Best Reads of 2005

In many ways, 2005 was a difficult year for me, grappling the illness and death of those close to me, dismissal from my job and tensions at home. It was also a year of reassessment, reflection and (I hope) growth: I started a new business, had my first short story collection published and got my first contract for a novel.

Through all of this, books kept me company and helped me to channel my thoughts and emotions. Sometimes they helped me to escape from the here and now and sometimes to understand it better. I’ve picked out the ones that meant the most to me. I commend them to you and hope that some of them might make your 2006 better.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elizabeth Robinson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743469054/qid=1135938785/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

This was my favourite book of the year. It made me laugh and cry in equal measure, it gave me insight into the world of movie script writing, and it did interesting things with the form of the novel that made me finger itch with the need to type.

The opening lines are a classic:

“I was sitting at home yesterday (where else?) working on the fourth draft of my suicide note when I got the call. I resented the interruption and nearly didn’t answer the phone. I was having a hard time getting the tone right and, as we’ve discussed, tone is everything in correspondence.”

This mixture of immediacy, intimacy, humour and underlying sadness, wrapped up in an understanding of language and form is what makes this book special.

The novel is told in a series of emails and letters. This is not an easy thing to pull off without the machinery of the novel starting to creek in a distracting way but Elizabeth Robinson has the talent needed to turn her device into something fresh and vital that taps into how we really communicate with others (and ourselves) today.

The novel is written from the point of view of Claire Hunt, a film producer who has just been fired from her studio job but is still determined to make a movie based on “Don Quixote”. Then she hears that her sister is ill and she has to return from life on the margins of the Hollywood machine to a family home that she has outgrown but never really left and which is besieged by the illness and the spectre of death.

The strength of this book comes from its truthfulness and honesty. Reading it takes you inside Hollywood and inside a family filled with love and fear and hope and loss.

I felt as if I had found a friend that I’d always want to have a place in my life.

I know I’ve found an author who has the technical skill and emotional honesty to be ranked up there with the best of them.

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0754095754/qid=1135939304/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

It is rare to find a book that crosses so many boundaries that it can be classified on with reference to itself but this is one of them. The plot premise would place it as science fiction (a man with an illness that transports him randomly back and forth along the timeline of his life). The relationships would make it a romance novel (true love that extends beyond the constraints of time and place). The twists and turns of the plot would place it as a thriller.

It is all of these things and none of them. This is a first novel that is illuminated by an original imagination and crafted with enormous skill. The writing is beautiful, especially the dialogue which is real and vibrant.

It is also a brave book. Who but the brave would write about a relationship between a grown man and little girl who subsequently becomes his wife and yet be certain that there is no whiff of exploitation or prurience?

Audrey Niffenegger has conceived of a world in which the only constant is the love between two people. She makes us believe in that world so that the reader sees the passionate commitment between Claire and Henry as not only right but necessary.

For me, the most breathtaking thing about this novel is its apparently effortless fusion between the time line flexibility we see in modern movies and the strong, sequential, narrative thrust we expect from a novel.

In my view, this book has a complex but convincing message; we are all, to some extent time travellers. Relationships are tested, strengthened and weakened by our ability to find moments in time when we can travel together in the same direction and at the same speed. Our memories of the past and our expectations of the future shape our experience of the present in such a way that nothing is fixed. We anchor ourselves to reality through our love of another and the pressure that love creates for us to be true to ourselves.

This book is an easy and enjoyable read. It bursts upon the tongue with a rich set of flavours, but the true pleasure comes from the lingering aftertaste as the ideas and characters settle in your mind and create a new and different understanding.

This is being made into a movie with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Just the thought of what they might do to this is enough to make me shudder. Read the book before you see the movie.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099422743/qid=1135943653/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

Alice Munro is a long time favourite of mine. She writes short stories that have the impact of novels. She reconnects you to what it is to be human without any sentimentality but with a lot of truth and a dash of love and hope. I reread this collection this year and none of the nine stories have lost their savour.

The last story in the collection “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” is probably one of the best short stories ever written. It looks at love, lust, betrayal, loyalty, memory and forgiveness and leaves you feeling understood and hopeful.

Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099574918/qid=1135943709/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

My wife introduced me to Richard Russo’s work a while back when she bought “Empire Falls”. He has the gift of writing about ordinary people in a way that helps you to understand how extraordinary we all are.

He understands that, in a small town, each of us is a bit player in another person’s drama and that each day is to some extent, an act of ensemble improvisation.

In “Nobody’s Fool” Richard Russo works through the relationships between fathers and sons and friends and enemies. Along the way he creates a main character who is a flawed as he is believable, a stubborn man, swept along by his own legend, but finding ways to reassess himself in a changing world.

Richard Russo pulls no punches when it comes to understanding people’s ability to hurt each other and themselves but he also helps us to see that each day is full of choices that help us to close the gap between who we are and who we want to be.

This one has also been made into a movie, with Paul Newman as the main character. The film is faithful to the book and the acting is first rate but the film-craft doesn’t match the richness of Russo’s language.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Kay Joy Fowler

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141020261/qid=1135939425/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

This is a book for bibliophiles. The structure is ingenious: each chapter focuses on a character in an informal book club that has been assembled only to read Jane Austen and each chapter reflects the content of the Austen book being read. The touch is light and the tone optimistic. If you love Austen this book is a joy. If you’ve never read Austen, it will be an education. This book made me smile and whetted my appetite for reading other things. Its only flaw is that it is a little light on emotional content but only in the same way that “Emma” leaves a gap with “Wuthering Heights” so perhaps this is deliberate.

Again this has a wonderful opening sentence:

“Each of us has a private Austen.”

If that resonates with you then you’ll certainly have fun reading the rest.

The Black Magician Trilogy (The Magician’s Guild, The Novice, The High Lord) by Trudi Canavan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841493139/qid=1135944047/sr=8-8/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i8_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

This trilogy was my top find of 2005. I’m a long time fantasy and science fiction fan and I’m always on the look out for new writers. Trudi Canvan just went to the top of my list. These were her first books and they have the freshness and energy of something long imagined but newly realised.

Trudi Canvan write prose and dialogue that are easy to read so that even in books as long as these you don’t feel that the same stock phrases are being repeated or that the book has thinned out to the level of a film script outline.

