Here’s a list of works as of 18/10/17. These are mostly on Lulu. If you don’t mind paying to use Google’s book ordering technology, that’s fine by me but it’s usually cheaper to order direct from Lulu. The web links below go direct to the pages they can be ordered. What does POD mean? It means Print-on-demand; find a book you like, when you buy it, it triggers a system where an individual copy is remotely printed and delivered. Printing on demand means it’s no longer necessary hold a stock of books.
Short story collections and novels.
The Tau Device (POD, POD XL, Kindle)
Space Opera, Romance, Alien culture, Manifest Destiny meets Terraforming plus an interstellar crisis just as humans get into space.
The Slow Holocaust and other stories (POD)
Short, dystopian fictions.
Unfinished Tales (POD)
Detective fiction plus historical fiction (set at the time of Norman Sicily)
A Guide to First Contact (POD, POD XL, POD HB, Kindle)
Nothing like my original 1st novel, yet eternally linked by bonds of sweat and fatigue. Civilisation is about to end, humanity is about to be wiped out, aliens have been contacted, the Rapture is at hand, sub-humans are waiting to spawn, an ancient source of life delivers a last gift and the Mandat Culturel lies ready.
All this and much, much more, technological conspiracy, uncertainty theory, a project to bring lost cultures back to life, what comes after human and of course, the apocalypse. Post apocalyptic, SF / dystopia / speculation.
Essays
Burnley (POD)
A collection of essays reflecting on the history of my home town and its grammar school.
Poetry
When I accumulate enough material, I process it and spit it out in the form of a book; with poetry I merely regurgitate. Being in writing groups involves poetry; I write it when I must. It needs a point, not forced metre and rhyme. Plato railed against poets, with good reason, Aristotle gave them hints on creativity. If that doesn’t put you off poetry, what will?
Silt From Distant Lands (POD)
Experiments
I have a number of unfinished works. The feedback I get from writing groups is good. It’s a way of getting further input and lets others see what I’m up to. Each piece has been developed to a point from which it’s possible to deduce the themes and the balance of the narrative. As a reader I look for fresh perspectives; as an author I experiment.
Brant (POD)
Interstellar Gourmet (POD)
Early works
Where we start is important. (Do you know the way back?) It tells the tale of our journey. These books will eventually be withdrawn and perhaps replaced with newer.
Lucky and other stories (POD XL)
includes the novella Lucky plus other short SF. Note the similarity of cover design above.
Real Fiction (POD XL)
includes the content of Unfinished Tales plus other short fictions
Ice Made and other stories (POD XL)
short fiction including experiments in SF, some of which are developed elsewhere.
Withdrawn
Note: links for the following books are dead, they are only there for completeness.
Under Winter’s Bough (Kindle)
The Wrong Lane and other detours (Kindle)
Master of the Universe and other stories (Kindle)
An Empty Bucket and other stories (Kindle)
Ice Made and other stories (Kindle)
Mandat Culturel (POD, Kindle)
My original kick-about novel went through numerous POD revisions and title changes. Eventually I had it professionally edited. Note the title and pseudonym.
Research into the Origins of the West
I privately reproduced Juvaini’s Ta rikh i jahan gusha (History of the World Conqueror) to study it better. This tells us the shape of the world before the Mongols messed with things. Their footprint lingers in the dispersion of the Turks, the reduction of the city dwellers to ‘Tadjiks’ and the still simmering tensions in Central Asia and the Middle East. I get this because, as a writer of SF, this is a tale of calamity – the end of the Golden Age of Islam (and – according to some – the beginning of the Rise of the West). Although my editions are not searchable on the net, you are welcome to look at the result. The covers are mine; the content is based on what Kansas City Public Library PDF’d onto the net some years back. Following that thought, in 2014 I began a project to convert the tome (it’s over 800 pages long) into a Kindle friendly result. I got 10% of the way in and given the inconsistent use of diacritics by the translator, I put the project off – I’m not scared of big projects but I’m not funded. UNESCO who have the rights, aren’t going to issue an e-version any time soon, even though the annotations are crying out for it. Let’s face it, an account of the doings of the Mongols as they slaughtered, looted and raped their way across a doomed civilisation, is hardly of great public interest. I’ve done what I can to make this a quality product: a map of Eurasia showing major realms and the Mongol footprint; repairs to the net images of the frontispieces, straightening the pages and then stretching them to make the typeface easier to read. Tracking down the maps which, for some reason, weren’t PDF’d. I could have done better maps (and genealogical tables for that matter) but I stuck to the authentic.
Reproductions
Yep I write SF. Where it adds to the work (or doesn’t interfere with it) I make reference to the North of England —Up-North as it is also known —and to the towns I grew up in and came to know. That’s the backstreets of Burnley, snippets of Skipton, Nelson and Colne with the moors, hills and valleys of the Pennines thrown in for good measure. Apart from a dearth of decent jobs, the area is neither better nor worse than most places you can imagine. The absence of skyscrapers, department stores, airports, bookshops, and anything remotely cultural would make the place seem strange to many. Fixing the cultural void will take decades. The Burnley I grew up in had a grammar school. It’s been decades since local Labour politicians forces it to close. The reproduction of the Burnley Grammar School Yearbooks 1968 to 1974 are a homage to my old school. Once again these aren’t searchable on the net.
The Brun 1974 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1973 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1972 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1971 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1970 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1969 (POD) – withdrawn
The Brun 1968 (POD) – withdrawn
Writing Groups
I participate in a number of writing groups, on line and on either side of the Pennines. Some of the writers are very accomplished. As I know the mechanics of self-publishing, I have at times been drawn into getting their works to a publishable state.
36 Short Stories 2010/11 (POD XL, Kindle)
Includes 7 (7!!) stories from me
36 Short Stories 2015 (POD, iBooks)
includes from me: Kitten’s Play, I am Zlockhh!
Has You Like It (POD)
includes from me: Writing Day, After School
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