This page details my published works, all of which are available on Amazon Kindle. To access them, or to contact me via one of my social media platforms, please use this link. You can also use the contact form on the sidebar to get in touch.
IN THE HOLE & OTHER TAWDRY TALES
My first concerted foray into short stories has resulted in this tasty little collection of oddities. Eight in number, each tale takes the commonplace and twists or darkens it.
Putting together this collection has been a fascinating venture, being that I'm primarily a poet. At time of writing this post, I haven't had any customer feedback on the stories, so I'm biting my nails a little, wondering whether they've hit the mark.
But I'm going to keep on writing them anyway, with the aim of putting out three ebooks and compiling them into a paperback of 24 stories. I like them, and this has to be my main focus, despite wanting to entertain the reader. So, watch this space...
A CAT'S NAME IS A DOOR
I spend a fair bit of my professional life mentoring children in fiction and non-fiction reading, and one of the real stumbling blocks is poetry. Children are either not accustomed to working (or playing) with it or have been put off by the education system.
This book is my attempt to put the fun back into writing (and to some extent reading) poetry. Written entirely in verse, it teaches the basics of poetry in a simple, accessible way.
I had such a great time writing this and have had excellent feedback so far. Perhaps later in 2024 I will write a second children's book, with a focus on figurative language (another area that the education system can sometimes make a hash of).
MUTTON DRESSED AS POETRY
My sole effort of 2023 (which really has been quite a year), this collection represents a gradual turning back towards more optimistic fare after the piss and vinegar of the previous two. This isn't to say that they aren't solid collections with much to recommend them but that I feel my voice (and situation) was becoming a little too sour and samey.
So, expect to find more levity here, a greater focus on what pleases rather than what pains. Alas, while I did previously state that I wanted to start putting together collections with a unifying theme, this has not happened. Mutton Dressed as Poetry is something of a ragbag, and I'm happy enough with that. I can only hope that you are, too.
ISTANGRADE
This is my final book of 2022, a collection I put together while living in Istanbul then Belgrade. I initially planned to write a whole year's worth of poems, with the book divided into months, but by early October, I felt that I had already said what I wanted to say.
I won't be putting out another collection like this - that is, one without a unifying theme - for the foreseeable future. As such, I feel a strange sense of closure and foreboding, a stepping away from my usual mode of working.
I suppose only time will tell if this is a good decision. In the meantime, I leave you to enjoy quite an eclectic range of poems. I have done what I can with them, and I hope you have as much pleasure reading them as I did writing them.
NO MAN'S LAND
For all its nut jobs, narcissists, and nincompoops, Instagram can be a decent platform for networking. There's no shortage of talent on display, and I've been fortunate enough to meet a number of truly excellent people there. To wit, when I got the idea of putting together an anthology of men's poetry, I had just the right chaps at hand to help make it happen.The result, No Man's Land, is a really solid collection of poems addressing some aspect or other of manhood with varying degrees of humour, sobriety, madness, or what have you. It is, to cut a long story short, a splendid verbal collage of thought and feeling.
So, all I've left to add is a heartfelt thank you to all of the contributors. You can treat yourself to more of their work by clicking on their names: Dave Doran, J. K. Griffin, Scott A. Hamilton, Richard Kelly, Robert Riichi, Ryan Daniel Warner.
THE PROMISE
This is based on a very poor short story I wrote some fifteen years ago. Just goes to show that there really is such a thing as right place/idea, wrong time.
As well as being a yarn about a samurai and his wife living in a small mountainside village, and about the trials they face when he is called to war, it's also a meditation on love and duty.
I was going to have this one illustrated, but Ria and I just couldn't get a good enough bead on how the illustrations should look. Definitely a case, in the end, of putting the story first.
This poem was a real challenge, not just in keeping to the period as best I could and trying to look at things from the perspective of both characters but in working within the syllable constraints of the 'tanka' form.
FORTY FOUR
My first book of 2022, this collection marks the second time I've worked with illustrator Ria San Jose. At its inception, I had imagined a series of poems describing life in Istanbul, but that isn't quite what happened.
Among other things, I take a closer look at pop spirituality, relationships, and the vagaries of the writing process. The illustrations are top notch for this one, far more detailed and colourful than the aesthetic we chose for The House. Likewise, there's a lot more play involved in the poems, with a more diverse range of voice and tone.
THE HOUSE
My final book of 2021 is a narrative poem that I wrote after leaving Indonesia. While it is in many ways autobiographical, I did take liberties to ramp up the misery and really make the characters suffer.Despite it being an emotional roller coaster, raising as it did some spectres from the past, I enjoyed writing The House. This was due in large part to my collaboration with Ria San Jose, a former colleague who was kind enough (and patient enough) to illustrate the story. This was our first time working together but definitely not our last.
MONDAY TO SUNDAY
The poems in this collection, my first in over a decade, were written towards the end of my two-year stay in Indonesia on a teaching contract. You'll find all sorts here, from lunatic drivers and roadside sellers to whatever it was that haunted our back room.
Writing again after such a hiatus was quite an experience, and much of what came out is akin to rusty water from a long-disused tap. That said, I'm pleased with the outcome, if for no other reason than it renewed my commitment to writing poetry again.
ZMJOURNAL
Although this one was published after Monday to Sunday, it was written some time beforehand. In many ways an extended essay, it comprises material from a now defunct blog, detailing a period of seeking that I went through during 2020.
Initially, I was reticent to include this title here, since it isn't poetry and contains certain ideas that I've moved beyond. However, it also contains a good deal of material that has influenced my writing, and as much as possible, I prefer to avoid whitewashing my past. So there we have it.
