In this media section, you can read, listen and download story extracts, songs and poetry from my various novels. Along
with the written word, my work has always existed in a realm encompassing a range of multimedia elements. Created organically along with the text, these developed as required and seemed
a natural way to expand the worlds of the written novel. The resulting media is found
in this section, including dramatised extracts of the novels.
the a-men
Here are some songs, music and poetry to get a taste of The A-Men world. Also included here is a downloadable story extract of the opening chapters of the novel – introducing each
of the main protagonists whose lives are set to collide during the course of book – and some dramatised story extracts to give an introduction to the voices and
characters of the A-Men.
Once upon a time I was a man with a dream. A dream to be a god. An undeniable need to possess a name that shall never die beneath the heavens. And a form to go with that name. A body that could transcend the inevitability of death. It was a dream that destroyed everything I am or had or was. And that is what this story is about. More or less. The destruction of Nathaniel Raymond Glass and the creation of the Amen. To be the first. To be the last. To be both creator and Creator...
In this extract, Jack struggles with the discovery that he paid a corrupt medical officer to remove his long-term memory, and that his former self signed him up to join one of the emergency units sent to quell the Dead City riots. Here, as they prepare for the drop into the war zone, he speaks with Sergeant Esther Rose, leader of the unit, in an attempt to discover more. With voices from Lynda Anderson and Benjamin Wells...
In this extract, we meet Nathaniel Glass, a scientist locked in the basements of his father’s corporate offices creating a simulated universe based upon a fantasy kingdom. Here he and his team prepare for the first human entry into the world created by Glass’s bio-anima sentience. With voices from Barry Cowden, Hamish MacDougall and Linda Stratmann...
In this extract, we meet Susie and Lucille on the streets of the soon-to-be riot-torn city, utterly unprepared for what is about to befall them – instead they head out to audition for parts in a maverick director's new project, not fully understanding just what sort of parts they are signing up for. With voices from Marc Borthwick, Marcus Cotton and Sanita Simms...
We know we're
the ones that we've been looking for/The road was long, but the others
are gone/And we done care anymore/Somehow I know/Somehow I feel/That
our journey's end's coming/There'll be no more running/And this time,
angel/This time it's gone be real/We met astride the blackness of
that stormy night/Straddling our dreams, the dark shared our screams/And
time took five for a while/Wherever we go/Wherever we've been/We've
made a bed in this midnight/All we got do is lie in it...
There's a place
I go when I'm feeling down/Just a poky hole in the south of the town/It
feels so good there just hanging around/And dining at The Y Club/Turning
you on while I'm getting you off/It's making me hard feeling you getting
soft/If there's one thing I'll never get enough of/It's dining at
The Y Club/There'll be no music/No, no dancing/Just a wet floor and
a wild romancing/Taking your hand while I'm talking my chances/Dining
at The Y Club/This sin's so good, it's heaven, it numbs...
I don't know why I said I loved you/It's just the sort of crazy thing I'd do/After trying hard to fool you girl all that Summer long/I guess that I just thought that it was true/I can't say what made me sleep beside you/It's not that I've been left without a clue/It's just that it would cut you deeper than a knife/If I said I do it 'cause you want me to/Give me your heart and I'll take it/You know I'm gonna break it/But you want me to remake it for you: Susie-Sue/So take a walk with me and don't feel lonely...
Here I sit spelling
out all I can/For you tonight are the travelling man/Listen, shhh,
can you not hear/The sound of a distant car/That threatens by its
nearness to be you?/Look, stare, can you not see/The cruel white beam/That
sweeps through the shivering trees outside?/And though this happens
a dozen times, none of them are you/Nothing, no-one, not you/It's
never you/So I wait, I fret, I pace/I write, I feel/I race through
all the things that I will do and say/When you arrive...
I wake to find
her standing there/A bleached-red rose/Naked/At the window, enframed
by sunlight, unfolding to the morning/The wildness, untamed within,
sensuously radiates through/Her thorns, the barbs of her breasts/Erect,
milk-washed, full and hard and young/Stand as she stands/Skin as powdered,
homespun silk/Rounded and white/Tight across her thighs and soft behind/She
cries/The tears, wet against her cheeks and body, do fall/Her flame-crossed,
earthen hair, tilled about the unyielding hills...
I'm
looking forward to going back/To face the myth and see the real/To
lose all focus in the slow reveal/I want to sweep away the artifice
with the broom of belief/Under the carpet of time/To kick up the dust
of an earth not mine/And return to root and rock and leaf/To touch
the truth of what lies beneath/To exhalt in a land that doesn't exist/And
not resist/Raze/Erase/ Leaving the world to itself: a gift to future
generations/Scorched earth: burn it all to hell/Only to watch it grow
back exactly the same/As it was/As it is...
