Creative writing tutor John Dean has announced that he will be switching his popular courses to the Friends’ Meeting House in Skinnergate, Darlington, North East England from September. John, who has ten crime novels to his name with the eleventh coming out in November, again published by Hale, has run adult learning courses at Darlington Arts Centre for the best part of a decade. Now, with the Centre due to close in July, he has announced the new home for the courses, which deal with all aspects of creative writing, focusing primarily on prose, including short stories and novels, as well as occasional forays into the world of stage, film and radio. Each course is different and deals with everything from characterisation to plotting, creating strong sense of place to how to edit. There will be three courses over the next year (all beginning at 7pm). More info on the Courses section at www.darlingtonforculture.org

Cyber Rules, the new novel e-book by Myra King, published by the team here at Certys, continues to attract interest – here’s the latest blog to appear

http://www.sigriddaughter.com/news_from_past_glass_woman_prize.htm

John Dean

Nearly half way through the May Global Short Story Competition and already some good stories coming in from all over the world. If you fancy a go, you can find out more or enter at www.globalshortstories.net

John Dean

“Wallace the dragon had just eaten his breakfast and curled up to enjoy another forty winks in his lair deep within the hillside. He lay in a corner of the scorched cavern, his tail wrapped around his rhythmically heaving frame and a dreamy smile playing on his lips. Occasionally, his long snout twitched and sent wisps of white smoke curling upwards. All was silent apart from his snoring and yet he had an uneasy feeling that he was not alone. As he lay there, reluctantly awake but with his eyes still shut, he was uncomfortably aware of a strange tingling pricking its way steadily down his spine, which was a distinctly unnerving experience when you were thirty two feet long.” That’s the start the children’s comic fantasy Haghir the Dragon Finder, by John Dean, available as an ebook in the Kindle store at www.amazon.co.uk for £1.48

This is the start to White Gold, the new novel by Roger Barnes. “The afternoon heat shimmered off the tarmac as Matthew Lomsela drove his dusty and battered Land Rover Defender into Terminal 2 at Johannesburg International Airport, parked at the short stay car park and went into the air-conditioned Arrivals lounge. He looked at the overhead screens and saw South African Airways flight SAA 2395 from Heathrow was on time and due in at 15.45, forty minutes until it landed.
He had arranged to meet his clients, who he had only spoken to on the phone to arrange this Safari at the airline’s security office to introduce himself and assist with reclaiming their firearms. Enough time for a coffee and a look at one of the dailies. He bought a copy of ‘Africa Today’ and made his way to the mezzanine floor overlooking the runway on one side and Arrivals on the other, went into McKinley’s – thought about a beer but settled for coffee – not wanting alcohol on his breath when he met his clients.
Glancing through the paper, the headline on page two caught his attention. ‘Namibian poachers again active’ and read: ‘Ruthless gangs of poachers are again slaughtering the elephant herds and rhino population in the Southern provinces.”
White Gold is a thriller taking the reader into a world of intrigue and danger set amid the poachers of Africa and those trying to thwart their criminals efforts. It’s our latest ebook and can be purchased if you go to www.amazon.co,uk and key the title into the Kindle store. And all for £2.23.

John Dean

“Anthea Stevenson sat staring at the computer screen after bringing up the Whisper and ceasing the incessant flashing with a left hand click.
A letter and a number appeared: C-4379, intriguing, yet somewhat sinister, as though it were not from a real person, but an integral part of the electronic network that was her favourite online chat room, The Over-Forties.
She was quite a bit over forty, she mused, almost fifty, but that one-year shy gave her moral access and she was honest.
Too honest, in fact it was almost a failing of hers. Too honest, too nice – these traits sometimes conflicted, blurred between diplomacy and blatancy.
Still she kept the veneer of niceness.
She hated the word nice; her friends would have never believed what she was intending. The thought would never enter their minds that Thea, nice, sweet pure Thea would actually do something like this.” So starts the novel by Cyber Rules by Myra King. It tells the story of Anthea Stevenson, a farmer’s wife, midlife-challenged and living in isolated rural Australia. For many years, she has harboured a dark secret. Now caught up on the addictive side of the Internet, she holds another secret, one which ultimately may prove to be far more deadly. Myra’s royalties from sales of the book will go to Médecins Sans Frontières Doctors Without Borders. It’s our latest ebook and can be purchased if you go to www.amazon.co,uk and key the title into the Kindle store. All for £2.05. Australian readers will have to purchase via Amazon US at www.amazon.com
John Dean

“It’s not like anyone around here actually properly celebrates Christmas.” That’s the start to Andrew Frost’s Chrissie Lights, one of the stories in our Australian anthology Vegemite Whiskers. Or how about this at the start of Bella Anderson’s The Last of My Line? “I am the last of my line; my eyes will never shine from another face, no one will laugh or talk like me and my memory will not survive a careless generation.”
Want to know what happened next in this and other stories from talented Australian writers? If you go to www.amazon.co,uk and key the title into the Kindle story you can buy the book and find out what happened in those and many other stories. And all for £1.48. Australian readers will have to purchase via Amazon US at www.amazon.com

John Dean

“I met Silas in a bar called The Trickster. He was the Joker. I was the Queen of Hearts.” That’s the beginning of Heart String by S J Finn, the first story in our anthology Global Shorts. Or how about this? “On the day of my grandmother’s funeral, I stopped eating.” That’s the start of Eat, Mister by John Michaelson.
Or “I always get away with it, I’m invulnerable, I’m the man,,” he thought, and he said it loud, right into the ear of the wimp who was lying pinned beneath his foot in a remote corner of the playground” , which is the start to I Always Get Away With It by Stuart McCarthy.
Want to know what happened next? If you go to www.amazon.co,uk and key Global Shorts into the Kindle store you can buy the book and find out what happened in those and many other stories. And all for £2.23.

John Dean

The team here at Certys has considered long and hard and selected the winner of our recent free poetry competition run at www.globalwriters.net, our social networking site. The quality was high again but in the end we went for DO I IMAGINE HIM THERE? by Emma Jones because good writing should move the reader and this did, a huge and tragic story told in 139 words that felt so real. Excellent. Here’s the poem

DO I IMAGINE HIM THERE?
It wasn’t so long ago
that he held his breath –
let out a sigh
that was to be his last.

But, now I catch a glimpse of him –
walking by
and, hear our children say –
“Is that someone coming in?”.
7 o’clock every evening –
a flicker of light
a shadow issues forth.
a glint passes by the window pane.
the key slips in the lock –
never to turn.

His usual return after a hard days work –
a hunch of the shoulder
a sluggish air
a weary tread.
do I imagine him there?

Years pass by –
snow falls
rain.
The sun shines through my window
I hear the gate
I look up acutely aware
but I never catch him there.
The key slips in the lock –
never to turn.

Special mention goes to:
He Said, She Said – Andy Luke
Amaranthine – Lisbeth Winter
An Unlikely Truth – Rebecca Dixon-Wright
Beware the Shoes – Libby Thompson
And the unnamed poem about Bogota by Tanai Cardona

John Dean

Cyber Rules, the new novel by Myra King, published by Certys, is attracting quite a bit of attention. You can buy it on Kindle (more details in the ebooks section of www.globalwriters.net at the top of the home page).In the meantime, here’s one of the blogs about it: http://jottingsfromthewritingpad.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/cyber-rules-by-myra-king.html

John Dean