Rupert Dreyfus's Blog, page 6

Spark Cover Reveal and Some Updates

Hi folks,

Please click here for my new blog which includes the Spark cover reveal:

https://rupertdreyfus.wordpress.com/2...

Let me know what you think.

Inabit.

A New Article for Consented on the EU Referendum Result

Hi folks,

Here is my new article for Consented which is about... "THE EU REFERENDUM: WHEN 2 + 2 = 5".

http://www.consented.co.uk/read/the-e...

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,

R.D

Sparking a Revolution

Greetings, folks.

All is rotten in the state of the UK. We’re basically trapped inside Nigel Farage’s wet dream for the foreseeable and it isn’t pretty. No time for writing about that now but rest assured I’ll be venting over the recent political developments for Consented in due course. I’m currently trying to process which angle I’m going to come at it from because there are too many up for consideration. One thing is for certain: if we don’t keep focused then we’ll go under. That’s why I’m putting out next month’s blog early as it’ll allow me to be more focused over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile I’m putting the last bits and bobs in place before releasing the paperback version of Spark. The book sleeve is finished and it looks fantastic. I’m just sorting out some last minute technical stuff which I won’t bore you with and then hopefully it’ll be ready for release in late July.

From where I’m sitting Spark gets more relevant as the years roll by. It was originally a response to the London Riots of 2011. Back then I was growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of left-leaning, anti-establishment authors in the UK. I decided to take the DIY approach as to capture some of the madness we’re witnessing in literary form because I knew the traditional publishers wouldn’t touch it. It’s been a long slog but after some credible media exposure and lots of support across social media, I feel like I’m finally reaching the sorts of people who care for some much needed dissident fiction in the Digital Age. The sort of fiction that flings shit at Westminster and sticks up a middle finger at the obedient droids cluttering up the landscape. Massive thanks to everyone who is reading my stories and is helping me to spread the word.

Back when I first began to put stories into the public domain things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse here in the UK. However, I have since been proven completely wrong. In 2015 we slumped even further to the right by electing a Tory majority. Now in 2016 we’ve allowed them off the leash by exiting the EU so they can go onto cause as much damage as they want. We presently find our species sleepwalking towards full-blown neoliberal meltdown where the response on the ground only ever seems to be to drift further rightward. This is despite the observable impact it’s having on society and the environment. All of it makes me increasingly determined to keep writing these stories.

Anyway; once Spark is out there I’m diving straight back into finishing Broke which is primarily about the war against the poor and what it’s like to live in abject poverty in 2016. Hopefully that’ll be out before the end of the year and then I can figure out what will come in 2017. I was toying with the idea of writing an anti-fascist novella based on the recurring anarchist punk community referenced in both of my books. But now we’re on the other side of a particularly nasty referendum with Donald Trump contending to be the next President of the World, it’s going to have to wait. I try to keep as current as possible with my themes so I’m likely to write another collection of short stories. This will give me scope to tackle lots of pressing themes in one book.

Alongside this I have a new project underway which has the working title Critique of Pure Bullshit (this is likely to change but you get the picture). It’s going to be a collection of essays and polemics touching on politics, philosophy, culture and society. It will be from an anarchistic perspective and will at least tackle some important questions we’re presently facing. This is definitely going to happen. I just don’t know when it will be ready.

The next update will be the cover reveal and then Spark will be out there. Shan’t be long now…

Meanwhile keep being thoroughly disobedient and if you haven’t already then check out The Rebel’s Sketchbook. If you’re feeling as pissed off as I do right now then it may go some way towards alleviating those frustrations.0

R.D



“All flowers in time bend towards the sun.” – Jeff Buckley

New Consented Article by Me

Hi folks,

For those of you who are also interested in my polemics, here's a new article I've written for Consented which is called '#BREXIT ANTI-IMMIGRATION ARGUMENT CONTINUES WAR AGAINST POOR'

It's something all voters should consider on the 23rd June.

Here is the article:

http://www.consented.co.uk/read/brexi...

As always; massive thanks to Edwin for his help.

Let me know what you think about the article and what your concerns are!

Take care.

R.D

Updates and Some Thoughts on the Indie Revolution

Greetings!

I’m looking at a July release for the paperback version of Spark so not long at all now. I’ve promised a handful of people a copy and will be running some give aways on Goodreads and another give away which will be independent of Goodreads. All friends and followers can have a digital copy for free and you really should take advantage of this offer because you love to read books and my books love to be read so let’s create literary symbiosis. The Morning Star will be reviewing it in due course so that’s always exciting; especially when they care about authors who use words as weapons against the established order.

