FICTION

I’ve written poetry and short stories since my teenage years, my literary tastes evolving through art school in Melbourne (1971-73) and film school in London (1975-77). The attraction of movies was in large part a way of combining pictures with language and stories, sound and music. It seemed the most complete of arts – still does. But I'm not offering scripts or treatments here.

These are stories from the 21st century. They fall into roughly two phases, 2006-2009, and 2010-the present. The first was a period of great stress, after my thwarted doctoral studies. Following my dissertation (2001-4) I began writing a lot of brief art criticism, pretty much daily in a blog. Fiction provided a release from that as well. Some of the shorter pieces were written as comments for the blog They Eat Their Young, mostly from 2007. Many of these would probably fit on this page, but for the sake of consistency I’m presenting them all as PDFs. The second phase are longer pieces (including two novels) and were written to vent various frustrations, explore dreams or schemes. They are the last vestiges of having been a movie maker, story teller, language lover. I’m listing them here with most recent uppermost.

Colonia - a novel (65,333w - 1766Kb - January-February 2026)

Four satirical stories on the theme of colonisation

Swine - a short story (16,327w - 932Kb - January 2026)

Aging swindler meets grisly fate in Cairo

Sonny Jim - a short story (10,963w - 484Kb - December-January 2026)

Heir to enormous wealth in deadly dispute with father

The Public Servant - a short story (10,643w - 324Kb - December 2025)

A public service conference is held at the end of The Western World

Pilgrimage - a short story/novella (34,708w - 705Kb - November-December 2025)

A successful accountant tours his remote homeland with his wife and two children.

Insider Art - a short story (11,128w - 240KB - (February 2025)

A cyber security consultant is hired to track down stolen masterpieces

The Killer King - a short story (29,454w - 779KB - (December 2024 - January 2025)

An old king abdicates to make way for his son who proves a fool, so his father decides to kill him.

About Face – a short story (26,277w – 368KB) – (December 2023 – February 2024)

A young scientist pursues his true love to heaven in an attempt to rescue her.

Long Shot – a short story (29,391w – 400KB) – (January – February 2023)

An ex-army sniper is part of a plot to assassinate a princess in an exotic land

The Outside World – a short story (19,666w – 306KB) – (January 2022)

A foreign journalist covers a provincial independence movement

Kangaroo Courtesy – a short story/novella (32,903w – 426KB) – (April – June 2021)

A policeman on special duties falls for a renegade rock siren.

The Purple Possum – a short story (14,912w – 270KB) – (May-October 2020)

Retired scientist devises a modest superhero in his suburban garage.

Minstrels – a short story/novella (21,471w – 373KB) – (December 2019 – January 2020)

A famous performance artist visits an arts festival in South America and is involved in a murder mystery.

Private Collection – a short story/novella (21,861w – 382KB) – (February 2019)

A government debt collection team pursue an arch villain

An Imperfect Storm – a short story (8,808w – 148KB) – (November 2018)

A heavenly beauty descends to earth and a retrieval team are sent to find her.

Descent – a novel (68,000w approx – 871KB) (September – October 2018)

Synopsis

A post-graduate researching an obscure corner of digital modelling is drawn into an intrigue over encryption for satellite communication. Argyll Walker, from the nation of Blaxland in Australia, agrees through academic circumstance to install experimental encryption on key satellites for a global government. The government draws advice from interactive software called CAESAR. CAESAR’s assessment of the new security is compromised by corporate conspiracy and corruption however. Argyll is offered a place at Soames, a prestigious university at the government’s capital, ROME 7.3 as reward. This is later withdrawn when the university is implicated in the deception. Argyll, or ‘Gyll’, glimpses this elite world, embarks upon a romance with one of its privileged daughters, Tiffany Long, but is expelled when politically expedient, to return to Blaxland a pariah in academic circles, adrift outside of them. He finds work as a drone pilot and eventually discovers this too is rife with subversion. Contacts lead him into an ambitious cattle mustering enterprise by drone in central Australia – the nation of Gondwana – where the same dark forces emerge undermining national security and commerce. This is a surreal black comedy on globalisation. A prime target is academic and commercial advantages traded in international politics. The theme is one of decline or descent in standards and independence.

Poems 78-82 Revisited – (7,773w – 21 poems, 50 pages -265KB) (September 2017)

Lowered Guards - a short story (7,629w – 175KB) (January -2014)

An electronic surveillance aircraft makes an emergency landing on a notorious tropical island paradise.

The Secret of World Domination - a novel (62,706w – 554KB ) (March-July -2006)

Synopsis

In a hypothetical world, a tiny and remote country called Abk inexplicably comes to dominate scientific and economic achievements in just a hundred years. Their secret remains while the rest of the world fears Abk’s mysterious weapons. These permanently remove objects virtually without trace. The stand-off lasts twenty-five years. But when Abk rescues the space station of other nations through the use of their own, there is a thaw in international relations.

