Apples and Oranges

One of the downsides, and there are many, of spending three months indoors writing books all day and drinking beer all evening, is that when you finally emerge into the public domain (unlike your book, which will probably spend months in some dusty office being manhandled by a bespectacled chap who likes to use the …

New fiction: The Block Splitter

'Tell us the one about the kangaroo again,' said Brodie, warming his damp socks by the fire. His feet were still inside them. The end of his big toe poked out the top of one of them. He didn’t care. 'Not 'til you take your fuck'n feet away from them flames,' said Grundy. 'You'll burn …

Love to know: A parable

So I'm sitting in this cafe and the coffee arrives and it's kinda how I like it, but not really, just slightly wrong, but that's okay because it tastes good and I'm not gonna be here for very long anyway so I can always get a better one somewhere else. The morning's barely an hour …

The Idiot Revisited: The Tale of the Maison Trudon

I am terrible at buying birthday presents. I don’t know why, I just am. Especially for my wife. I just seem to get it wrong, year after year. So birthday shopping for me is a source of extreme anxiety. Blurred vision. Tingling fingertips. Shortness of breath. Diazepam. The whole lot. Some people feel this way …

For this meal make us truly thankful

We'd been experimenting for weeks. My Food Bag. My Lunch Box. My Dinner Box. My Great, Big Bag of Tucker. My Seed Box. My Box of Goodies. Whatever. I lost count. I lost track. They were all okay. Some hits, some misses. Our biggest complaint: it all tastes like cafe food. We missed our family …

With a little help from my friend

He lies there all day, waiting for me to finish. Without complaint, or comment, or suggestion, or critique. He's there for the curses. He's there for the sighs. He's there for the lows. And he's there for the ... there are rarely highs. Let's just say he's there for all the moments, both bad and …