Each book stands on its own. Each book expands our knowledge of the world and changes our perspective on the characters in it. All three books hang together into a consistent piece that stands up to re-reading from end to end.

Oh, and the story rocks. This is a page turner about a young girl from the slums with latent magical powers that she accidentally unleashes on a member of the Magician’s Guild as they are doing their annual expulsion of the poor from the streets of the city.

What happens to the girl, the people who befriend her and those who try to harm her would be enough to satisfy most authors, but Trudi Canvan has gone beyond that to look at the nature of magic and the societies it shapes. In the end this story is about the Guild itself and the line that must be walked between strength and weakness, good and evil, what can be done against what should be done.

Add Trudi Canvan to your author list and settle down for hours of quality time stretching your imagination, cheering for the good guys, booing the bad ones and trying to puzzle out who is which.

Past Mortem by Ben Elton

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552771236/qid=1135943915/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/026-4459863-6730040

Ben Elton made his name as a stand up comic and then as the script writer for TV comedies like “Black Adder”. In his novels he picks up on some social trend and puts it under the microscope. The result is closely plotted, witty, gritty, that invite you to look again at the taken for granted.

Past Mortem looks at the “Friends Reunited” phenomenon and instead of seeing sugar-coated reunions of long-lost friends, imagines the consequences of reuniting adults with the people who made their childhoods miserable. The main character is a Scotland Yard detective on the trail of a serial killer. Ben Elton pulls no punches with this one: the murders are gruesome, the sex scenes are graphic and extreme, the consequences of remember humiliation are real enough to make you cry. There is still humour and wit in this book but it is the kind that humour that helps you survive in the world you live in.

I think this is his best book so far. If you like this, try “Dead Famous” which looks at the “Big Brother” phenomenon or “Popcorn” which looks at the impact of Tarantino style violence in movies.

Petrified by Barbara Nadel

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747267219/qid=1135943827/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

“Petrified” is one of series of crime books by Barbara Nadel set in Istanbul. I’ve been hooked since I read the first one, “Balthazar’s Daughter”. The compelling thing about the books is the credibility of the characters that Nadel draws. The Turkish detectives in her novels progress from book to book, they change and develop. Bad things happen to them and how they respond is a measure of their humanity. The sense of place is very strong in each book – Istanbul itself is a central character in the novels.

Each of Barbara Nadel’s books stands alone. Each has a theme and each theme displays new things about the characters and the nature of Turkish society. Petrified takes art, death and obsession as its themes. The results are memorable and rich.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen is a crime reporter in Miami. His novels are larger than life romps into the messes created by greed and arrogance. His books have a formula to them: nasty men doing bad things, usually to nice women, run up against tough loners with a sense of honour who just have to intervene. What keeps the formula fresh are Hiaasen’s wit and his ability to summon up believable villains and enjoyable heroes.

Skinny Dip is the latest offering. A man throws his wife off a cruise ship, meaning to kill her but forgetting that she was in the school swimming team. She washes up on the beach of our capable, grumpy-but-likeable hero with a soft spot for damsels in distress and the two begin to plot revenge.

This is the American version of pantomime and is thoroughly enjoyable from the first page to the last.

Market Forces by Richard Morgan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0575075120/qid=1135944276/sr=8-4/ref=pd_ka_4/026-4459863-6730040

A Scottish academic who teaches politics and writes science fiction, Richard Morgan has been hailed as the leader of the new wave of cyberpunk and the success to William Gibson. His first book, “Altered Carbon”, redefined hard-boiled science fiction with its mixture of innovative technology, mercenary attitudes, noir-crime ethos, and scorching no-holds-barred sex.

“Market Forces” is Richard Morgan’s third book and it is in a class of its own. Here he leaves behind the far-future space-opera setting and looks at Britain in the very near future. And a depressing, nasty and all too possible Britain it is: enclaves for the rich, institutionalised road rage contests to win consulting contracts, lawless slums for the poor and a political machine that has become indistinguishable from the economic market it should be regulating. Following the domino recessions of the early 21^st century, the Brits now make their money by financing and arming small wars around the world. “Conflict Investment” is managed by consultancies that compete literally to the death.

Our hero is good at conflict investment. He has everything needed to become a partner except a regrettable lack of willingness to kill the competition. The book shows what happens to moral scruples when native ability meets profitable opportunity.

The story is hardcore action, with graphic violence and sex and yet the main thrust is still and intellectual and moral one.

The world Morgan describes is only a slight exaggeration on the testosterone driven consultancy partnerships that I’ve worked for. The relationship between those having the small wars and those funding them is an extension of the current practices of the World Bank and the IMF. Morgan has a wicked ability to imagine the worst and help you to taste it.

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553584499/qid=1135944366/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/026-4459863-6730040

Dean Koontz has never quite achieved the recognition given to Stephen King (King has been published in the New Yorker a number of times and has written a (very good) book on writing. Koontz covers similar territory to King and is even more prolific. Perhaps it is the sheer number of books that has given him that never-mind-the-quality-feel-the-width, airport-paperback reputation. Or perhaps it is that, while he is a talented storyteller, his themes are straightforward and he does nothing new with form.

I’ve enjoyed many of Koontz’ novels, but in a disposable, pleasant-afternoon-in-front-of-the-television sort of way. Odd Thomas is different – mould breaking different. This is the kind of mystery thriller John Irving might write. The structure of the book is clever, the writing is crisp, the characters are engaging and the plot will keep you guessing. Settle down for a good read that will stay in your mind long after you’ve closed the book

A sad day in Pakistan

Yesterday, in my eyes, the United States stepped over the line and became a terrorist state.

The CIA sent war drones to bomb a village in Pakistan where they believed the second in command to Bin Laden was present.

The last time that the US bombed this man they blew up his house,killed his wife and children but missed him.

This time they killed 18 people, many of them women and children and wounded more.

Up until now I’d thought that Bush’s "War"on terror was a marketing spin to give him the remit to act on a war footing without the requirement to actually declare war on anybody.

Now I see that it goes deeper than that. Some parts of the US government now feel able to take military action against any town or village in which they believe their enemy resides. At one time this would have been on the I-don’t-believe-that edge of a Tom Clancy novel. Now it is official policy.

Here’s how it seems to me.

