‘In the Mean Time’, published in Issue 1 of Scrittura Magazine

My dark short story ‘In the Mean Time’ has been published in the inaugural issue of Scrittura Magazine. You can read the story by following this link.

Alternatively, you can take a look at my full menu of short fictions by going here.

Here’s a quick snippet:

“The knife in his pocket has drawn blood, pierced the fleshy part of his thumb. And yet he looks on impassively; waits as an audience is cut and pasted into the theatre around him. Regards the curtain which masks the stage with mild interest. Pulls out a throat lozenge with his unbloodied left hand; pops it into his mouth. Waits.

Kills time.

Kills it dead.”

Start your week with a free ebook

Start your week with a free ebook copy of my comic novel Things Won’t Fix. The book is on a free promotion on Amazon right now (until 18th September) and you can get your hands on a copy by following this link.

Kirstie Smith’s nickname is Kirst, and she believes she is cursed. She’s lost her boyfriend, her job, her self-esteem. She’s in danger of losing her house too. It all goes back to one bad mistake she’s made. A mistake which has the potential to change her whole life. She believes she’s been somehow chosen to become a kind of magnet to which all the bad stuff in life can get attracted.

Alex Chase also has an apt name. He’s chasing seemingly unattainable dreams, on the hunt for fame at any price. He too thinks he’s been chosen, only, for a very different fate. But Alex’s luck is running out, he’s starting to get found out. And, more worryingly, he’s being chased by a mysterious bald man in a charcoal suit, a man who has something very important to tell him.

Things Won’t Fix is a black comedy novel which lays bare the world of work in this difficult financial climate. It also examines how human relationships fare when they are squeezed by so many outside influences. As Alex and Kirstie’s lives weave and dance around each other, will they be able to escape? And will it be together?

The novel is very readable and quirky, containing a strong sense of intrigue right from the start, with close attention paid to pace. The contrast between Kirstie’s desperation and Alex’s laid-back attitude is the crux of the novel, and their character arcs inform the narrative. However, this is more than just a tale of two halves however. In a way, it is a character study of a modern city in recession. It’s a State of the City novel.

AJ Kirby is the author of ‘Perfect World’, ‘When Elephants Walk Through The Gorbals’, ‘Bully’, and ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’.

Date for Your Diaries: (Re) Writing Yorkshire: Mapping Leeds’ fictional landscape with A J Kirby, Richard Smyth and Dr Rachel Connor – 17th November 2015

As a part of Leeds Beckett University’s all-new creative writing course, the university are running a number of literary events and talks at the Leeds Library (if you’ve never been, I urge you to try this brilliant place). I’ve somehow wangled my way onto the panel for an event on 17th November.

Here’s the gen:

Dr Rachel Connor, Andrew Kirby and Richard Smythe will explore the literary map of Leeds and its region.

Led by Dr Rachel Connor, a novelist and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University, A J (Andrew) Kirby and Richard Smythe will explore the literary map of Leeds and its region – with a particular focus on grassroots writing. Spotlighting selected extracts from their own fiction, they will consider what constitutes a ‘Leeds’ or a ‘Yorkshire’ writer.

A J Kirby and Richard Smyth were selected in 2013 as amongst the top 20 writers in Leeds under 40 and were included in LS13: New Generation of Leeds Writers (Dead Ink/Valley Press). Collectively, they have published seven novels and numerous short stories, written and reviewed for the TLS, the New Scientist and the New York Journal of Books.

For more information, contact: r.a.connor@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Or visit this site to register your interest in attending.

More on the Leeds Library:

The Leeds Library is an independent subscription library, based on Commercial Street in the centre of Leeds.

Catch ‘The Magpie Trap’ for nowt

The ebook of my very first novel The Magpie Trap is available for nowt on Amazon this week. The free promotion runs from 9th-13th September and you can pick up your copy by following this link.

Helpful Review by G. Polley, on Amazon.com:

Louis van Gaal: Dutch Courage just 99p on Amazon

Get your REDUCED copy here.

Gratis: ‘A Man Could Lose Himself’ FREE on Amazon

The ebook of my 2015 novel A Man Could Lose Himself is currently on a free promo on Amazon worldwide. The promotion lasts from 4th-8th September. Pick up a gratis copy by following this link.

‘A Man Could Lose Himself’ is a supernatural, surreal, cruelly comic mystery/ crime thriller about identity, belonging, and tourism.

Set against the dramatic back-drop of Venice, the most romantic city of the world, the book introduces us to Michael Moss, a security systems sales manager, on the day he wakes up and discovers he has lost his wife. Not lost as in she has died, no, she has literally disappeared off the face of the earth.

We follow him as he tries to come to terms with this confusing discovery, as he comes to believe, or is led to believe that he was never married in the first place, and he starts to question everything which made him him in the first place. Initially written from Michael’s perspective, the novel soon shifts to take in his wife’s, Elsa’s, as we slowly discover what happened to her and the dark forces which are at play behind the scenes.

This is a book which gives a whole new meaning to trial separation and which studies relationships-gone-stale in an unflinching, darkly humorous way. Share in Michael’s descent into madness as he tries to unmask the sinister agent who is responsible for shaking his and Elsa’s world.

By the author of ‘Bully’, ‘The Magpie Trap’, ‘Perfect World’, and ‘Paint this town Red’.