A conference is held in the capital of Abk, and the world’s governing council attends, along with representatives from other great nations. It is to be an eager rediscovery of the country. The council enlist the services of a retired professor, an expert in the culture and languages of Abk, but he proves of little use. However, as he picks up the threads of a place he visited thirty years before, through old acquaintances, he slips deeper into the country without official permission. He is drawn into its internal politics, its regional and tribal factions, and their peculiar religion – Rsit – the worship of knowledge. He learns how these provide both the springboard for impressive invention and discovery, but now also profound corruption and conspiracy.

The Professor, as he is known throughout, travels from the front of the country, its prosperous plain, through a central administrative region of highland lakes to the back – the mountains of ‘The Abk’. There he sees how the furious dedication and rivalry of the rural tribesmen descend to comic and infantile levels; are carried to tragic conclusions. For these are the tribes ultimately sacrificed in Abk’s enormous success. The Professor’s guide, a renegade militia leader or ‘private security consultant’, known as Rain Pleases, plots an escape for them, once their forbidden journey becomes known. They travel to Rain’s tribal land in the north eastern corner; the depressed mining towns of The White Clay tribe. From there they plan to cross the border over a final, high pass. But as The Professor’s personal motives become clearer and his suspicion and disillusionment grow, his participation falters. The story ends with a tragic/comic race up the icy slopes, as tribal members sing a traditional farewell.

This is a satirical allegory on international politics and global policies, and the quest for a mythic ‘grass roots’. Issues including democracy, economics, advertising, law, education and religion receive comic treatment. A more serious theme is in the importance of language, its preservation, translation and to differences between written and spoken forms. Much of the secret to the title lies here. The satire accordingly extends to literary forms, to pastiche of folk and children’s tales, academic description and paraphrase, science fiction, surreal and poetic treatments of mythic and romantic elements. The world is thus summoned not only through a geographical journey but a literary one, commencing with the flat prose of hypothesis, to end in the lyrics of folk song or prayer.

In order of preference

The Old Man - (2010 – 2300w – 78KB)

The Beautiful Woman - (2010 -1600w – 61KB)

French Lessons - (2011 – 5233w -152KB)

Moses & The Seven Brokers - (2013 -1363w – 62KB)

Scissors Rock Paper - (2009 -223w – 56KB)

Human Resources - (2009 -1119w – 59KB)

Art Class ’64 - (2007 – 505w – 64KB)

Returns - (2012 -4390w – 116KB)

Heirs and Graces - (2024 – 1812w)

Aftermath - (2024 – 964w)

As It Lays - (2026 - 1088w)

Love of Life - (2022 – 1,064w – 40KB* – *later version of Word, smaller PDF?)

Street Feinting Mad - (2007 -189w – 55KB)

Flowers of The Olde Worlde - (2007 -213w – 38KB)

The Curator Smiles - (2007 -318w – 57KB)

The Fake - (2011 -456w –58KB) – This is the only story to have been previously published – in UK art magazine Garageland, Issue 12, 2011 – p68. The regrettable title there was the work of the editor.

The Island of Gene Moreau – Mururoa Mon Amour - (2007 -288w – 38KB)

A Treatment - (2007 -456w – 79KB)

Mother Lovers - (2010 -3080w – 80KB)

I Glass Dame Elizabeth Murdoch - (2012 – 482w – 45KB)

Tim G Speaks - (2007 -374w – 77KB)

Manmade - (2007 – 578w – 54KB)

Superfantastic - (2007 -289w -57KB )

The American Inquisition - (2007 – 256w – 76KB)

The Big Map of Accepted Borders for Orphan Jesus - (2007 – 296w – 64KB)

J&M: The Ultimate Remix - (2007 – 268w – 57KB)

Older Stories

Before I had a website and the opportunity to publish PDFs there, forays into fiction were relatively rare events. Only four stories are listed here (or were saved) covering the years 1971 – 1984.

For The Boys (1971) and A Head Transplant (1984) are the longest and most impressive, while Grave Matters (1974-5) – strictly a film script - but preceding film school, is included here as simply a story. Swiss Role (1975) a short fiction written before attending film school, was very much in the style of Richard Brautigan and points to an interest in pursuing fiction independent of film making.

For The Boys - (1971 - 27012w - 557Kb)

Grave Matters - (1974 - 4924w 537Kb)

The Swiss Role - (1975 - 2387w - 562Kb)

A Head Transplant - (1984 - 23080w - 695KB)

Film Scripts

The film scripts arose in the context of independent film-making in the early 80s. All were submitted to The BFI Production Board for funding, complete or as seeding. At the time the Head of The Production Board was Peter Sainsbury, hardly a noted independent film producer. All three were rejected.

The Kindly Old Lighthouse Keeper

Australian Gothic

Experiencing Difficulties

Poetry

Poetry has played a key role in my artistic development, a little surprisingly. From adolescence it has provided a private record of my life., quickly finding a distinctive voice and form at just fifteen, in 1968. It continues on through art school and film school to explore a discursive, free ranging style that partly reflects film-making ambitions, partly continues to record a lifestyle of travel.

After film school, entering the British film and television industry, the theme of travel continues, but the style becomes more conventional. The last book, Dredge (the title summing up a paucity of inspiration) coincides with my return to Australia, and a more intense engagement with painting.

Eirenicon (46 poems - 1968-71 - 8,447w)