The US has attacked an ally, an ally that has nuclear weapons, an ally that was already having problems holding back fundamentalists segments of their society, an ally that has a history of military coups.

This will cause huge problems in Pakistan. It also has to raise the question about what the US would do if they believed an enemy was in France (who, like Pakistan, have nuclear weapons, are not part of NATO and have a problem with Muslim fundamentalists in a secular state).

What makes this worse is that the US executed its attack using the CIA – not the US Army. A generation fed on “Alias” might not be aware of this but the CIA is distrusted and hated throughout the world, including America’s allies. It is an organisation with a history of screw-ups, torture, sponsorship of proxy wars, attempted assignations and a complete inability to protect America from terrorist attacks.

The fact that the US used unmanned drones so that there was not the slightest risk of American body bags on TV threatens to turn acts of war into a video game.

It wasn’t a game for the men women and children the CIA killed yesterday.

This attack is so stupid and so pointless that it makes me weep with frustration, anger and grief.

This is unacceptable.

This will breed hatred of America, weaken alliance, and promote Bin Laden’s cause.

This should see the US facing censure at the United Nations

This turns America into a terrorist state.

My best hope is that Congress will repdudiate this action and show the world that America is still part of the international community and hasn't become simply a rich warlord.

Starting 2006 in Print and on the Web

For my first blog of 2006 I thought I’d give some background on some recent publications in print and on the web.

I’m very pleased to say that my first ever short story collection Writing Naked is now available from Amazon.

There were some problems with publishing last year and people trying to buy the book were faced with a wait.

Now, if you want to settle down with a 200 pages of my best stories, you can get the book immediately from Amazon.

Here’s how the book is described:

In “Writing Naked”, Mike Kimera takes an original, unflinching look at the secret desires we all have: the uncontrollable sexual needs, the surprising -- and sometimes funny -- turn-ons, our dirty inner-lives that are rarely shown the light of day.

Through a lust for large women, 4 a.m. porn downloads, bonds other than leather, and men who like to be tied up, this book of short stories is a searing revelation of what truly goes on behind closed doors.

These are the furtive thoughts and shivering daydreams that tell us exactly who we are, especially in our erotic lives.

If you read “Writing Naked” please post a review on Amazon.

My “Postcards” story is in the newly published Aqua Erotica 2 edited by MEGAN WORMAN

One of the distinctive things about this anthology is that it’s waterproof and perfect for reading in the bath.

The common theme of the twelve stories in the anthology is crossing sexual boundaries.

“Postcards” is about how a passionate married couple deal with the separation imposed by business travel by using erotic internet “postcards” to keep them focused on each other. In the process they discover more about their desires and cross some new boundaries in their relationship. This is a romantic story strongly spiced with D/s fantasy.

Aqua Erotica 2 has stories some well known names in it and I’m pleased to be in their company

Too Nice a Person by Thomas S. Roche
Taking It All by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Postcards by Mike Kimera
How We Play by Debra Hyde
Just Tell Me the Rules by Cecilia Tan
The New World by Simon Sheppard
Entry Point by Shanna Germain
Forget-Me-Not by Cheyenne Blue
The Yacht People by Michael Hemmingson
Out of the Closet by Bill Noble
See You Down There by Steve Almond
The Marrying Kind by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Sex and Laughter now that’s a combination I’m all in favour of.

Susannah Indigo has done a great job in creating an anthology that really will make you laugh out loud but is still hot and sexy.

I have a story called “Santa Claws” about a Christmas Eve encounter between a demon, Santa Claws, and a nice girl who was once naughty and now has to pay the price. Oh and did I mention that Claws has a 36” penis in the shape of a whip?

Susannah herself has one of the best stories in the book "Stuck Inside the Uh-Oh's With the Red State Blues Again"

Greg Wharton and Many Ann Mohanraj both add to the fun,

This is a book that lifts the spirits (and may elevate other parts of the anatomy)

Best New Erotica 5

This is the latest collection from Maxim Jakubowski

I have a story called "I want to watch you do it" which is, of all things, a romantic comedy piece about a guy who's girl friend has a strange request

You'll also find lots of other ERWA writer in here.

Maxim has a knack for finding the best that people have written in any given year so try this book out - you won't be disappointed.

While it’s fun to be published in print, my real home is still the internet and one of my favourite places there is the Erotic Readers and Writers Association ERWA.

The biggest accolade you can receive on ERWA is to have your story placed in the Treasure Chest (use link). This is ERWA’s permanent archive and I strongly recommend it to you as a rich source of top grade erotica of every flavour and style.

The Treasure Chest was updated in January and I’m proud to say that I have two stories there.

In the “Quickies” section (stories of 1,200 words or less) I have Burger Queen This can be a disturbing read and was a brave choice for the Treasure Chest. “Burger Queen” is written from the point of view of a sociopath with a sexual fixation on a young woman at his local Burger King. It was one of those stories where I felt as if I was just writing down what the main character was saying inside my head. One reader of this story said “I work with sociopaths and your story rings true to their state of mind.” That was pleasing and chilling at the same time.

In the “Erotic Fiction” section I have Living with it: Up in the Morning This is, I hope, the first of a series of stories written from the point of view of a man who has just turned 50. I’m 49 this month, honest, but that feels close enough. The stories aren’t autobiography but they are intended to be a frank and honest look at sex and the 50+ married male. The “Living with it” part of the title is there because the series is about “living with” erections and the various things that cause them.

The first in the series tackles the early morning erection, sexual fantasy, masturbation and the reality of sex in the marriage bed. I think the next one will be called “Living with it: window shopping” and will tackle all those images and close proximity non-contact encounters that don’t count as cheating and yet, somehow, leave their mark on your conscious, your aspirations and your bed-sheets.

My guess is that we’ll have more of this kind of fiction now that the men of the baby-boomer generation have grey hair on their balls.

At the back of my mind lurks a story that starts with a woman (naked, in a hotel bed that is now tousled but not yet finished with) listening to her (illicit) lover shower and saying to herself: “Men in their fifties are exciting because they know what they want and how little time they have left to get it.” She’s smiling as she says this but even she doesn’t know if the smile is ironic, affectionate or bitter. As she waits for her lover she thinks back on the men she has known, what they wanted, what they got and how that makes her feel.

