Sean J Halford
-
Posts
217 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Stories
- Stories
- Story Series
- Story Worlds
- Story Collections
- Story Chapters
- Chapter Comments
- Story Reviews
- Story Comments
- Stories Edited
- Stories Beta'd
Blogs
Store
Help Center
Writing
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Sean J Halford
-
One evening I brought my mother a cup of tea while she was busy in her study. She had continued to work for the newspaper as senior editor, right up until three months before she died. This night she was not at her Mac clacking away as usual, but writing carefully and deliberately with a fountain pen on an old-style letter pad. She was using her Mont Blanc, a gift from her father when she landed her first job as a journalist. It’s mine now, and I keep it in my desk drawer. I take it out now and
- 9 comments
-
- 47
-
-
-
-
-
Chris’s Jeep was an army-green Wrangler from the mid-nineties. ‘I call it The Thing,’ Chris said, grinning at the Jeep as he helped me put my bike in the back. ‘She’s old, but she goes.’ ‘She's great,' I said. 'But does this give you street cred or farm cred?' ‘No comment, but I like your humour, bru. ‘More importantly. it’s back. Hop in.’ The Jeep snarled to life and we backed out into the road. My house was on his way home. I lived in Newlands, an old, oak-lined suburb
- 6 comments
-
- 47
-
-
-
-
Preludes and Fugues
Sean J Halford commented on Sean J Halford's story chapter in Preludes and Fugues
Thanks. As my first novel, this was very much a practice run for me, so I used a known trope as a scaffold. But I am very fond of it and it's interesting to look at it now and compare my first efforts as a rookie writer to the more sophisticated stuff I'm doing a decade later. And I realise that tropes aren't necessarily bad, they're tools. Hopefully I played with it enough to keep readers intrigued... let's see how it goes down for you! Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, it means a lot to a writer. -
Preludes and Fugues
Sean J Halford commented on Sean J Halford's story chapter in Preludes and Fugues
Well, I'm pleased to tell you that Bella wormed her way into my heart as a character unexpectedly and she has her own, if smaller and subtler, arc in this novel. In fact if we assume Chris and Cal as a protagonist unit, Rob and Bella are the deuteragonists to me at least. As for the antagonist(s), you'll have to wait and see. -
Preludes and Fugues
Sean J Halford commented on Sean J Halford's story chapter in Preludes and Fugues
Haha. Thanks. I think Bella gets some of the best lines; I loved writing her. -
Thank you! I hope to not disappoint you.
-
Hey! Thanks so much. I'm thrilled to have it back where it all started, and free for those who loved it the first time. I've made a few subtle revisions, added some new content, and brought back some content that was cut from the original GA version because I thought it was dead wood—readers disagreed with me. Let's see if I can create a happy medium!
-
Preludes and Fugues
Sean J Halford commented on Sean J Halford's story chapter in Preludes and Fugues
Haha. Thanks. -
Classes ended and I made my way to the dining hall. St Francis Collegiate was one of the old-fashioned boarding schools in Cape Town, and had equal numbers of day scholars and boarders. Day kids like me—at our own risk of salmonella—could eat lunch with the boarders if we had after-school activities. Senior year had a lot of potential salmonella on the horizon, for I discovered that I had music lessons and swim practice on alternate days, Monday to Friday. I was happy to see Rob and Bella
- 10 comments
-
- 47
-
-
-
-
PART ONE Surely the darkness will hide me The week my mother died, a white lion escaped from the zoo and prowled the streets of the suburbs for four days, gripping the city in an electric hold of fear and excitement. Old ladies in nursing homes clutched each other, startled from their knitting or card games as the TV stations kept live footage of helicopters scanning the road grids. I imagine those old ladies dreaming at night about the big cat stealing into their institutions, upsettin
- 8 comments
-
- 51
-
-
-
Sometimes love comes from the unlikeliest of places. Devastated by the loss of his mother, Cal enters his final year of high school in Cape Town facing an uncertain future, plagued by bullies and struggling to keep his grieving family together. When a handsome troublemaker with a mysterious past arrives at the school, an unlikely friendship develops. And as Cal grapples with feelings he never expected, he is plunged headlong into an adventure that will turn his entire existence upside-down. This 10th anniversary edition differs from the Kindle version, and contains new and old material cut from the Kindle version.
- 281 comments
-
- 12
-
-
-
Ah yes, the dreaded balancing of one's vocation and avocation. It's hard. Thank you for your confidence in me. I'll try my best not to disappoint you.
-
Aaaah right! You're correct, no, Liam hasn't been hurting Graeme, he just got injured accidentally. I removed the offending sentence. Sorry about that and thanks for pointing it out.
-
"Dude! It's not what you..." Liam's footsteps thudded down the stairs. "Jesus, Graeme." I reached out towards my friend's face. He winced, but a strand of his congealing blood was already stuck to my fingers, rendered blue in the half-light. "I'm not a—." "A what?" "You know, a—" I put my hand on my forehead. He stared at me. "I didn't say you were, but what the hell have you two been doing behind my back?" Graeme stared at the floor. "I'm sorry." "Fuck t
- 5 comments
-
- 12
-
-
-
Glad you liked it! I think I may expand it into a novel...
-
Haha, I'm not sure even I know what happened. What did you think happened?
-
Thanks was a little diversion to get rid of some writer's block. I was challenged to write erotica without a single expletive and keep it oblique. Never underestimate the importance of negative space, as it were, I guess...
-
As Alfred Hitchcock said, "Torture the audience as much as possible". 😂😂 Thanks for reading.
-
You like me when I'm on you without warning. You like me raw, rough, unbidden. You like me straight after I’ve come back from a run, from a game, from a day in the fields, the sweat still streaming down my face, so that when my skin touches yours there is that second where our bodies are in free-fall, sliding, slowing, stiffening, sticking together. You like me folding my arms around you. I like that too. But lately you don’t let me explore the way I like to, tracing the veins traili
- 7 comments
-
- 10
-
-
-
-
The collisions of minds are far dangerous than those of our bodies.
-
I'm as interested as you are lol as I have no idea where it's going to go! But that's part of the joy (and terror) of writing... very chuffed though that people seem to be enjoying things!
-
Thank you, I'm glad you like it. I was worried my style has been a bit more experimental with this story—I've been trying to achieve a balance between stream-of-consciousness and deep point of view, which may seem two conflicting approaches, but can dovetail very effectively in some of the YA novels I've loved. Stephen Chbosky does this really well in "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" for example. Put it this way: Jake has a lot of growing up to do, but his default narrative voice is set as an adult one who is looking back, if that makes sense.
-
Glad you were able to follow the breadcrumbs! It's always a balance to keep it subtle and not too obvious.
-
Thank you. Jake has a lot of growing up to do, as I'm sure you've surmised. Now to sort out plot threads before I write myself into a corner!
-
Probably two weeks *runs and hides* perhaps. I'll PM you the reason why.