Once Spark is out there, I’m moving on to finishing Broke which is going to be my second novel. It’s about the absolute extremes of inequality and how us Skint Eastwoods can rip-off the rich for once. So far it’s proving to be some of the funniest, most caustic socio-political commentary I’ve written. I can’t wait to reach the finishing line because then I will have something new to give to you all. Hopefully it’ll be out before the end of the year.

In other news: for those of you who have read The Rebel’s Sketchbook, my friend and fellow indie author Mike Robbins made me aware of the below article last month. I wrote a story called Eat Na$ty which is about the exploits of those inane Youtubers who are entertaining in the same way a paraplegic sloth on a swing is entertaining. In this story the narrator and a rival YouTuber take competitive eating to the next level and with no regard for the health risks. Let’s just say that the results aren’t a million miles from the fella in the above article.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bb...

I was also interviewed recently by the exceptionally gifted author Daniel Clausen (if you haven’t read The Ghosts of Nagasaki then you really should – it’ll single-handedly crush all prejudices you may harbour towards indie authors). I think this is the first interview of the year and you can read it at the below link. Massive thanks to Daniel for doing his micro-interview series and supporting the cause.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

This month I want to briefly write a little about being an indie author in a traditionally published world. Two years in for me and it’s clear that most readers have been propagandised to accept that a book is only a book if some mugs at a publishing house has put it out – regardless of any literary merit. So Being Reem by Joey Essex is a book where as the stunning debut novel anemogram. by Rebecca Gransden isn’t. This struck me more than ever when I was reading the comments section for this article in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

There are many positive comments which is always nice. However, there are some hostile ones which essentially puke up the predictable anti-selfpublising clichés; most of which have been addressed by my good friend Amy in this article here:

http://dorianbox.com/challenging-the-...

These days I actually harbour a hostility towards the traditional publishing industry but not for the same reasons. I don’t have any issues with the authors (who are just people being creative); but I do have issues with the industry itself. It’s something I’ve written about before, but storytelling appears to be the only area of the creative arts which most people believe should be owned and managed by an elite. Simply put: if you’re not traditionally published then you can only ever be shit. However, the truth is that in order to get published you have to write for the marketplace because sales means everything. The knock-on effect is that creativity gets squeezed in the wrong direction and storytellers think that they best imitate what’s going on around them in order to survive. Not all of the time, but quite a lot of the time this is the case. However, indie authors are creatively free and so long as they realise this and don’t imitate the traditionally published books, you should get something which is closer to representing free expression. I strongly believe that out of this the greatest works of literature will be born.

This is why all artists need to have as much creative freedom as possible. However, this is compromised if you’re competing in a marketplace rather than focusing on creating art. So in the Digital Age indie authors have the better hand: we are creatively free in ways that the vast majority of traditionally published authors can’t be. And it is for this reason that I honestly believe -and you can mark my words- that indie authoring is going to become the norm over the next fifty years.

So that’s my thoughts anyway. Let me know what you think! In the meantime stay safe and I’ll catch up with you all very soon.

R.D

An Interview with Troll Fucker

The following article was included in yesterday’s print edition of the Gwardean:

An Interview with Troll Fucker by Benedict Fuss

Anyone familiar with the name Rupert Dreyfus will no doubt be aware of his short documentary film Sentenced which explores the dark side of social media. It was based on a true story which was later included in his collection of journalistic work The Rebel’s Sketchbook. The collection was well received in some circles, but it still had its fair share of critics who Dreyfus dismisses as ‘humourless gorgons from the Planet Arsebag’.

Regardless, nobody could’ve predicted the fatal end for the subject of his documentary and just why Saul had resorted to taking his own life on a livestream. But it is for this reason that Sentenced will always be remembered as an exposé of the mind of the troll and the devastating consequences it can have on not only individuals but also the general public.

Troll Fucker was never caught by the authorities but in a bizarre, Hollywoodesque twist Dreyfus found himself as his next target and no less than a year after the film was first released.

‘I became aware of Troll Fucker’s stalking tactics not long after some fake friend requests and star ratings appeared on a website called Goodreads,’ Dreyfus tells me as he flaps around in his seat. ‘At first I was flattered, but soon I decided to investigate further because I’ve always been interested in trolls. Without mentioning any names, I have a fair few friends who are at the top of the hacking game and they managed to locate an address for me in no time at all. Turns out all these profiles were being set up in the same location.’

What Dreyfus did next led to one of the most unusual encounters of the new millennium: he packed up a suitcase and travelled to the exact location the trolling was coming from.