Of course that’s just one of a dozen or so voices currently trying to make themselves heard. I’ll let you know if she makes it to the page.

Flying Kites in Thunderstorms – why writers of erotica go beyond what they know

There is a discussion in the writers’ forum in ERWA at the moment over the role of reality in erotic writing. One member was puzzled about why writers who are straight and male write stories from the point of view of gay men or straight or gay women. Why, she asked, would we want to write about a world we know nothing about?

For me the, answer to her question is that I write fiction, not biography.

The stories of mine that I like the most are truthful, but they are not true.

I think the art of fiction is to lead the imagination to discover truth through dissemblance. It is the epistemological equivalent of perspective in two dimensional art: a means of directing attention and providing context without dictating semantic value.

In erotic fiction, sex is a lightning rod for the soul. What pleases, what disgusts, what tempts, what comforts, what excites and what frightens people about sex is like the DNA of their psyche; either who they are defines it or it defines who they are depending on which side of the nature nurture debate your comfort zone lies. That art of erotic fiction is to use those lightning strikes to illuminate the readers understanding.

This is not about testimony, or witness or life-style documentary: it is about sparks of imagination that leap the gap between what you have experienced and what your heart knows to be true.

I’ve written stories from the point of view of straight and gay men and women, young and old from many nationalities. Sometimes my characters are nice people you’d invite into your home and sometimes they’re scary people you wouldn’t want to be alone with. I’ve written about sexual experiences I’ve never had and I’ve written about sexual experiences I’m very familiar with. I’d like to think that my reader’s wouldn’t know which is which.

What enables and compels me to do this are the voices in my head. I shut down my finely trained analytical mind and let my imagination delve into my curiosity, my insight, and my intuition to summon up a voice. Then I listen hard and write what the voice tells me.

In other words, I go looking for those lightning bolts of lust that belong to others and not to me. I fly kites in the thunderstorms of other people’s sex lives to capture the spark and pass it on to others.

When this works well, it seems involuntary. The stories produced in this way remind me of those glass artifacts that are formed by lightning rods stuck into sand in the path of a storm. The rod channels the energy but the storm creates the glass.

So why would I imagine myself in a world I know nothing about?

Because, in reality, all worlds are like that.

Because I hunger to capture the unknown.

Because the voices in my head thrive on my ignorance.

Because that’s what writing fiction is really about: to enable the reader to know a world from your words and sense the truth in the consensual delusion.

Humour, hate and something that’s just not funny

Tony Blair is, I’m sure; a well intentioned man of principal who wants to get things done that will make the world a better place. In other words he is the most dangerous Prime Ministers Britain has had since Thatcher. Graham Green once described innocence as a leper roaming the world without a bell. Blair goes one step further than this; he’s a leper who wants to shake hands with everyone.

Imagine the dismay when Tony, (he insists his colleagues call him Tony – likeable chap that he is), after helping George W liberate Iraq and remove the imminent threat of weapons of mass destruction that could be launched in less time that it takes to call a press conference, it turns out that most of the Arab world see him as part of an invading army of the west, intent on destroying Islam. Good grief, some of them got so upset about it, they even bombed London.

Now Tony has nothing against the Muslim world. He’s a tolerant man, married to a prominent Catholic woman (Tony of course is not allowed to be Catholic and Prime Minister at the same time although I suspect he may “discover” his faith at the end of his present term of office) and he supports religious freedom. To Tony, it is unacceptable that people should be hated simply because of the religion they follow. Hate, he has explained to us, is a Bad Thing. Hate gets people so upset that they blow up buses and trains and kill all the people on them. Any self-respecting Government would therefore feel the need to make promoting religious hatred a crime. Then we call all live together in peace and harmony.

This of course is to misunderstand the legal process to an extent that is almost wilfully naïve. You can’t write a law that says “Thou shalt not hate the next chap just because of the God he prays to”, you have to get a bit more specific than that. And those nice law makers that Tony put on the job have been much more specific, and the more specific they have been come, the more ludicrous the legislation they propose becomes.

Anyone who reads my blog will know that I think humour is a great political weapon. It seems that Tony’s lawyers agree with me. Unfortunately to them that means that humour is now one of the Bad Things that need to be banned. Their propose legislation would make it illegal to satirise religion – any religion of any kind. To satirise something is to promote disrespect of that thing which is pretty damn close (at least in the clubs that these lawyers are members of) to promoting hatred.

So if my religion holds that women are biologically subversive and need to be locked out of sight lest men be corrupted by them and lose their immortal souls in a fit of lust, I am not supposed to snigger or say “you can not be serious” in a McEnroe type voice. I’m supposed to stay calm and say “Well, everyone’s entitled to their opinion.”

Even if the person I’m speaking to believes that God has been pretty clear that everyone is NOT entitled to their opinion and everyone except the chosen will burn in torment for all eternity, I’m still not supposed to suggest that this is a self-serving view of God and that any omnipotent being who chooses that path should have his beard burnt off rather be worshipped. No, I’m supposed to nod and say, “You might have a point”.

Rowan Atkinson, known around the world as Mr. Bean and known in England as the Black Adder, is so incensed by the stupidity of a law that say that just because it’s religious you can’t make fun of it, that he has taken the time to explain to the lawyer chaps, clause by clause, why their legislation is insane. Sadly, they looked at him and said, “Well you may have a point, Rowan, but Tony’s rather keen on all this so the show must go on.” Rowan has promised to write a comedy sketch in breach of the new laws if they are passed, just to provoke a prosecution and give some of the funniest men in England a chance to explain why Tony needs his ass kicked.

By the way, in writing the Atkinson story up, the Sunday Times quoted a joke that would be frowned upon by the proposed laws, so let me share it with you.

“How do you know that Jesus was a Jew?”

“Because he was still living at home at 30 and his mother thought he was God”.

So now on to the distinctly unfunny story that caught my eye this week. A while ago I read a book called “Market Forces” by Richard Morgan. It’s a hard hitting book set in a near future Britain where consultants for privatised war firms win business by fighting to the death in a kind of choreographed road rage. It was a depressingly plausible read that I found difficult to dismiss from my mind. The characters in the book have a toast, “To Small Wars” as these are the ones that bring the biggest bonus payments. This week, I discovered that truth continues to challenge fiction. The Americans have privatised the policing of Iraq and have brought in a few thousand hired guns at $1,000 a day.

