Martin Pond's Blog, page 2
July 11, 2019
The annual summer sale
What better way to take your mind off Wimbledon and the like than sitting under a tree with your Kindle, an ice-cream and an ice-cold beer/glass of prosecco... Best you fill your Kindle up with reading matter then, eh? And yes, the shameless plug starts here...
The e-book version of my novel, Drawn To The Deep End, will be on a countdown deal from today - that means it starts off reduced as far as it's going to be and then gradually returns to full price. Here it is:
And if that's not good enough for you, some short stories (Turn Around Where Possible and Cold) and non-fiction essay (Tesc-No - living without supermarkets) will all be free from today too. Look...
Last but not least, my 2011 collection of short stories, Dark Steps, is currently available from Smashwords with 50% off, right the way through to the end of July, with coupon code SSW50, as part of their summer sale. Here it is.
Use code SSW50 at
checkout for 50% off
Stay cool. And what's cooler than reading?
May 31, 2019
Minding the gaps
I unearthed an old writing notebook recently. Most of what's inside has either been used already or doesn't deserve to be used, but there are one or two scraps that might be retooled, retold. Here's one such fragment, the start of something, maybe, reproduced here exactly as written, warts 'n' all and very unedited. What do you think?
Daniel Button was obsessed with money, his every waking moment devoted to its pursuit, yet somehow he remained of average means at best. When he invested in shares, the market crashed. When he gambled on a horse, it would fall at the last. Despite years of Premium Bond ownership, Daniel had never won more than £25. And although he'd played the Lottery even week since its launch, he'd never won more than the occasional tenner.
It didn't stop him though. The Lottery was his grail. He played every new game that launched, spending an increasing amount of money on tickets. Then scratchcards. Every week, every game, Daniel played. And he never won more than a tenth of his outlay.
When the New Year's Day Millionaire Maker scratchcard was announced, Daniel had a plan, and a budget. Buy ten tickets from each of ten different shops. Surely, finally, wealth beckoned?
As he queued in the tenth shop, worrying with his last £10 note, he told himself that this was the one - a life that didn't involve standing in line behind malodorous pensioners in mouse-brown overcoats was only moments away.
And then the malodorous pensioner in the mouse-brown overcoat bought a single Lottery scratchcard, and won a million pounds, right there in front of Daniel's disbelieving eyes.
Button went to bed believing God was against him.
Yet when he awoke, he had cause to reconsider, for it seemed to be New Year's Day again, and only he had noticed. At first he thought the DJ had made a mistake but when he turned on the TV and found yesterday's headlines were still breaking news, Daniel could only conclude that somehow he'd been given a second chance. Everything was the same - yet now, one thing could be different.
Daniel set off at the same time, and visited the same shops, in the same order. His first nine visits yielded exactly the same results as they had yesterday. Or was it today? Daniel wasn't sure, and had stopped trying to figure out his second chance. As he made his way towards the tenth shop, final tenner in hand, Button quickened his pace, determined to be one place further forward in the queue.
With 100 yards to go, Daniel spotted his opponent waiting patiently for traffic lights to change so that
And that's as far as I got. I suspect this was written for a hot-pen exercise, a ten minute warm-up. Certainly it doesn't feel like something I laboured over. And certainly it is conceptually indebted to Groundhog Day. But it's not terrible, I think.
I also don't know where I was going with this. What would happen to the pensioner in the mouse-brown overcoat? What twist in the tail was brewing? I can't remember. Dated pieces around this snippet suggest it was written in mid-2011, so it's been languishing for eight years. Unless I can think of the outcome, I guess it will carry on languishing...
May 10, 2019
About Twitter...
Easy to lose words in Twitter. Because yes, the novel sells alright, and so does the charity anthology, but I'm also quite proud of this tweet from last summer; I rediscovered it today during a spot of lunchtime Twitter pruning. In eleven months it received neither a like nor a retweet. Cruel world, eh?
As the light faded, and the embers of the fire flickered, I gazed up and saw a dirty pink cloud shaped like Leonid Brezhnev wearing a pair of Mickey Mouse ears. #unexpected #coldwarflashback #haventbeendrinking
— Martin P (@MartinWrites) June 24, 2018
January 8, 2019
Always nice to get a review
It's (nearly) always nice to get a review, in my experience, so whilst I promise I won't do this every time The Petrified World and other tales gets a write-up, I am going to reproduce this one, the first review to appear on Amazon for the various-authors charity anthology I put together and edited. Here it is:
★★★★★
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories. Whilst they loosely share a general theme of things unknown or unspoken there is great variety in the settings and approach, which really adds to the interest and had me looking forward to each new experience unfolding in the pages. Every one of the stories deals with something unsettling, something dark, with some rooted in contemporary reality, while others explore futuristic scenarios, many of them posing more questions than they deliver answers. All are thought-provoking for different reasons. A great book to pick up and put down at one's leisure – none of the stories are more than 12 pages long - and one which will have me looking out for more work by all the talented authors within it. Plus it’s for a good cause – and one which seems fitting to the book. Very happy to recommend this.