‘I didn’t know what I was going to find,’ he tells me. ‘I was a little bit nervous because I’d been studying the psychology of trolls for quite some time and had learned that they’re pretty unstable. But when the person came to the door, I couldn’t believe who was standing before me.’

I ask Dreyfus how Troll Fucker had reacted on that strange day back in June of 2016.

‘Tears came to his eyes and he fell to his knees. He started bawling as he hugged at my legs. I let him carry on for a couple of minutes, but when he started using my jeans as a snot rag I asked him to grow up. He then invited me into his dungeon.’

Dreyfus took Troll Fucker up on the offer and went inside the ‘dungeon’.

‘It really was a dungeon,’ Dreyfus says as he squints his eyes. ‘I’d never seen anything like it. It smelled worse than summertime public transport. I lost count of how many times I puked up when I was in there.’

When Troll Fucker had finally composed himself the two gentlemen sat together in a room which, Dreyfus recalls, had streaks of human faeces splattered across the walls.

‘It looked like Jackson Pollock had been wiping his arse all over the place,’ Dreyfus tells me with a wince. ‘Troll Fucker tried to pass it off as his artwork, but I think it was really one giant clue as to how little this person gets to interact with people of the opposite sex.’

Dreyfus had taken a Dictaphone with him and so he placed it on the table between them. The following is an excerpt of the transcript of some of that interesting conversation. It’s one of the most insightful interviews ever held between human and troll on record.

Dreyfus: Trolling is a recent phenomenon. What were trolls doing before the internet?

Troll Fucker: Well, I was always lonely. I couldn’t make any friends or get a girlfriend, and I’d fallen out with all my family. It wasn’t their fault; I just couldn’t help being a permanent cunt.

Dreyfus: What was your upbringing like?

Troll Fucker: That’s the strange thing. It was mostly normal until the day that I began to stick the family cat inside the microwave just for a laugh. That’s when the downward spiral began for me. I just hated everything that had a pulse and the only thing I could do in order to deal with my burning hatred for humankind was stick the family cat inside the microwave until I heard it go meow!

Dreyfus: Tell me about the cat.

Troll Fucker: It was a tomcat and it was ginger.

Dreyfus: What was he called?

Troll Fucker: I called it Little Bastard.

Dreyfus: Tell me about school.

Troll Fucker: I was bullied all the time. But it’s only because I bullied everyone else so they all clubbed together and would bully me back. I was really unpopular by the time I was thirteen. I also smelled bad because I realised that if I didn’t shower regular then I’d quickly begin to hum. This was great because it would make the kids around me puke up. It was really just another way at getting back at the world.

Dreyfus: Is that why the walls are covered in your own pooh?

Troll Fucker: No, they’re some self-portraits I’ve been painting over the years using oils and canvas.

Dreyfus: Why do you think you became a troll?

Troll Fucker: My life has always been not worth the paper it’s written on. I just needed a way to vent and when you’re pretty much housebound because you have no life, trolling is the only way out.

Dreyfus: Your actions have resulted in at least one suicide. How does that make you feel?

Troll Fucker: I’m clearly a cunt. I’m not proud of the fact. I wish I could stop being a cunt but I don’t know how. That’s all I’ve got to say about the matter.

Dreyfus: So you don’t feel bad?

Troll Fucker: I’m a troll; I don’t feel anything. I’m a dead man walking.

Dreyfus: Where did you get the idea for Sentenced?

Troll Fucker: Fuck you, I’m not going to answer that. Next question.

[Long pause]

Dreyfus: Any love interests?

Troll Fucker: It’s always been a one way street. There was this one girl when I was a kid but she went missing before I got a chance to stalk her properly. I don’t really want to talk about it because for a long time I was the main suspect although I must stress that I was eventually cleared of all charges. All I will say is that shortly after, the cat in the microwave incidents started to happen and that’s when I knew there was no turning back.

Dreyfus: If you had one message for the people of the world–one message that would help people to understand what makes people like you tick–what would it be?

Troll Fucker: I do it because… I do it because I can’t sleep.

Two days after this interview Troll Fucker was found dead in an otherwise empty bath. The coroner’s report indicates that he died of a stink-related illness and that the bath had never once been used.

At the end of my time with Dreyfus I ask him if he can envision a solution to this troll crisis. He looks at me with sorrowful eyes and says: ‘I hope for the sake of our species we can come together and find a way to help these people back into our society; that instead of turning our backs on them, we find a solution to this madness. We have to find a way of living side by side. It’ll take time, but throughout history the human spirit has overcome many obstacles. We just need to remember that everyone has their story – even trunts like Troll Fucker.’