The activities of the 50 plus firms that currently operate in Iraq are coordinated by “Aegis Defence Services” who also employ 75 teams of their own. Aegis is British firm, run by Lt Col Tim Spicer,a former Scots Guards officer, which describes itself as risk-management and private security company or PSC. Aegis is a small outfit by PSC standards and yet the Iraq contract alone was worth $293 million. If you want to get a flavour for the enterprise, visit their website: http://www.aegisdef.com/

Spicer is a controversial figure in Britain. He won the OBE in Northern Ireland, was accused of illegally exporting arms (and then was cleared when he demonstrated that he was under orders from the UK government at the time. He led troops who were convicted of murdering an unarmed Irish teenager. Take a look at this open letter to Comptroller General of the US Government Accountability Office if you are interested in the details: http://www.serve.com/pfc/pmcbride/04olpfc.html or take a look at these two articles http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0266.html and http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0266.html

There are 50 PSCs operating in Iraq. Competition is tough so Special Forces types are in big demand to demonstrate the value of the company they belong to. This has in turn placed recruitment pressures on the public sector – the US Army now offers $150,000 cash bonus to re-enlisting Special Forces troops. So it seems Richard Morgan was not being fanciful after all. I’m sure there are few ex-Sandhurst chaps in the City toasting small wars as you read this. Still, at least they won’t be doing a Bad Thing like poking fun at a religion.

Obscenity, the Department of Justice, the Patriot Act, and Tony Blair as Jack Bauer

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Period Pulp Fiction – background to my new story on www.quill-pen.net

One of the things I love about the internet is the way that it allows passionate people to do interesting things. Andrei V. Lefebvre is one of those passionate people. He has an ongoing love affair with pulp fiction and runs a website called “Unbelievable Stories” www.quill-pen.net that recreates that chandleresque black-and-white movie feel. One look at the October cover shows you what you’re in for.

I’ve always loved genre fiction and I admire those with the dedication to provide it with a venue, so I scratched around for something that Andrei might be interested in. I decided to send him “Till death do us part”, one of my rare excursions into detective story writing. It’s the kind of thing that people made into 30 minute TV movies presented by Alfred Hitchcock. I wanted to see what would happen when I sent something to a site that wasn’t dedicated to erotica.

Andrei liked the story but set me an interesting challenge. He said, “My publication is that of Pulp Fiction genre. I decided to recreate the sensational fiction of the pre-electronic era of the early 20ths century. During this period the moral censorship was such that no four letter expletives were printed. Moreover, words such as “pussy” and “cock” were not to be used other then to describe the rooster and the cat respectively.”

He asked me if I could rewrite the story to meet those guidelines.

I gave it a shot and was surprised to find that I had to change very little and that nothing I changed altered the feel of the piece. It made me realise that I’d perhaps grown too used to graphic language and that being a bit less direct might serve me just as well.

Anyway, I’m hooked now. I’m working on second detective story and I’m reviewing my SF ones to see if there is something “pulp” enough to fit. So if you’re in the mood for something period, put on some swing or jazz, pour yourself a gimlet and settle down for a good read. You’ll find my story at http://www.quill-pen.net/200510KimerToDeathDoUsPart.html

Flash Fiction: saying more with less – try it yourself

I first got into flash fiction purely as a technical exercise over at ERWA. The challenge was to write a piece of exactly 100 words that was a real story (with a beginning a middle and an end) that also had erotic content. It was meant to help the writer to understand how to be concise.

It was quite frustrating at first. I would write something that was 220 words long and then have to précis it until it reached the 100 limit.

Of course, it turned out that that largely missed the point. It implies that you write a flasher by cutting things out. I’ve since learned that you write a flasher by condensing what you have to say. It’s a little like “reducing” a sauce in cooking – although there is less volume of sauce at the end, what’s left is much more intense; everything essential to the flavour remains.

Now when I write a flasher, I start with an emotion. Then I move to a situation. I end up with almost as much back-story in my head as I would for a 3,000-word story. Then I try to find the moment that best expresses the back-story and the emotion.

Yeah, I know this all sounds theoretical and not very specific. So let’s get down to examples.

Here’s one I wrote last month.

The woman my lover made me
(c) 2005 by Mike Kimera

I miss his grin when he undressed, spread wide below hungry eyes, mirroring my position, it was both challenge and tribute.

I miss the bruises he left on my breasts, his blood-hot hardness skewering me, his lust flooding me, bursting the dam of my restraint.

I miss the glee in his eyes when I slid his soft-but-stiffening flesh into my mouth, engulfing and resurrecting him.

I miss being his mistress, his guilty secret, his unoriginal sin.

Refusing a life of loss, I grasp my sleeping husband’s sex, ready to discover if he will enjoy the woman my lover made me.


Not easy to read is it. You sort of have to sip at it. Because every word is necessary.

The title is a little luxury – it’s not included in the word count and it sets the mood.

The emotion here is a wistful sadness that turns into brave hope. So how do you do that in 100 words?

To be completely honest, I tinker until it’s right. Then, afterwards, I can see why it’s right.

What makes this flasher work is a structure that tells the reader when to breathe – every new idea start with “I miss”.

And each miss tells you something more about the two lovers and what did for each other.

And, of course, you know they are lovers because the title tells you so.

The first miss is about challenge and tribute – risk and respect.

The second miss is about the robust physical nature of the sex and how it “bursts” through “restraint”.

The third miss shows intimacy and collaboration – she acts, she is not just acted upon – and continues the emotional thread of glee - grinning, conspiratorial happiness.

The fourth miss adds the idea of the illicit and shows complicity. It also shows, by the choice of language, that she is intelligent and introspective and that he is married.

The fifth section flags its difference to the reader by starting with: “Refusing a life of loss”. This tells the reader to slow down, there’s a new idea coming. The “life of loss” idea shows that her lover is gone not just absent. It also shows the strength of the connection.

Then we get “I grasp my sleeping husband’s sex”

This is more complex than it seems. First, we now know she is also married. Secondly, her reverie, her four misses, has been conducting in her marriage bed. Thirdly, there is something deeper in “my sleeping husband’s sex” that would not be there if the word sex was replaced with cock or if her husband were awake. “my sleeping husband’s sex” suggests perhaps a reason why this married woman had a lover – because her husband’s sex slept?

