Children's Hospice: Out Now.

So there we have it.  I have closed the book (I'm so sorry) on what has turned out to be a rather tumultuous, mentally ravaging few months of my creative life.  CHILDREN'S HOSPICE - the Christmas/Halloween novella I started in June as a precursor to an Edinburgh show I plan to ignite next year, is now for sale on Amazon and Amazon kindle.  The book that woke me in a cold sweat at 4am, that screeched at me from the corner of my bedroom to be finished, that imbued my nightmares with terrible little footsteps and infantile giggles, that poked and prodded me as I rolled over in sweaty terror and that which may have thudded my writing style off course permanently is now out there.  I am terrified.
CHILDREN'S HOSPICE is a black comedy domestic fantasy drama told in experimental, surrealist prose from a number of different perspectives which leap from one another organically.  It begins on an idyllic Christmas morning as a mother and father play with their newborn baby and his puppy and it ends - well, it ends somewhere none of us have ever been and none of us ever want to go.  It was born from both a recurring nightmare and the act of me trying to embody my long term relationship which died at Christmas and began to rot and fester throughout January.  It is a cautionary tale of victim-blaming and the evil that men do, and it is a modern day nativity story laced with domestic violence, cot-death and a smidgen of cannibalism.
At 100 pages, CHILDREN'S HOSPICE has something to say at every turn - the premise and form are too overwhelming for a full length novel, but equally would have felt stuffed up and rushed in a slighter short story.  It is a novella, a sub-format of fiction that I have always been enamoured with (if it's good enough for Camus and Fitzgerald...).  I hope it makes you laugh as much as it startles you, I hope you find purpose in the graphic sequences for none of them are present merely to shock and disgust.  I won't be offended if you choose not to read it, just as I won't be offended if you borrow or steal it.  It's not there to make me rich - all royalties earned from the book will be donated to the Children's Hospice South West Charity anyway (Far be it from me to grow fat from the depiction of institutions developed to help sick kids).
So have a gander - it's only 77p on Kindle or £4 if you like having something to keep on your shelf.  Share the news, enjoy it as a Halloween ghost story or wait a while for December and read it as a festive parable (Like A Nightmare Before Christmas, it's just as relevant during both seasons) and remember that while I write foremost for myself, everything I do is in part for you - my friends and relatives who have directly and indirectly sculpted me throughout my 27 years into the person I am today, whoever the heck that is.  It's October the 1st.  Summer is over.  A darkness is crawling up from the rocks and ready to descend upon England.  Does this upset you?  CHILDREN'S HOSPICE is the story for you.

 

CHILDREN'S HOSPICE: THE MUSICAL is coming August 2015.

To purchase the book, click here.