June Genie
This month's edition of my goings-on
Here’s what’s going on in my world right now, writing and other-wise.
New Serial Novels
JAGO.
15-year-old Dakota Scout comes from a world of fear and famine, a world of sudden storms, of feral dogs, and gangs of murderous ‘prowlers’ who torture and murder for sport. Our own world is ninety years past, and all that remains of humanity are tiny tribes who survive beyond the ruins of the ghostly city of Jago, living on their wits and their ability to endure the worst that nature and humankind can throw at them.
One day, pursued by a gang of prowlers, Dakota flees into the basement of a crumbling building and finds herself in a tiny, sterile room with a small computer whose screen lights up and asks her when she wants to go. She spins a dial and, when she leaves the room, she emerges into present-day San Diego. She has traveled back through time into a world of plenty, a world of lights, a world in which cars move and windows aren’t all smashed and in which the people are safe and comfortable. Picked up by the police as a vagrant minor she is fostered by Dr. Jane Smith, and decides she will stay in this safe, protected world. She will go to school, she will make friends of girls her own age, she will forget the life she left behind.
But the life she left behind hasn’t forgotten her. Prowlers, friends and a murderous boy named Jester are all searching for her, all determined to find her. And the man who designed the machine that took her back through time isn’t the only one to discover its secrets.
Jago is the first novel in a YA fantasy trilogy: at times bleak and dark, it is not for the faint-hearted, yet it is filled with honesty and love, and it introduces an exceptional new character in Dakota Scout.
Beginning soon, chapters released each Sunday.
THE PORTRAIT ARTIST
Steven, an emotionally closed-off portrait artist, must come to terms with the arrival of Stella, the daughter he gave up fifteen years earlier.
Chapters released each Thursday.
Tynemouth Station Book Fair update
Tynemouth Station, North Shields.
28th June. 9.30-3.30.
I’ve done one of these book fairs already - see my report here - and it’s a fantastic day. The book fair on one side of the railway station, the regular Sunday market on the other. Come along, buy a book, say hello!
Plans awry.
They say the gods laugh at those who make plans. My plan for a summer of busking with my saxophone was knocked off course by a severe case of TMJ. Combined with my chronic migraines, it makes playing sax a wee bit painful. The TMJ is due to my extremely poor self-taught embouchure, while the chronic migraines are due to no-one-knows.
I have the choice of re-engineering my entire sax-playing technique or playing a different instrument: guitar or bass, both of which I can play reasonably well, but on which I’m very rusty right now. Hmm. A completely different route to playing music. It might be fun.
FEATURED BOOK: Dealer No. 1
Mickey Hall is a bright, friendly fifteen-year-old from a chaotic family background – a feckless single-parent mother, a drug-addicted sister and a series of waster ‘dads’ – who realises that his life would become so much easier if he simply embraced a life of crime himself. Having decided on this course of action he assembles a group of like-minded schoolfriends, and adopts a huge fighting dog called Maximus and, being both charming and very ruthless he sets out to become the number one drug dealer in town. He also begins a relationship with the prettiest, coolest girl in school.
Things are going well until one afternoon he is abducted by a car full of adult gangsters who take him to a disused warehouse where he thinks they are going to murder him but instead he is introduced to the leader of the gang – his own father, a powerful, influential and affluent figure in the criminal underworld. He is quickly seduced deep into a life of crime by his new-found father’s wealth and power. Eventually though, Mickey finds himself in a situation where he must choose between saving his family and betraying his father, forced to choose between old loyalties and his new-found wealth and security.
Set in the grimy, poverty-stricken, north-eastern wasteland of Sunderland, a place of derelict industry, charity shops, and people riding ‘benefit chariots’ - a town that is ironically currently bidding for the title European City of Culture - comes this YA tale of dreams, drugs and dead-end families.
Buy it here:
Permissions.
For commercial and profit-making enterprises, I charge one blueberry muffin or 5% of gross. Whichever is the higher amount. However, I’m always open to suggestions. Contact me first.
Schools.
I’ve worked with schools and colleges in the past and my stories have been set texts in a number of syllabuses. If you wish to use a book, discuss one of my stories, or you’d like me to have a chat your class, get in touch. I will reply.
Serial novels:
The serial-novels listed below are all available to read on Substack. They’re also available in print and on kindle.
· If you want to own a copy, click on the blue-hyperlinked title.
· If you want to read it on Substack, click on the “Substack here” link for the first chapter of each.
London Rain. Julien Trent is a free-climber and thief who works for a Government-run asymmetric investigation team led by the enigmatic Dr. Madeline Perfect.
Substack here.
Must Try Harder. The memoirs of a classroom teacher. My memoirs, to be exact.
Substack here.
Mallory’s Tower. A coming-of-age story about a girl who lives with her grandmother in a big old, derelict house.
Substack here.
All Ye Bully Rooks. A medieval murder-mystery set in England, a few years after the battle of Crécy.
Substack serial here.
Original inspiration for the story here (though I didn’t exactly follow the plot of the lyrics).
Sleeper. A Mark Barrett adventure/romance set on a snowbound train (because I always wanted to write story set on a train).
Substack serial here:
These serial-novels are available on Substack but are not yet in print:
Bad Music - In order to save his wayward son, a father must resurrect long-forgotten skills.
Hurley - the case of the missing Guarneri.
The Rainbow Bridge: part 1. After the world ends, a man begins an epic journey home, meeting murderers, mothers, and gods along the way.
The Book Group. Set in post-war, London, The Book Group is a story of friendship, love and stolen gold, set in a bookshop.
I’m an independent writer with a mission to write serial novels that are freely available to read.