Finally, we get “ready to discover if he will enjoy the woman my lover made me”.

If we unpack this, we get her been active and brave “ready to discover” then the focus moves from her to him. Her question is whether he will enjoy. Then we understand that, whether he enjoys it or not, she will always be “the woman my lover made me”

Which get us back to the title and balance all that she misses against all she’s become. It is this pivot point in her perception of herself that this little story is really about.

OK, either I’m full of it or these flasher things have got something going for them.

After I wrote this one I got some feedback saying how little is written about what happens after an affair is over and the marriage continues. It stuck with me, so this week I wrote a companion piece.

Stoking the embers
(c) 2005 by Mike Kimera

Waking to find my shy wife taking me deep into her mouth, I know her lover, the man who taught her this, has left her.

The first bruises he left on her breasts inflamed my envy. I, with my over-careful love of my perhaps-too-young wife, had never lit the fires her ungentle lover kindled.

Always, I met her shy lust with gratitude not the passion she craved, holding myself back, afraid to hurt what I cherished.

She looks up, a question in her eyes.

In answer, my fingers push roughly into her wet sex, stoking the embers he left behind.


The emotion here is regret turning into hope – similar to the first one but here the regret is for something not done. And that difference defines the piece and the relationship between husband and wife.

This piece is meant to be harder to read. It doesn’t have the clean lines of thought that the wife had. This is an older man who thinks in complex sentences that sit at a distance from direct experience.

The first sentence tells you he isn’t a straightforward man. What kind of man wakes from sleep to find his shy wife has him in her mouth, and reacts with neither pleasure nor surprise but with deductive logic? And what is implied both by the fact that he knew she had a lover and that he knows that she will only reach out to him like this if the lover has left? This is a man who thinks before he acts, and probably while he’s acting.

The second sentence then twists the reader a little. The bruises on the breasts, something that the woman “missed” in the first flasher, become the source of envy, not jealousy or concern or wrath.

The next sentence shows a man who expresses himself by what he is not or can not or does not “over-careful”, “Perhaps-too-young” “ungentle lover”

Then we get his view of why the sexual part of the marriage has failed – his fault not hers – no reproach for her having the affair, only to himself for creating the need for it.

The last two sentences move from past to present and finally this man finds his way from thought to action.

OK, so, any lessons learnt from this perhaps-over-long examination of 200 words of text? J

Here are a couple of takeaways:

Try out writing flashers. If you write nothing else in October, write at least one of these. It is an excellent way to focus your writing, especially your imagery and use of tenses.

For me at least, writing happens by feel. Analysis is strictly ex-post. But being able to do the analysis helps to sharpen what you know intuitively

Now, for those of you still reading, take a look at a couple more flashers and work out for yourself what makes them work (or what would make them work better).

Thanks for listening

I still...
© 2004 by Mike Kimera

I still lie on my side of our bed
curled ‘round your old shirt
scavenging your scent
sustaining my memory

I still feel your heat pressing into me
when I’m lying on my belly
letting my fingers
take your place

I still open my legs and offer my mound,
to your soft, skilled tongue,
trying to summon
a remembered caress

I still rage at you for leaving me alone,
gnawed at by fierce hungers
that you awoke
which never sleep

I still reach out for you when I wake
puzzled anew by your absence
slow to remember
your pointless death

Tryptych
(c) 2002 by Mike Kimera

My tongue lops his just spent seed from her swollen sex. It is a ritual with us: part blessing, part penance, part pleasure.

We have so many parts.

I was already his wife when we took her to our bed, believing ourselves predators, although she knew we were prey.

When I first shuddered to joy on her fingers, we all three knew I was hers forever.

My desire for her remains urgent, painful, insatiable.

She could have taken me away but she chose to stay with him, becoming our sole connection, our shared obsession, the hinge of our lust.

“Mädchen, Mädchen” – a must see teen-sex comedy

In Switzerland, Thursday night is for going out: it was traditionally pay day; the shops open late (until 9pm - they normally close by 6pm on weekdays, 5pm on Fridays and all day Sunday – shopping malls are not places of worship here) and families and couples head for the cinemas and restaurants. One consequence of this is that, on Thursday nights, Swiss TV sucks.

The six main Swiss channels transmit many programmes “Bi-Canal” which means that two sound tracks are transmitted for a programme and your TV can choose between them. The second sound track is in the original language – usually English – so I get to watch CSI Manhattan or Alias without having to deploy my meagre skills in French or German.

But last night there was nothing but sport and local discussion programmes. I was grimly flipping channels, almost ready to resign myself to a dose of BBC Prime’s diet of house makeovers, garden makeovers, celebrity chefs, ancient comedy shows and reality TV documentaries about people desperate to live somewhere else other than their native England, when I stumbled across one of the best comedies I’ve seen in a long time. It was in German but even if you barely speak the language this was a movie that grabbed your attention.

It’s called “Mädchen, Mädchen” (literally “Maidens, Maidens, but more accurately translated as “Girls, Girls” but with the understanding that we are talking teenage girls) and it’s about three teenage girls in Munich whose early sexual experiences aren’t matching up to the descriptions of sex that they get from the magazines (or from their fairly active parents). Determined to find the orgasms that they are sure that they deserve, they work their way through fumbling boyfriends, internet flirting, and even risk falling in love.

Now I know that this sounds like a German version of “American Pie” but the point here is that this is the German version. In Munich, 18 year old girls aren’t seen as children, public nudity is perfectly fine if you’re sunbathing in the park or at one of the local lakes, sex shops sit next to the supermarket in the high street, and no one pretends to be surprised that young people like to get drunk and have sex – not always in that order.

So, “Mädchen, Mädchen” treats sex completely differently from “American Pie”. There’s nothing “naughty” about it. There is a lot that’s absurd and some stuff that’s downright confusing and the sex in the movie isn’t cleaned up and airbrushed. This is what most of us in Europe would remember from our teenage years (long, long ago, in a land far away from here…)

The main distinguishing feature of the movie is that it is done from the point of view of the three young girls.

