Mark Cantrell's Blog, page 58
April 9, 2012
POEM: Turning Point
Orbital Decay
By Mark Cantrell
We orbit,
Far away, but with each turn
We spiral ever closer
To the terminal point of doom.
Behold it, in space-time
Like the Reaper, cowled
By the shattered remains
Of matter and thought,
Tumbling slow into the dark space
Within.
Closer now, we spin,
Each of us in turn
Tumbling towards that Dark Abyss
At the end of our life's time:
The Event Horizon
Where Mind and Soul
Is torn asunder,
Ripped from fleshly remains,
By the gravitational force
Of Death's Black Hole.
There, wi...
By Mark Cantrell
We orbit,
Far away, but with each turn
We spiral ever closer
To the terminal point of doom.
Behold it, in space-time
Like the Reaper, cowled
By the shattered remains
Of matter and thought,
Tumbling slow into the dark space
Within.
Closer now, we spin,
Each of us in turn
Tumbling towards that Dark Abyss
At the end of our life's time:
The Event Horizon
Where Mind and Soul
Is torn asunder,
Ripped from fleshly remains,
By the gravitational force
Of Death's Black Hole.
There, wi...
March 24, 2012
CITIZEN ZERO: The First Chapter (Sample)
CHAPTER 1: Beggars Can't Be Choosers
HE was being watched again. As soon as he arrived at the bus stop the camera turned to stare.
Mills sighed despondently and tried not to think about it. Such thoughts only made him nervous. He wanted to go back to bed and shut out the world until he felt able to deal with it. Say in twenty years. But he couldn't ignore the Summons; it wasn't worth the hassle. He sighed again.
The bus grumbled to a halt, thankfully blocking the eye's mindless...
March 10, 2012
ABOUT ME: Genesis Of A Created Writer
The literary life all began with the humble Speccy In the beginning there was a warbling screech and a cry of ‘it’s crashed again!’ So the humble ZX Spectrum created literary life. Mark Cantrell confesses all – almost THIS is where it all began. Kind of.
I’ve left it all behind now, of course, so it’s probably more apt to say this is where it ended up. Where it led is another matter entirely – and I am happy to say that the journey is far fr...
March 4, 2012
OFFER: Read An eBook Week (4-10 March)
Done deal for afestival of digital literature THE deal is done and the books are on the table. All youhave to do is head on over to Smashwords to partake of the half-price book dealnow running to celebrate Read An eBook Week (4-10 March 2012).
For the rest of this week, my novel CITIZEN ZERO, fictionanthology ISOLATION SPACE, and my poetry collection DEUS EX INSOMNIA, can bebought for half the usual retail price using the coupon code REW50.
Visit Smashwords, and then just enter the above...
December 21, 2011
Silas Sets Forth
Signed with anInspired Quill For a man who makes a living out of words, it's quitedisconcerting to find myself suddenly speechless: still that's the effect abook deal can have on an author.
Yes, that's right – a book deal.
I am greatly pleased to say that my novel Silas Morlockhas been taken on by up-and-coming publisher Inspired Quill (IQ) and isscheduled for release towards the Autumn of 2012.
That's quite a wait, I hear you cry. Trust me – it'll beworth it.
Silas Morlock is a dark urban...
December 3, 2011
Author Chats
Interviewed on Indies Unlimited Author Mark Cantrell has been told his writing demonstrates a certain dry humor, a cynical wit, and a tendency towards the darker view of life. While he is at ease with all that, he also feels his work embodies an underlying optimism, a qualified celebration of the human spirit and its strengths, but a refusal to separate them out neatly into good and bad. "Life is never that neat and I try to reflect that in my fiction."
To read the rest of this interview...
December 2, 2011
About Citizen Zero
CITIZEN ZEROThe hard-hitting novel that presents a grim future of a Britain broken by austerity...
A dystopian glimpse at a future born in an age of austerity and political uncertainty, Citizen Zero is a gripping social satire that exposes our deepest fears and poses a grave warning to any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice...
JobNet was supposed to usherin a better life for unemployed David Mills; instead it plunges him into abitter struggle for survival when he is...
November 14, 2011
The Number Of The King
In the republic of the word
ONE of these days I’m going to start blogging.
