Oh, Vienna! Synopsis.

A brief description of some of the stories from my new collection.

OH, VIENNA
Concerning the travels through Europe undertaken by Jet Tea and Hayden, heavily focusing on the visit to Vienna referenced at the end of The Life and Loves of Jet Tea.  It's more drunken idiocy, and more focused on Hayden than Jet Tea.  Maurice's absence is explained.  I hadn't planned on returning to these characters so soon, but I liked the idea of writing a prequel and the story also fits one of the collection's main themes which is escapism.

SIGNS
A short story to the nth degree, this is somewhere between a poem and a fable, commenting on our obsession with obeying signs and detailing why it's not really beneficial to do so without question.  It takes place within the timeframe of Jet Tea and concerns the man and his son who are referenced as having been tragically killed, again in the last chapter (it seems the last chapter of my debut novel is an unintentional advert for this collection).

THE NICE MAN
The first short story I ever wrote, written for an independent zine that never happened.  This picks up shortly after the events of Jet Tea and explains where Niall disappeared to.  He's taken leave from London for a while to cope with guilt and is staying in Yorkshire with his dog. While on a stroll to see the farmhouse that inspired Wuthering Heights, he meets a man who claims to be a thousand years old and responsible for all of the world's evil.  But he's really quite a nice man.

THE EXPLODING OF JEREMY AND JESSICA
A further instance of the magic in Jet Tea's world.  Jessica, who you'll remember as the vegan that insults Jet Tea, broken up with her boyfriend craig and has exploded.  Jeremy, who is into Jessica, has also exploded.  This is a love story about what happens when two people explode.

FOR GILLIAN, IN LA ROCHELLE
This is my attempt at honouring some of the people who didn't turn up in Jet Tea, and is pretty much a tragic love story, with some drunken Maurice thrown in for good measure.

MY HOLIDAY IN DEPRAVITY
Almost an essay as opposed to a story.  I wanted to articulate in prose how I felt last summer, spending all my money on getting drunk, staying up, not sleeping, fearing for my health, losing touch with society, dreams about dying and drunken fights with wankers.

COPPERVID DAFIELD
My abridged autobiography, with a temporal variation.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?
An epic tragedy told through the medium of facebook.

REMEMBRANCE
A morality tale; and something of a parable.  Albert wants to be remembered beyond his eventual death, and is having trouble finding a means of doing so.  He is violent, short-tempered and has none of the talent usually affiliated with cultural immortality.  However, an idea springs to mind when he passes a war memorial, listing the honoured dead.

FROM NIGHTMARES
I am not at liberty to discuss the contents of this section.  The demons will trap me and torture me if I do.

OH, VIENNA! is available now.