Coming Soon: 'The Life Of My Stories'

 

Here it is. The Life Of My Stories. 
A brief memoir of my life with a loose emphasis on the people and events which inspired by stories and books.

Available soon from Amazon (paperback) and Kindle.   

AVAILABLE NOW. 'The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait)'

The artist returns to Auckland 

After twenty years in London a somewhat notorious Kiwi  artist returns home when his life falls apart as a result of fraud, death and depression. The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait) is a personal hour-by-hour journal of the day of his first New Zealand exhibition.

Accustomed to always being busy, the restless artist — eccentric, irritable and ageing — suddenly has nothing to do until the exhibition’s evening opening. And so we follow him and his sometimes angry and unreasonable thoughts, including lingering doubts about his own work, through the long day.

Having experienced financial relief before the exhibition, an unpleasant encounter at the exhibition, and sadness after it, he returns home at the end of the day ready to face his new life, alone and lonely, in Dunedin. 

The Artist as an Old Man (Self-Portrait) is available now from Amazon and Kindle and from my website soon. 

 

AVAILABLE NOW. The international rise and fall of an Auckland ad man

It's taken more than a year but my new novel is finished. It's called IT'S WHAT EDDIE DID. Available now from Amazon and Kindle.  

Here's the cover image and synopsis. 

From an Auckland slum to the heights of a New York boardroom and, eventually, an obscure and unhappy old age, It’s What Eddie Did records the rise and fall of Eddie Purvis, a rich and successful New Zealand advertising man, and his relationship with one of the world’s great international airlines and its New York advertising agency. However, obsessed with his own mid-life success, Eddie later discovers the importance of family, and that wealth can’t protect him and them from life’s troubles and disappointments. 

My new novel 'The Fable of Flitcroft Point' is now AVAILABLE

 

Yes. The Fable of Flitcroft Point will be available soon is available now in New Zealand paperback and internationally from Amazon and Kindle. 
Set in the distamt future, it's like nothing  else I've ever written. 

HERE IS THE COVER BLURB: 

 Early in the twenty-first century a series of viruses killed eighty percent of the world’s population. Famine loomed.

In New Zealand there was plenty of food but too few people to process it. The surviving city folk therefore fled to the countryside where they provided labour to the remaining farmers in return for a share of the food they helped produce. As a result the country’s towns and cities were abandoned.

Into this vacuum came the invading Vandiers, so numerous and wealthy they dominated the small Kiwiland population whose traditions, culture, religion and language they despised.

The Fable of Flitcroft Point is set in a typical Kiwiland village where, in 2177, the land-grabbing Vandier government has taken village land for its own purposes. The Kiwilanders, angry and frustrated, want their land back. But can their feeble protest succeed against the overwhelming power of central government? 

 

My new book. Ready for printing and publishing. Kindle available now.

 Here it is. Now available from Kindle. Paperback available soon. 

Jackson Fearnsby’s fiftieth year began badly, ended better, and was in between punctuated by a series of seasonal events and anniversaries shared with his friends and family. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1950, this story follows the life of an ordinary man in an ordinary job living an ordinary life with his ordinary family in an ordinary city — then no more than a large town — while struggling with the doubts and anxieties which came with middle-age to an already troubled mind.

Download the Kindle file here.   

One of the benefits of the Covid lockdown: my new book.

Writers can usually only dream of being able to lock themselves away to work uninterrupted by the 'real world'.  But my dream came true over the lockdown period. I started my new book on May 1 and it's finished.

It's called: 

Jacko. One Bloke. One Year.  

Here's the cover blurb: 

Jackson Fearnsby’s fiftieth year began badly, ended better, and was in between punctuated by a series of seasonal events and anniversaries shared with his friends and family. Set in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1950, this story follows the life of an ordinary man in an ordinary job living an ordinary life with his ordinary family in an ordinary city — then no more than a large town — while struggling with the doubts and anxieties which came with middle-age to an already troubled mind.

It's with readers now, the cover's being designed, so I should have it up on Kindle by the end of October and paperbacks available to New Zealand readers by the middle of November.  Email me now to reserve an early copy. 

'The Boys and Men of Auckland's Mickey Rooney Gang' is here.

‘Bolton’s new book lifts the dark lid off Auckland’s past in a brilliant, clever read. Loved it.’

Sir Bob Harvey

The Kindle version's been available for a couple of weeks and now, at last, the first printed copies have arrived at my studio and are available for sale. 

Only $34.50 

You can order your copy online from my website or email me and pay with online banking.  