I was waiting/I was a lonely man/Waiting for my time to come again/I was hoping/I was praying to the gods above/But all that they sent me was rain…/And then you came/And then you came/And then you came/And then you came/Then I was kissing your face above the stillness of the lake/Knowing that the moment had come/I was whispering on you lips as we were dancing in the dark/And loving when the dancing was done/You damned me with salvation/Made me walk after the crawl/You took my life and blessed it/Made me believe in it all...
the a-men return
After
writing The A-Men, I was keen on keeping the idea of extending the written world
universe into a range of multimedia elements. One of the main additions is found
in Pure's chapters
where I took existing poems and altered them to make her drug-induced nightmares
take on a more lyrical quality. Also, here we encounter Johnnie
Redd's rendition of the Gonks 'R' UsWerehouse favourite, Down At The Werehouse, complete with howl finalé. The resulting
media is found below, including opening extracts of the novel centring on
each of the remaining characters.
He was warm yet lonely, the traces of her blood still etched across his senses as she had cried out above him. The water was icy cold, pressing upon him from all sides, yet his body was afire with pumping life and the strongest desires that he should talk to her. Turning sluggishly in the midnight he opened his mouth, but grief tore at his throat, sucking away his voice as the water gushed across his swelling tongue. And he was sinking. Sinking into an ocean of darkness, her weight on his back as he carried her body away with him....
I've got a six-speed
gearbox plugged into my soul/I've got one night, baby, and I'm outta
control/My Osakimo's buzzing and its set for I/0/I'll be your sacrifice,
lady, tell me the place to go/She took my hand and dragged me out
of the light/Into the dark to meet her friends of the night/Down at
the Werehouse!/Down at the Werehouse!/Down at the Werehouse!/Down
at the Werehouse!/The urban violence rebels crowd drunk at the bar/Swapping
combat stories from the latest Corp war...
a black, black star in a white universe Download song
There’s a black, black star/There’s a black, black star/In a white universe/A black, black star/There’s a black, black star/In a white universe/There’s a black, black star in a white universe/You can see it if you dare/In the midst of all that brilliance/In the distance/See it?/There!/And they want this mote to vanish/To banish its intensity/That little, lonely blemish/But that black, black star is me...
You didn't like
my hair/You didn't like my cologne/You didn't like my bad breath,
baby/In the mouth of your phone/You didn't like my walk/The way I
dress to the right/You didn't like my lifestyle, baby/The way I stayed
out all night/Hey baby, I can cut it out/If it's bad I wanna cut it
out/Oh baby, I can cut it out/Because I love you I can cut it out/You
didn't like my jokes/You didn't care for my lies/I pared my nails
with your fork tines, baby/That's something else you despise/You didn't
like my music...
It's a California
Dream/Rising in the morning/A naked girl in your bed./What the fuck–?/You
pull your jeans on/And curse./Blood, gang rape./Glance over at the
whore./Young toughs gone wild on booze and drugs/Inside your head./Big
ugly street-fighters stride motorcycles/In the alleyway/And Harley-Davidson's
growl again/In beautiful, wicked, evil pain./The wolves ride out,/Shoot
off like a gun pointed at your head./The chick is dead./You jerked
your load last night while she senseless screamed...
I am your wolf/At
the door/Knocking to come in./So cold and alone on this deep, dark
night./Silently there he howls/He's left the pack for you, bereft,/He
cries/He rubs his icy nose against the glass/He scratches your name
in the wood with his claws/He hungers for you/His jaws dripping/Hot
saliva spatters the snow, which yielding, melts./The door opens, spilling
golden light,/And cautiously out you look/The wolf retreats and like
mystery vanishes./So then in human growls/I ask of you:/Will you let
me in?...
One
thousand stars are born above the dark shadow of the rock,/In the
sky they mock, passing over the hills on flights obscured in the thoughts
of angels./Our car carries on/On the road of our crossing; our journey./The
town is left behind, faceless and far away like a fading fire/As higher
we climb/Towards the mountain./Silently the beaches go by as heavy
waves continue to pound the sand,/Down on a coast girthed by mountains
as far as any eye can view....
forever a-men
Following
in the traditions set down in the first two books, I have used a range of media
in the construction of Forever
A-Men. This time the addition of a blind detective meant that a new
style of writing had to be developed, and the inspiration for how to describe
the powers of psychometry came in the form of a poem wirtten in the Mohave Desert
in California called Roadkill. The resulting media is found in this section, including extracts of the
novel centring on each of the primary characters.
I ask you please do not focus on the channel or the being delivering this message; it only gets in the way of understanding. Focus instead on the message. I am the Amen. The Creator. God of the Land of Shadows and Souls. He Who Shall Not Be Named. Speaker of the thirteen words. The words of command; power; knowledge; sense; direction; element; volume; being; quintessence; time; transmutation; creation and destruction; and belief. I command the light. I command the dark. I command the earth, air, fire, water and shadow...
