One badass tale!

One badass tale!
A kick-ass story for your ebook-reader, tablet or mobile.

Friday 12 December 2014

Stories from the Heartland

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/494514
 And a new cover and time-limited special price. $2.99 at Smashwords

Download a free sample.

Thursday 11 December 2014

Hobson's Choice

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/384844

A new cover and a limited time, special price. ONLY $2.99 from Smashwords!

When a chain of events is set in place, Templeton Ngubane, a cop in the apartheid police must make a terrible choice if he is to save the life of his only son. But will it cost him his own life?
"Hobson's Choice" will shake you to your core. It is a story you will never forget.
Download this book now!

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Micro fiction and the Steam Tomato


 It's called many things: 'short, short fiction', 'micro fiction', 'flash fiction', 'nano fiction' and other names.
 In essence, it is the writing of a complete short story in a tiny number of words. This can be anything from 1 000 words to 100 or less, depending on the definition chosen by the writer.
 Arguably, the most famous piece of micro fiction is Ernest Hemingway's "Baby Shoes" complete "novel" in just six words: For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
 I wrote about this story in this blog post.
 My interest in the technique was piqued by a story I came across about Franki Elliot, a writer in Chicago and Los Angeles who sets up her typewriter on the street and writes short stories on demand for passersby.
 They give her a topic and she hacks out a story on the spot, for which they pay what they want. She's become something of a media celebrity and I thought the concept was pretty cool.
 I wondered if I was capable of doing something like that, if I could come up with something creative, when put on the spot. Using a manual typewriter also means there was no opportunity to correct or revise.
 So I set up the "Steam Tomato" and got my wife and son to call out a couple of random topics.
 I've scanned and posted two short stories. (I will post more in future.) The topic is at the top of the sheet of paper.
 Did I succeed? That's for the reader to judge. I like them and it was a lot of fun - and the ultimate nerd, party game.