Huge savings on my short stories

A few years ago I decided to combine my three books of short stories into one edition. More economical to print and so more economical to buy. But that meant  I stopped selling the three separate books. Now, as I'm running out of stock of the 'combined' edition, I have decided to deeply discount the three separate books. So I'm selling the three of them -- Nana's Special Day and other stories, The Dolphin and other stories, and Quickies -- more than 70 of my short stories, worth $73.50 if bought separately, for the price of one: $24.50. To order: just email me your address and I'll send you online banking instructions and your books by return post. ('While stocks last' as they say.) 

Another library talk. Monday 26 November, 2018, 2.00 pm at Epsom Library.

Looking forward to another library talk at Epsom library at two o'clock on Monday 26 November.

As I find people always ask (amongst other things) 'Where do you get your ideas from?' I'm going to talk through the origin of each of my books.

 Epsom Library author talk

The new book is progressing. Slowly.

For the record: I'm still working hard on the book I started early this year, on 1 April to be precise. I suppose I'm about a third of the way into the first draft and I do now have a tentative title. Unlike my other books -- and most other books --  my story has not one but nine 'heros'; it's like writing nine novels in one which is a bit of a challenge. I'm having to do a lot of research and it's interesting to see how very helpful some people (and institutions) are and how some simply ignore my requests for background information.

More wonderful reader feedback for 'The Fine Art of Kindness'

Yesterday I received more wonderful feedback for The Fine Art of Kindness. I have posted an edited version of here: 

"I want to tell you that with Kindness you have written a truly adult and most enjoyable book.  OK, you got me crying at the end, and I don’t cry just for anyone!  No, it was the real thing.

"Your characters are excellent, beautifully written and act the narrative assuredly and with true Kiwi panache.  Not just the main characters either.  I believed in ALL of the people in the novel, even the young student, Tim, introduced towards the end.  A meaningful addition, and excellently drawn.  I saw and believed the Hare Krishna gal and the slightly imperious nurse.   

"The two main characters, Jack and Betty were so believable; totally.  And Jack’s family.  Wonderful.  Superb supporting cast.

"Congratulations for a good read, and a good book, well written.  I hope it sells thousands, as it deserves to."

My Marian Year to feature in my library talk at Point Chevalier library, from two o'clock on Saturday 15 September, 2018

From the Auckland Libraries website...

For the record: a new book

For the record: Early in the new year I had an idea for a new book. I thought about it for a while but didn't start as I was also very busy with the launch of The Fine Art of Kindness. Eventually I started it on -- of all dates, the first of April -- but it was a tentative beginning as I was not at all sure where it was going to lead. Now, towards the end of June, I'm still writing and I'm feeling good. It has no title yet but it feels as though it (whatever it is finally called) is my most ambitious opus yet. I'll see how I goes but at the moment it feels like I have at least a year's work ahead. Watch this space.

The 2018 Ngaio Marsh New Zealand Crime Fiction Awards

A week from today (Tuesday 15 May) we should know the ten books (from more than sixty) that have made the long list for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh New Zealand Crime Fiction Awards. Will Six Murders? be there? I have no idea but I've never been especially confident simply because it's not a 'serious' crime or mystery story. But whatever happens it's been fun being accepted as an entry.

'Underneath The Arclight' FREE promotion

Poor old Underneath The Arclight. It's a wonderful funny Kiwi story that doesn't get the attention it deserves because -- it's my own fault -- the cover is too low key and 'good taste'. So I've decided that for a while I'll give away a FREE copy with any other book sold. 

Here's the blurb from the back cover
Nothing much ever happens in Robinson Street, Blythewillow, and for Phyllis, Graham, Karen, Charlie Downs and Monkey Oldfield, and most of the other residents of the town, that’s just the way they like it.
With The Arclight cinema, The Record Reign, Wake’s butchers, the garden, and Monkey Oldfield’s brand new chicken coop, the residents of Robinson Street have everything they need. So when Clint appears in the garden one night and tells Phyllis that it’s all about to change she doesn’t know what to think.
Within days there are changes at The Arclight, and Clint’s isn’t the only ghost making its presence felt. Long forgotten events from the past bring visitors from the outside world; from the city, Australia and from Los Angeles, with news, offers and veiled threats.
Are these the changes promised by Clint? And can the residents of Blythewillow save their town’s bucolic charm? Only time will tell as Karen and Graham and Jehoiada Hartsfield – the charming young city lawyer – peel back the layers of Blythewillow’s forgotten history to discover Clint’s secret treasure.

Coming soon: MURDER IN THE LIBRARY

MURDER IN THE LIBRARY is an entertaining series of events for book lovers featuring the books (and their authors) entered into the 2018 Ngaio Marsh New Zealand crime fiction awards.
I'm now booked for the event at Takapuna Library (with three other authors) on the evening of Wednesday 11 April from six o'clock to talk about my popular novel Six Murders?