It's not how
you imagined it/You're turning away from the truth/It's not how you
believed it was/What must I do to show you the proof?/Here in my heart,
here in the words that you spoke/Here in your very own letters and
lines/Is the one perfect reason for my one perfect hope/That you weren't
lying to me all those times/You blamed me for your emptiness/For taking
all your freedom away/You blamed me for your loneliness/And for raping
your soul every day/Now
here I stand, here like a ship in a storm/With enough tears to fill
up a sea...
I'm a traveller
on the sea of fate/Hear now; my tales relate/I'm a traveller on the
sea of fate/My ship is charmed, my course is set/I'll cast away all
life's regret/I'm a traveller and my course is set/One dream and an
open heart/Two dice and an ancient chart/I'm a traveller with an open
heart/There is a world beyond the glass/That is a place I'll find
somehow/There is a time behind the clock/The world is here/The time
is now!/I'm a traveller on the sea of fate/Out here adventures wait/I'm
a traveller on the sea of fate....
None
knew what he came there for/Yet I watched him die from Israen-Tôr/Here
were placed the dolmen stones/Upon the mossy clay/Then came there
warriors, brave and bold/Who tore those stones away/His kin were buried
in that land/They called the Death-Black Field/Beneath the earth they
rested long/While one man's fate was sealed/I saw his colours fly/I
saw his shining shield/I saw the darkness in his eyes as he strode
upon the field/None knew what he came there for/Yet I watched him
die from Israen-Tôr/He fought not on either side/Only for that hill/He
did not wish to raise the dead/Now he remains there still...
Rock. Sand. The
running white man/Has a suitcase in his hand/It opens like the valleys
on his back/Spilling all that remains of his life/Snakes. Ants. His
blood-stained pants/Grind upon granite; unforgiving earth bone/Around
him the names graffitied on the stone/Shine like sprayed tattoos/Around
him dance the shadows/Around him ride the bikes/While he claws his
fingers raw/They yawn; they've seen it all before/Scrub. Sand. His
soft white skin/The rock won't let him in/Lizards. Trees. The girl
of his dreams/Drops her child as she screams/Her bright red nails
fumble as it falls/And ritually paints the walls with its blood/As
now, as then...
Have you ever
seen a map of a person's mind? It always comes out as an island; a
private place in a private sea where we run and sail and fly on the
greatest of all adventures. And here somehow I met you: the beautiful
bird with the wounded wing/Where did you come from, my beautiful bird/With
the wounded wing?/Maybe if you let me I can make you smile again/Maybe
if I let you, you will do the exact same thing/For me/Where are you
going with the sky so bright today?/To run or sail or fly?/And though
I can never leave my island den/What bliss in your release to try/
And if I'm lucky, my beautiful bird/You'll take me with you when you
go...
I'm
hungry for the land that I once claimed/The soil and stone/The soul
and skin/The place for which I am ordained/To take, destroy, return/To
teach, but never learn/There's a halo of the absolute/A total, transcendental
fate/It's all I want or feel or see/As they bury my bones in their
cemetery/There was only you, me, us/Now there is only me and this/Life
is strong, it always is/Love is strong – the touch, the kiss –/So
is the freedom of feeling free/Yet death is stronger than all three/Perhaps
we are all seeking for what we already have/Perhaps we find only those
things we never lose/For you can only make green from yellows and
blues...
the mortal and his god
Having
spent quite a number of years writing and composing medieval songs, lays and
poems under the auspices of the Far
Isles Medieval Society,
and running live events for the AEs Society,
when it came to fleshing out the fantasy world of AEs, I already had a good
stock of material to draw upon. During
the years that the AEs Society was running, many minstrels have graced the halls
of the Guild of Adventurers and in their turn written many lines of song or
verse concerning the land of Fëa and the legended heroes of this and other ages.
This section covers those items of poetry and song which have a direct link
to the fantasy universe, highlighting many aspects of the histories and myths
of the world. Most of the verse found in the novel is reproduced
without amendment and the resulting media is found in this section, including
extracts of the novel covering pivotal developments at various points in the
story.
I am named not by my birth, but am Maerakkin by the word of a nihtmare, Azeal by my master and Wiseacre by the word of The Falconfells, in The Deeping Forest they address me as OEwen, by my own blessing Akharnim, Auldrius to the folk of the moors, Mheredûn to those over the sea, friends I have lost name me Tiamhendles and witches in the night name me The Black Mage – the one who goes before both magick and death. And to you, I am Nirromelhe or drun as it suits you...