That's nice, isn't it?
You can read the review in situ here or, you know, just just buy the book straight off. What can I say, it's affordable, offers you eleven great short stories by new and emerging authors and benefits the Population Matters charity too - what's not to like?
December 20, 2018
Have a sneak preview
I might have mentioned, I'm quietly pleased with this book. Here's a little preview, to convince you of the need to buy it... As ever, with Amazon embeds, the formatting isn't perfect, but rest assured it is in the actual book. No go, buy, read, review, all that good stuff...
December 3, 2018
Post-launch analysis
November 28, 2018
The Petrified World and other tales
Well, it's taken me most of the year to get it together but finally, here it is. The Petrified World and other tales is a collection of short stories by new and emerging writers that I have been very proud to collate. Profits from the sale of the book will be donated to the charity Population Matters, and I'm quietly proud of that too.
This collection of eleven short stories takes the idea of taboos, of hidden subjects, of unspoken truths, as its loose theme. Some of the stories address potential problems for a near-future Earth, some do not, but all are linked by the idea of what is not being talked about, whether that's between families, colleagues, in the news or on a wider scale. Here's a list of the stories, with links to author websites for those that have them:
The Petrified World - Mark Kilner
Pig Hunting - Ian Nettleton
The Transistor - Andrea Holland
We Need You To Show Us What Happy Looks Like - Katy Carr
The Swimming Pool - Sandy Greenard
On The Air - Rol Hirst
Retrograde Amnesia - Simon Poore
About The Dog - Sarah Dobbs
The Crossing - Martin Pond
At Malham Cove - Ada Carter
Compensating For Einstein - Arnold Pettibone
The ebook version is available right here, as is the paperback edition. Prices are £1.99 and £3.99 respectively... so it makes a great stocking-filler.
If you want to get on board and help promote the book (it's for a good cause, after all), please use the cover image above left and these URLs: bit.ly/petrifiedworld for the ebook and bit.ly/petrifiedbk for the paperback - thanks.
Go on now, shop, and don't forget to read about Population Matters ... ta.
November 2, 2018
New cover image?
I'm thinking of a new cover for the second edition of Drawn To The Deep End, and expect it might be based on one of these two images. You know the synopsis by now, so which of these do you think would fit best? Or neither? Let me know in the comments, cheers.
August 30, 2018
Post mortem
You might remember how, back in May, I wrote about the 100 days of writing initiative? And how I hoped it might spur me on a bit? Well the 100 days finished a couple of weeks ago, so I should probably admit to how well (or otherwise) I got on with it.
My primary intention was to complete Nudge, the novella I first posted about two and a half years ago. And I certainly moved things on a good deal. Writing every day helped regain the momentum I had lost with it, until I had a real head of steam built up. But then... then came a particularly tricky, transitional passage that I struggled with. Struggled and struggled... and am still struggling. And since I am very much a linear author - I write it in pretty much the order you read it - I'm stuck on this story for now. Still hoping I can unstick myself at some point before the year is out, but hey.
Whilst stuck, other projects started. I wrote a completely new short story called The Crossing - more about that before the year is out too, I hope. That was fun to write, not least because it's almost in the second person. Intrigued? You'll see what I mean when you read it. And I've been doing some light-touch editing too, for a project that will also hopefully see the light of day before the year is out. Fingers crossed.
And finally, I've been considering new cover designs for the second edition of Drawn to the Deep End, for potential release to mark the first anniversary of its publication. Watch this space.
Now, to unstick!
July 29, 2018
Summer sale
Hot, isn't it? Damn hot. What you need is something new to read as you sit under a tree with your Kindle and an ice-cold beer/glass of prosecco... so lucky for you I'm running a bit of a sale, right now.
The e-book version of my novel, Drawn To The Deep End, is on a countdown deal - that means it starts off reduced as far as it's going to be and then gradually returns to full price. Here it is:
And if that's not good enough for you, some short stories (Turn Around Where Possible and Cold) and non-fiction essay (Tesc-No - living without supermarkets) are all free from Wednesday. Look...
Stay cool. And what's cooler than reading?