Their friendship for each other, their willingness to take risks, their astonishment at what they discover, and the emotional highs and lows that they go through on a daily basis make this a movie about what its really like to be a teenage girl, with just a touch of “Gregory’s Girl” type whimsy.

There are some classic set pieces: Inke’s face as her boyfriend works away on top of her and she’s not-so-patiently-waiting for something interesting to happen or her reaction to her first (accidental) orgasm, brought on by riding her bicycle (see picture above). Or the revenge taken by Lena (the redheaded girl) on a loutish friend who embarrassed her publicly (she feeds him two Viagra tablets telling him that they’re e. He spends the evening so erect that he can only pee in the urinal if he does a handstand).


But the best part of this feel-good movie is the sense that friendship is more important than sex, people aren’t who you expect them to be, and if you stay true to yourself and open to new things, you can get through it all.

Now here’s the thing: I’m a movie junkie and I’d never heard of this movie. As soon as it was over, I went to IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) and looked it up to see if I could get an English version (preferably, in the original German – I hate dubbing – with English subtitles). Here’s the IMDB review. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258827/
The movie was made in 2001 and there was a sequel in 2004.

Great, I thought, I’ll be able to buy a two for one package from Amazon. If only life was so simple. Neither amazon.com nor amazon.co.uk sell this movie. Amazon.de sell the movie but only in German and as far as I can see, there are no subtitles in other languages. Amazon.fr sell an English Language version of the movie called “Girls and Sex” which appears to have been dubbed into English and French but with subtitles only in French. A Swiss vendor sells both movies together at a reduced price, in German, with subtitles in French and Dutch.

This is why Hollywood gets away with making second-rate remakes of European films. Of course it could be that this movie would get an X-rating in America where the girls would be seen as children (Inke has her 18th birthday party in the movie and she’s already found out that sex isn’t living up to her expectations by then –enough to send American censors into a frenzy).

That’s OK, I thought, I’ll just recommend people to pick up the either the English language dubbed version or the original German one. It doesn’t cost much to ship DVD’s between Europe and America, I do it often.

Then I remembered the other problem the film industry puts in the way of getting to good movies: DVD Zones.

In Switzerland, most DVD machines play any Zone - this has something to do with the Swiss not having signed some of the international copyright laws – so it’s easy to forget that Hollywood has convinced itself that Zoning is necessary because they can’t handle the logistics of simultaneous global movie release. This is the same “I’m not very bright but I’ve always made a lot of money so I must be right” thinking that saw downloadable music as a threat and not a revenue stream.

So, see this movie if you can. And if you are restricted to Zone 1 viewing, find a patch on the internet, load it to your DVD drive on your computer, and watch it anyway.

How the Erotic Readers and Writers Association Storytime list helps me to write

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On how long it takes to get into print and the circuitous routes for getting there

With the universe’s typically skewed sense of timing, at the very point when my work life is at the most precarious and stressful that it’s been in years, getting work published seems to be getting easier.

I explained on my last post that my first anthology of short stories, “Writing Naked”, went into print this week. I’ve also heard that I’ve had stories taken up for two other anthologies: “Santa Claws” a comic Christmas fantasy is in Susannah Indigo’s “Sex and Laughter”, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0971662371/qid=1123491646/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9469017-0653462?v=glance&s=books coming out this month; and “I want to watch you do it”, another comedy piece for Maxim Jakubowski’s “Best New Erotica 5” coming out in January 2006.

It shows what a long term process getting a story published is. I wrote “Santa Claws” in 2002 as a fun piece for an ERWA Theme weekend. It was later used in a slightly modified form on Clean Sheets in 2003. It didn’t seem a likely anthology candidate to me: it’s about a devil (he wanted to be Satan’s Claws but there was a mistake on the paperwork and now he wears a Santa suit) sent to summon a (slightly overweight but carrying it well) super-heroin to Hell on Christmas Eve. But then Susannah Indigo manages to pitch a collection on “Sex and Laughter” (who can resist that combination?) and suddenly this story is mainstream.

“I want to watch you do it” is another example of story that was a long time coming. The humour in this story comes from the trouble that follows when a guy is told by his girl-friend that she wants to watch him masturbate. The original version was written in early 2004 and was much shorter – when the humour stopped, so did the story. I submitted it to Clean Sheets and encountered one of those editorial reactions that keeps me going back to Clean Sheets time after time: Bill Noble came back to me and said something like: “The opening to this is really funny. Wonderful. But then it just sort of collapses. How’s about you re-write it with a better ending?” This could have been my cue to through a tantrum and take the story elsewhere but I re-read it with Bill’s comments in mind and I decided he was right. On re-reading it was clear that I’d sort of run out of energy once the humour in the situation was explored. But the characters still had more to offer. They loved each other in a complicated kind of way and I wanted to know what would happen next. So I extended the piece, Bill accepted it and it went on to Clean Sheets in the middle of 2004. Susannah then chose it as the opening story for “Writing Naked”. By the time it makes it into “Best New Erotica” it will be nearly two years old.

I learnt from “Santa Claws” that sometimes you just have to find the right anthology for a story to fit in. I’m hoping to do this with the upcoming “Aqua Erotica 2” which has pushing the boundaries as its theme. I liked the style of the first “Aqua Erotica” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609806564/qid=1123491882/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_ur_2_1/103-9469017-0653462– who could resist a waterproof erotica book that you can read in the bath – and I’d like to have a place in the sequel. I’ve sent some of my favourite (though not necessarily easiest) stories through for consideration. I’ll keep you posted.

My first book of short stories is published this month

I said in an earlier post that I was moving towards becoming a Writer, with a capital W, and this month I sort of get my membership card: my first book is being published. It’s called “Writing Naked” and it’s available from Amazon at either of these links:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0971662398/ref=nosim/cleansheetsmagaz

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0971662398/ref=nosim/eroticareadersas

I thought I’d use this blog to work out what this means for me.

Well, the first thing it means it that I can now go to Amazon and see a book with my name on it being advertised. That brings a smile to my face. I’ve had my nose pressed up against the bookstore window for so long that it feels strange to find myself on the inside.

Of course, I’ve been in print before as part of an anthology and that is a wonderful feeling. I remember being stuck in the US on business just after “Deserving Ruth” was published in “Best New Erotica” and passing the time by browsing Barnes and Noble (I love how late book stores stay open in the US) and they had the book. I stood there holding it and realising that anyone could come in and buy it. I had no control over my story any more. It had a life of its own.

