Books Under Development
After more than 30 years of writing for newspapers, magazines, academic journals and blogs, I have been concentrating on book-length fiction for the past few years. As part of a trilogy, the three novels are now complete, and are getting polished for marketing. A book of short stories related to the trilogy is also complete, creating—in effect—a four-book trilogy. An unrelated fourth novel, and a foreign-language translation, are also under development. The novels of the Gender Wars Trilogy probe the eternal struggle of women and men to understand and control each other. All three books involve travel adventures, exotic foreign settings and diverse characters drawn from across the globe. I call my approach: New Globalism. It is Worldwide Adventure Fiction for urban readers who are trapped in office cubicles. I will post updates as I learn more about the publishing timetable.
Because there are hundreds of variations in spelling between British, American, Canadian and other English dialects, the novels will be first presented in London RP English. (American versions are underway). Should you encounter a word that you think is misspelt, (or misspelled), please realise, (or realize), that it may be spelt differently than in your own neighbourhood, (or neighborhood)—and still be correct.
In the novel A Death Worse than Fate, thirteen would-be writers from twelve countries come together to pursue their dreams in the city of Kafka’s nightmares. In the tumultuous year that follows, romance, conflict, crime and catharsis realign their future trajectories.
“He was afraid that the Czechs would arrest him for being a Russian agent, or that the Russians would arrest him for not being one.”
Jane Austen once posited that: “…a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” In The Third Triangle, business software tycoon, Aidan Coldstream, finds out the hard way that: “While it may not be difficult to find your perfect mate-for-life, the difficult part is to realise WHEN you have done it.”
The final book of the Trilogy, One Year, One Month, One Week and One Day, is a coming-of-age adventure where two eighteen-year-old brothers meet for the very first time. Then they circle the globe together in search of answers about the father that neither of them ever knew. All three novels of the Trilogy converge in the compelling ending.
“The great tragedy was that one boy’s mother killed both boys’ father.”
Of Foreign Lands and People is a collection of short stories, and some poetry, related to the novels of the Gender Wars Trilogy: A Death Worse than Fate, The Third Triangle, and One Year, One Month, One Week and One Day. Because the characters were drawn from thirteen countries, the stories attributed to them also have an international flavour. Since the novel, A Death Worse than Fate, involved a group of writers in Prague in 1999-2000, it seemed fitting to show them actually writing something. Unfortunately, this left the novel too long and unwieldy.
The stories attributed to the characters are still mentioned in discussions and arguments throughout the novel, but the full texts of the various stories were moved to this companion volume. This collection includes one novella, nine short stories and several poems that are related to the novels.
A fourth book, (not part of the trilogy), offers a glimpse of a dark political future in novel form. The Resplendent Dream is a speculative tale of law and politics in the not-too-distant future. It is global in its scope, and imaginative in its reach. Few will be happy with its dire conclusions.