Reproduced with kind permission of the Guandiarn.

Spark Update and Some Thoughts on Poetry

Hello all,

The final manuscript for the Spark paperback is almost finished so I’m hoping to have it out there either late June or right at the beginning of July. The Morning Star will be reviewing it in due course and I’ll be sending a handful of copies to people as promised. Unfortunately I can’t give as many away as I did The Rebel’s Sketchbook because I’m more broke than Zac Goldsmith’s ego at the moment. I would like to say, however, that if you have already read Spark and are waiting for something new then rest assured that you won’t be waiting too long for my second novel. It’s called Broke and I’m now over the halfway line. I’ll be putting it out just as soon as it’s ready.

I have also added Pyongyang Selfie to my Goodreads profile with a link which allows you to read the story for free (or click here if you want to read it). If you haven’t already then please add it, read it when you get a spare half an hour and tell me what you think. If you have already done this or have star rated it then massive thanks! Please recommend it to your Goodreads buddies and see if we can make it go viral so that Kim Jong-un reads it in the not to distant future while sitting on a North Korean crapper. Hopefully it’ll give him a heart attack thus allowing the North Koreans to overthrow the regime and get their lives back. That’s the plan anyway…

For those who have been following me for a while you’ll already be familiar with my thoughts on self-publishing and small press publishing, and how positive I am about its future. There are many reasons for this, but the key reason is that self-publishing has taken storytelling out of the hands of the privileged few. Nobody owns writing and yet until the self-publishing boom came along we’ve had to swallow the unsavoury fact that a handful of industry heads have decided what the rest of us get to read. This is no longer the case and it doesn’t just benefit mouthy upstarts like me; it benefits all of us who care for diversity and free expression in the creative arts.

What reinforces my positive outlook for the future is that it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve discovered poetry and all of them have come from the DIY route or the small press route. Because of school ramming a handful of Romantic poems down my throat I got the impression that poetry could only ever be terrible. But this isn’t true; it can actually be fantastic. I’ve just finished a collection called Cameron Fucks Dead Pigs and I get Called a Scrounger by Andy Carrington. It’s a politically charged collection which echoes many of my own sentiments but in poetry form. You can read my full review here . I encourage anyone who enjoys what I do to grab a copy and show Andy some support because, like me, he relies on all the good people out there to get on board and help to spread the word. What’s particularly admirable is that Andy gives money raised by this collection to worthwhile charities and antifascist causes so that’s always worth supporting.

While I’m praising the DIY poets I’d like mention some others who I will continue to support for as long as they’re putting collections out there and hope that people reading this will also check them out. First is my good friend Harry Whitewolf who also writes politically charged poetry. Whitewolf’s style is a mash up of conscious hip hop, the Beat poets and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Here is my review of Two Beat Newbie which you should grab a copy of ASAP. The next poet I want to bring attention to is M.J. Black who writes a blend of the personal and the political. Being a northerner myself his references are all too familiar and his politics also resonate so you should check him out. Here is my review of Going Nowhere; a bleak yet moving collection of working class poetry. Nico Reznick also manages to strike a balance between the personal and political with stark language and stunning concepts such as that found in Goldfish Smile. It’s hard to choose a favourite of the collections I’ve read so far but I particularly enjoyed Over Glassy Horizons: Poetry From The Margins. You can read my review here .

What I think unites all of these poets is that they have helped to turn ignoramuses like me onto poetry by showing a side of the craft that I never knew existed. Prior to the self-publishing boom perhaps a handful of people would have discovered them, but now they can reach more and more people through the internet. In the years to come I hope they will all continue to expand on their readership because these times demand such poets; poets who use their craft to connect with others and document some of the crazy things which are happening in the here and now. I, for one, look forward to what they have to say in the future and I hope that an ever expanding number of you will too.

I’ve Joined Consented!

Greetings folks,

As anyone who is following the mischief I’m frequently getting up to will know, I’ve spent the last few months mouthing off about certain political hot potatoes. I decided that I should really make sure that these opinions and ideas are reaching the right people. This has led me to scoping out an alternative media website where I can post articles relating to the types of issues I feel compelled to cover. As somebody who writes socio-political satire with ultimately serious messages about the state of the world, I feel that it’s important for me to contribute to the expanding chorus of dissenting voices.

I am therefore pleased to announce that I have found a place where I’ll be posting my journalistic articles in the future which is over at Consented. Consented is an online media site with a diverse group of contributors. What all of the contributors have in common is that they’re critical of the narrative spun by the establishment and the cheerleading corporate media, and instead are engaged in reporting on and challenging the advancement of neoliberalism and the erosion of our democratic rights. I am aiming to have something up with them every couple of months or so depending on my commitments.

