper night out in a while. Money is tight, she tells me we're in fuel poverty. I hadn't heard that before, didn't realise it was something else we would have to deal with. We're a little more fuel poor today as we drank most of what little cash we had left. At least we had fun; I am assuming we had fun as I don't remember most of it - which is usually a good sign.  It was a friends birthday, his 30th.  He had a barbecue (in the middle of Sep-fuckin-tember) and a casual BYOB (bring your own beef), he's probably regressing.  We all are really.

I'm nervous about letting people read my stuff. It's a working class condition that us North Belfast boys suffer from, "none of that artsy fartsy shite, get yourself a proper job". I've had proper jobs, hated most of them, bored by all of them so I figure I better get used to letting people read my artsy fartsy shite.

When I've worked myself up to it I'm going to post a chapter from Lost Angeles here...probably an early one, maybe chapter one. Hopefully not too many people have issues with it...and if they do well opinions and assholes and all that. Will wade through for the positives. I've had two cracking reviews of it to date (worth pointing out only two people have been allowed to read it). Can't really remember what I was reading at the time of writing it, I wonder what shines through.