The other thing I realised was that I wasn’t going to tell anyone. Normally, being published is the kind of thing that you put on your CV/Resume, even if it’s only to show what a well-rounded chap you are, but saying “by the way, did you know I write erotica in my spare time?” doesn’t play well in the business world. In my case, it doesn’t play well at home either. My wife hates that I write erotica. She would be happy with me writing just about anything else but not this. If the erotica I write is too speculative then she sees it as a grubby attempt to get strangers off. If the erotica is too truthful, she sees it as too intimate to be shared with outsiders. True, none of my erotica is autobiographical but there is always a link between life and fiction, even if it’s only the things that the writer chooses to pay attention to.

So I won’t be going to book-signings any time soon and you won’t find my photograph on the back of the book – although that is no great loss. There’s joke that sums up this situation – skip the next paragraph if jokes bore you.

Rabbi Levi is a golf addict so when an opportunity comes to take a round of golf on his own on a course he’s always wanted to play, he takes it, even though it means playing on the Sabbath. He plays an extraordinary game, finishing the round with three consecutive hole-in-one shots. This is little short of miraculous and raises a problem of faith for the rabbi. Rabbi Levi falls to his knees, looks up at the sky and says, “Oh Lord, why, when I break your law and play golf on the Sabbath, do you reward me with such a magnificent score?” The sky darkens and a deep, God-like voice says, “So who ya gonna tell?”

But, jokes apart, I’m excited about having a book of my stories published. The fact that all of the stories are mine makes the choice of book by the reader much more personal. I mean, if someone buys “Sacred Exchange” or “Porn to Poetry” I have no means of knowing if they even read my story, but if they buy “Writing Naked”, then it’s because they want to read what I’ve written. And when they’ve finished reading it, they will have view, not just of the stories but of me.

I remember when I found Barbara Kingsolver’s first book of short stories “The Bean Trees”: I enjoyed each tale but what I enjoyed most was the idea that I’d found a new author who’s perspective on life and who’s use of language excited and refreshed me. In my most honest moments, that’s how I want people to feel when they finish reading “Writing Naked”. It’s a big ask, as my Australian colleagues say, but it’s one that gives me something to aim for.

Of course, with a book of short stories, it isn’t true to say that the book is all mine. I’ve discovered that the editor plays a crucial role here.

When Susannah first asked me if I’d like to put a collection of short stories together I was at a loss to know which ones to choose, so I sent her everything. I’d been writing for years by then and “everything” was a lot. Susannah had the distance and the skill to sort through them and find the best. Not just the best individual stories but the stories that would work best as a collection. She also gave me feedback on where a story might benefit from a re-write, and, as new stories came along, she changed the line-up to incorporate them.

By the time that I got the unproofed galleys to look at, the book had taken on a life of its own. Susannah had managed to sequence the stories so that the reader is constantly finding something new. She’d also turned a thin suggestion from me into a distinctive cover graphic.

So now the book is there. Too late to change anything. It is what it is and we’ll see what people think of it.

So what did I learn from this process?

Getting a book of short stories together takes a long time and you need support and commitment from a good editor.

You need a largish body of work to choose from and you need enough variety in what and how you write that when you pull the stories together they don’t all feel the same.

That it is tremendously helpful to spend the time going back over all the stories you’ve written so that you can see what works and what doesn’t and what underlies what you’ve written in terms of theme, imagery, language, characterisation and plot.

One outcome of the re-read for me was to question whether I’m writing erotica at all. In “Writing Naked” all of the stories have sex in them, usually multiple sex scenes that are, I’m told, hot to read. And yet, when I re-read the stories, what I felt best about was that these stories will make people laugh and cry. I think they will also put them in touch their own sexual experiences and fantasies. But they are not the best material for reading with one hand.

Which gets us into questions about the nature of genre writing. But they will have to wait for another day.

Thanks for listening.

Problems in the real world

I’ve been away for a while. My alter-ego, he-who-earns-the-money, has been going through a stressful time this month. For a couple of weeks it looked as if he’d finally managed to screw up big time: no money, no job, no ability to carry on living in Switzerland and virtually no one to talk to about it. At times like that a week can feel like a year and a sleepless night can feel like a century.

On the up-side, he lost 6 kilos, got to spend more time with his wife, worked off some fear in the gym and found out who his real friends are. On the downside he was made to question exactly who he thought he was and how the hell he got himself into this mess. Actually, that’s probably still the upside. The real downside was the impact on his wife. It felt like he’d driven over a cliff and she was strapped into the passenger seat beside him, able to do nothing but watch.

In the midst of all this, the Montreux Jazz Festival was going on. Tickets were already bought and paid for, so the uncertainty was put to one side for an evening and we listened to Tori Amos and to Tom McRae. Except that you can’t put that kind of anxiety to one side, so when Tom sang “Falling feels like flying ‘till you hit the ground” I felt like I finally knew what he meant.

Things are better now: not yet resolved but at least manageable. It turned out that sometimes, if you’re lucky, you bounce when you hit the ground.

Now in all of this you might think that Mike Kimera would have been a dormant figure, set aside while other priorities ruled. But that is to misunderstand what Mike Kimera is for.

I took refuge in Mike Kimera from time to time.

There is a story coming out on ERWA in September called “Burger Queen”, about a disturbed man obsessed with a server at his local Burger King. It was sparked partly by the Clean Sheets food month and partly by an empathy with what it might be like to be so wrapped up in a delusion that your reality on slightly overlaps with those around you. I think the most chilling thing for me was a comment from one reader: “I work with sex offenders and you may or may not be pleased to know that your depiction is very accurate.” It is not entirely comfortable to have these “accurate” voices in my head, but better perhaps to have them on the page than leave them creeping around my imagination, semi-formed but persistent.

And I went through the galleys of my first ever book, “Writing Naked”, but I'll talk about hat another time.

What I wanted to share is that I’ve discovered that being Mike Kimera, if only for a few hours at time, helps me to continue to deal with the real world. A refuge is not is not an escape, it is a place to gain strength, a pause in the fray that staves off tiredness and preserves the will to continue.

So Mike Kimera will continue and so will this blog.

Thank you for listening.