So from here on I will update my WordPress blog with links to any articles I write for Consented as well as general updates regarding my fiction writing. Meanwhile my Goodreads blog will be mostly focusing on my fictional writing endeavours and not so much my polemical output.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Steve Topple for his help with this development and also the folks at Consented for the opportunity to write for them. For those who are interested you can find my first article for Consented here:

http://www.consented.co.uk/read/5-ref...

It’s about the EU referendum...

Massive thanks for your continued support and I’ll be back with an update soon enough.

R.D

Branching out and some updates

Greetings folks,

As some of you may know I’ve spent the last few months gobbing off about the state of the world. My polemic on drug policy reforms (which you can find here) has been particularly popular; gaining 100 views in 3 days and quite a lot of positive feedback. It would be splendid to write these articles for an active media website rather than use my WordPress blog which is really intended for my fictional writing. I get the impression that not everyone who enjoys my stories also enjoys reading my occasional rant at the system and vice versa. This is perfectly understandable so I think the best way forward is to branch out and find a separate home where people visit for this sort of thing. It’ll also encourage me to be more focused while giving me time to properly construct some articles.

If you think I’d fit right in to your media network and would like me to contribute some commentary on current affairs, opinion pieces or provide cultural criticism approximately 4-6 times a year then get in touch by emailing me at rupertdreyfus@outlook.com or through any of the social media sites I use. Otherwise I’m likely to calm down on this front and focus all my attention on writing stories. This would be a shame because the digital landscape is demanding more polemicists from the streets to shake up the established order rather than pussyfooting around it like a lot of mainstream journalists tend to (and then get congratulated for it). If you’re interested and want to get an idea of what I’m about then check out my website here:

http://rupertdreyfus.co.uk/

While I’m networking: I’m going to be releasing my debut novel Spark as a paperback in a couple of months. If you’re a journalist or an influential blogger/ vlogger who is up for some anti-establishment transgressive black comedies then get in touch to arrange a free paperback for review purposes. I’ve managed to secure an upcoming review by a national newspaper but there’s room for some more. Similarly; my collection of short stories The Rebel’s Sketchbook is also presently available as a paperback to journalists and bloggers/ vloggers who are open to this sort of thing (to get an idea, professional reviews can be found by Pop Matters and by the Morning Star by clicking round my website).

After putting these types of stories into the public domain for the last couple of years I’m still convinced that (a) there’s a wider audience which’ll appreciate what I do and (b) I’m yet to fully locate it. I put this down to the fact that most people still believe that being an indie author is synonymous with being rubbish. Yet the thing is you’re not going to find much dissent in the traditional publishing world as evidenced by this thoroughly predictable best sellers list for fiction.

Finally; for those of you who have already read Spark: my second novel, Broke, is at the halfway mark. I hope to get it out there for you before the end of the year. There are many more projects in the pipeline; however, I have to write round a full time job and while meandering through life so unfortunately I can’t be as productive as I’d like to be. Massive thanks for your patience.

Support indie authors, support indie journalists, support indie everything. Because if it’s not indie then the chances are that it’s dependent on corporate greed.

Thanks and take care.

R.D

New Story to Kick Off WWIII

Hi folks,

Over the last couple of months I've been putting up my thoughts on current affairs. This was an attempt to show that, despite the way I frequently project myself, I have a serious side. I was also hoping that some readers would engage with it but I actually saw less likes, views and comments than ever before. This is fine because while I enjoy mouthing off, I don't particularly enjoy writing serious-edged commentary; particularly with regards to miserable subjects such as the EU referendum and Donald Trump's poetic hairdon't. So some of you may be glad to know that I'm giving up trying to be serious and instead returning to what I do best which is tell ridiculous stories.

I was hoping to publish this particular story just before Christmas but for one reason and another I held back on it. However, I've now decided that it's ready to go out into the public domain and the fact that it's World Book Day is just a coincidence.

The story is called Pyongyang Selfie and it's about everyone's two favourite subjects: North Korea and selfies. It was inspired by a newspaper article I read which discussed how the death rate for selfies has gone up in recent times. Now I don't know about you but I can't fucking stand the whole culture relating to selfies so why people are willing to risk their lives for them is the perfect subject to explore for an ultra cynical satirist like myself.

So here is the link to the story:

https://rupertdreyfus.wordpress.com/2...

Thanks for your continued support and I hope the narrator annoys the shit out of you as much as he annoyed me.

Let me know what you think.

Take care and happy World Book Day!

R.D