Hang on, though, isn’t this a blog? Well, no. Sure, it’s a blogging platform, but I started this site as a place to post my writing work rather than to actually blog per se.
That’s why it’s filled with poems and fiction, newsy bits (the ones that catch my eye – a hangover from a writers’ newsletter I once edited, but that’s another blog), comment pieces and essays, not to mention the odd feature article, and plenty of stuff plugging my writing elsewhere.
Since I am a writer and a journalist, the site – the blog – reflects that and though it might tend towards the literary, it also has a tendency to reflect the themes and issues that interest me: political issues, human interest, social affairs, a range of stuff, old and new, and frankly it does sometimes become my ‘pulpit’. So, what’s the point of having a blog if I can’t pontificate every so often?
Content is supposed to be king. We hear the mantra invoked like some profound snippet of ancient wisdom and most of the sages who proclaim ‘content is king’ tend to leave it that. Well, in my experience they do anyway. Thing is, all too often, this monarch is naked – if not actually dead.
Read the rest on The Word On The Wall
ONE of these days I’m going to start blogging.
Hang on, though, isn’t this a blog? Well, no. Sure, it’s a blogging platform, but I started this site as a place to post my writing work rather than to actually blog per se.
That’s why it’s filled with poems and fiction, newsy bits (the ones that catch my eye – a hangover from a writers’ newsletter I once edited, but that’s another blog), comment pieces and essays, not to mention the odd feature article, and plenty of stuff plugging my writing elsewhere.
Since I am a writer and a journalist, the site – the blog – reflects that and though it might tend towards the literary, it also has a tendency to reflect the themes and issues that interest me: political issues, human interest, social affairs, a range of stuff, old and new, and frankly it does sometimes become my ‘pulpit’. So, what’s the point of having a blog if I can’t pontificate every so often?
Content is supposed to be king. We hear the mantra invoked like some profound snippet of ancient wisdom and most of the sages who proclaim ‘content is king’ tend to leave it that. Well, in my experience they do anyway. Thing is, all too often, this monarch is naked – if not actually dead.
Read the rest on The Word On The Wall
October 8, 2011
Poets Abroad
Poetry Sans Atlantic
Oscar Wilde once observed that the British and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common language. In this little 'blast from the past', two Bradford writers discovered that the language of poetry can bridge the divide...
By Mark Cantrell
BRUCE Barnes and Lynette Shaw McKone are no strangers to performance at West Yorkshire poetry venues, but their last tour took them a little further afield - across the Pond (the Atlantic Ocean) to southern Texas in the United States.
It was the trip of a lifetime for Lynette. Ever since she was a child she has wanted to visit the States because her birthday falls on the 4th July - American Independence Day. Thanks to Yorkshire Arts funding, she was able to realise her ambition in style, and found a vibrant poetry scene waiting to adopt her.
For Bruce the reasons were more complex and personal...
Read the rest of this article on my blog The Word On The Wall.
Oscar Wilde once observed that the British and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common language. In this little 'blast from the past', two Bradford writers discovered that the language of poetry can bridge the divide...
By Mark Cantrell
BRUCE Barnes and Lynette Shaw McKone are no strangers to performance at West Yorkshire poetry venues, but their last tour took them a little further afield - across the Pond (the Atlantic Ocean) to southern Texas in the United States.
It was the trip of a lifetime for Lynette. Ever since she was a child she has wanted to visit the States because her birthday falls on the 4th July - American Independence Day. Thanks to Yorkshire Arts funding, she was able to realise her ambition in style, and found a vibrant poetry scene waiting to adopt her.
For Bruce the reasons were more complex and personal...
Read the rest of this article on my blog The Word On The Wall.
August 26, 2011
Fiction Extracted
Sinners In Streaming Video "DON'T worry," he says, wiping the incessant perspiration from his face. He stands by the door, framed in the pale light filtering in through the window high above my head. His beady eyes stare out of his pudgy face with a doll's sincerity. Almost it hides his embarrassment.
"Axel, they're going to burn me!"
"It won't come to that."
"No?"
"It's just for show. That's all – a pure formality."
"Exactly!"
He looks away sharply and glances at the walls. I can see his...