“Long the moon hath risen full since the swords of men have sung/Or mighty battles here have raged upon the graven fields of old/And now the age of peace and dreams doth lie upon our mantled land/Listen to songs and tellers tales that from our eloquent mouths unfold.” The voice came like a cry, dreamspinning its harmonious thread across the morning air. Within its song lay the notes of a pipe and the beat of a drum, adding crystal and cadence to the voice, and binding enchantment. The spell wound, it rose far above its singer away to other ears...
The two guards strode quickly past the main entrance to the tavern and arrived at the foot of the wooden steps that led to Nirromelhe’s room. No welcoming lights shone out to greet them from the higher windows as they approached nor were there any sounds within. Above the moonless night completed the darkness that seemed to surround the place. As Renedmere rubbed his hands together to warm them, Assinaax started up the steps. “So I wait out here in the cold, do I?” The young man stopped and turned to look down at his friend, sighing a great cloud of white breath...
After Chaelsehr had taken his seat and the crowd’s praises had subsided, Vothrhimagus arose once more and repeated his request asking for objections for the commencement of the council. And this time the hall was silent. “Very well,” he continued. “Maedur, the lists if you will.” Upon this command, Maedur stood forward and produced a scroll bearing the names and titles of those present and as he read from it, Assinax familiarised himself with the lords and ladies who sat before him...
Upon the hem of the cloak of darkness, we rode like the wind unto Kaelis. The eternal midnight of my master grasped the land to its black bosom, held it close so that not even the slightest living thing could pass between one nor the other. Freed from my death, I rode exultant, the elements exciting me as never before in all my manifestations. Never has there been such a time as this, not at the beginning, nor any time since. Now was the rebirth of Jaes, GodKing of Fëa across all the four corners of the earth. Each of his brothers were slain. Each had fallen in their own time and now it was his...
For I am a dream
of AEs/One day the mountain I'll climb/My heart holds no fear/For
His light is near and my path will be clear in the night/My life is
a dream of AEs/Here in His mind am I real/He gives me breath, dreams
my life, dreams my death/All I touch, all I see, all I feel/The dream
that I dream is of AEs/His mirror is flawless and true/Creation's
perfection is His pure reflection/0 AEs, the legend is you/For I have
a dream/A wonder-filled dream/For I have a dream: AEs...
O Stoin, Stoin/You
were Ranger, blood and bone/You were the one to break the stone/Stoin,
Stoin; you are hero, forestal/You saved us from the BloodKing's thrall/Stoin,
Stoin; the night is black and graves are cold/As you guard the dead
of Ravenshold/I never thought I'd see the day where I would not feel/The
leaves between my fingers; the earth beneath my heel/Go running wild
through woodlands; be laughing with the lark/O why could I not read
the signs in the maze upon the bark?/I always thought adventures never
end/Yet never comes, my friend...
I
see the ship in the deep dock/The Talisman's waiting for me/The inn
is burning/The tide is turning/I see the sails in the dawn light/Unfolding
like birds taking wing/Jherrengard's falling/The World's Edge calling/I
wanted endless night/Dark moon and starlight and Jaes' cloak around
me/I wanted endless things/True power and magick rings and Raed's
sword beside me/I've promised my son to the blind man/The child of
my broken wife's womb/New life awakens/Soon will be taken/I leave
with a verse and a vengeance,/With the gods I have come to deny...
Long the moon
hath risen full since the swords of men have sung/Or mighty battles
here have raged upon the graven fields of old/And now the age of peace
and dreams doth lie upon our mantled land/Listen to songs and tellers
tales that from our eloquent mouths unfold/Back seven and ten times
a hundred moons/When the days were life-long and hard/When broken
clouds deaf passed the Living Sea's calls/When no elders sat in the
Wilding's close walls/And magicks were black in AEthaneric's halls/Rode
the knave named Thaizinazzard...
It is written
in the stars on the parchment of the night/By the hand of ancient
gods and the ones that bow to them/That eternity will end/Will never
come again/Every sea/Every dune/Every morn and every noon/Every planet,
star and moon/And though the final supernova will be bright/When it's
over then there still shall be the night/It is written in the storms
on the parchment of the earth/By the hand of ancient winds and the
ones that bow to them/That everything is one/And the one is everything/Every
head/Every hand/Every home in every land...
Seers of Fidhnemed
foresaw danger/Of the coming of the stranger/Cast the news like bones
of anger/Whispered in wonder/Of tribesmen's sunder./Risen evil: the
ocean blackened/Risen devil: the bowsprits slackened/Risen monster
like land-borne kraken/Heard the thunder/Of proud Redhsunderer./Helmsman,
warrior, axeman, sailor/Chieftain, shieldman, banner bearer/Launched
upon the tides of favour/For islands yonder/Led by Redhsunderer./What
man can escape the silver storm's spear when that spear is thrown
at thee?...
