Stories

Rigby, impossibly innocent, swaps suffocating middle-class New Zealand for love and liberation in nineteen-sixties London. Revelling in the freedom granted by anonymity, he becomes an actor, stripper, rent boy, teacher and resolute seeker of new experiences while living and travelling in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, when travellers were uncommon.

{A year ago I posted several chapters, then stopped because I needed to make a few changes. Apologies to those who began reading, only to have it rudely terminated.

Spelling throughout is English English.}

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The sleepy village of Crumbington is about to get a wake-up call.

When the new chairperson of the Summer Fête Committee pushes to create a naked calendar of the Crumbington football team, mouths drop open. Her further pronouncement at having snagged a celebrity host for the fête—rising television and movie star Clifton O’Keefe, and ex-resident of Crumbington—is met with indifference.

Not by Nathan Fresher, though, local baker and captain of the football team. He had been Clifton’s boyfriend in high school, until Clifton and his family disappeared into the night over ten years ago.

Henry has made it to university, but without Ed. Instead he finds himself in a first-year house share in Cranwell with Eddie Peacher, Andy’s problem brother, and the nervous Gavin. Between them, they find themselves combating the appalling Frank Hutchinson, landlord of the King's Cross, and unearth a mystery of the ages, to solve which is death.

Going to the University, Eric Richards meets Peter Ivanov. Peter is from Makarovia. A little known, often forgotten country.

Kevin’s been the poor kid, the military brat, the boy without a dad, the neighborhood pot dealer, the study abroad student. Because he’s always known that, when things get tough, you just turn the page and move on.

If only he could get his mind off the three very different men he left behind.

After attending the local Pride, will Eric Whitehouse reconnect with his old workmate, Rob? What might it mean to both men if he does?

Leon and Logan fall in love on a six-month trip across Europe. When tragedy strikes, they are separated by life's decisions and must make their way back to each other.

Terry Young has just been appointed as chief projectionist in a run-down old cinema. But from day one he has problems. Resentment from the man who thinks he should have got the job. An undeniable attraction toward his general manager, Dan. And the re-awakening of psychic abilities indicating something is hidden under the building.

This story is set in 2005, modern enough for there to be mobile phones and Internet access, but still within the timeframe when cinemas like the Regal, with a crew of projectionists running film still existed.

Young singers Ash and Samson are already established in the music business. Ash is still in the closet, caught between his label’s demands and the desire to be with his lover Marcus. Meanwhile, Samson is a proudly out gay singer who strives to be taken more seriously.

When Tyler, a rising star with a powerful voice, breaks out onto the scene, the competition becomes fiercer than ever. Even though he becomes an overnight success, he quickly learns the fame has its price.

How will the three guys balance their personal lives with their music aspirations and growing demands from their record labels?

Adlai Ben Yusuf the son of a humble carpenter, grew up in the village of Nazareth in the troubled land called Palestine. With with his brother Tavi and cousin Cephas he enjoyed the usual escapades and misadventures of a normal teenage boy. Whereas Adlai was scholarly and introspective his brother Tavi was an extrovert. He was a warrior, an adventurer and a womaniser; trouble followed him relentlessly. Being popular and well-loved, he was his father Yusuf''s favourite. Then suddenly a simple mistake occurred which was to have tragic and far-reaching consequences; consequences that have endured to the present day.