Meridian out now
Meridian, my collection of 14 short stories, is available as Print on Demand at Book Depository, which is by far the cheapest. It is also available from CreateSpace, Amazon and others, and as an ebook on Smashwords, and others.
Meridian is about time. Time, the past. Time, the present. Time, the future.
A woman sits in a cafe which has a clock with one hand and reflects how she tried to cheat time.
Elderly brothers meet after decades of separation and talk of what they won, what they lost.
Two boys test each others’ courage as they stand by a flickering fire in the dark waiting for the Devil.
A young and homesick immigrant tries to find his way in a new world.
A couple visiting Cambodia’s famous Angkor ruins come face to face with the country’s more recent violent history in a shock confrontation.
Tales that c
over half a world and half a century.
Comments
Horst Posselt
Hi Derek
As it happens a couple of old schoolmates and i were sitting over a beer last week and came up with the idea of starting an old boys book club. Now I’ve been tasked with coming up with some candidate books to start the proceedings and thinking back on our chat at Marilyn’s birthday party, I thought that some of your work might be the go. So I’ve now found your website (youve done a good job there) and see there’s a couple of offerings we could pursue, namely Meridian and On the run. Pleased to have your views on which might be best for us.. but my main reason for emailing you is to ask about access. I gather we can get Meridan in hard copy format by ordering it online and that On the run is only available as an ebook(?? is that right?). Im not sure if the ebook option will be an attractive one to my mates but just to see how it all works I tried downloading the 20% sample copy of the book but without success. Any tips on how I can view the sample files..and I wonder if it would make sense to print a hardcopy from the ebook copy..my guess is probably not worth doing. Anyway Derek if it works out who knows we might all come up your way to ‘meet the author’ and get some signings from you (over a beer somewhere could be good). Cheers for now.. Horst
Derek Mortimer
Hello Horst, glad you got on to me, I was trying to get your email address. Of the two books:
On the Run, is young adult or crossover fiction, i.e., acceptable for either late teens or adult readers. It is a story of “terrorism” so is therefor, regrettably, very topical but it is hard to say whether it would be engaging enough for older blokes. And it is only available as an ebook, which a lot of people don’t like. But it is much cheaper.
Meridian, on the other hand is for adult readers. The title story, Meridian, is based on a personal family tragedy. Other stories ranges from immigration, to growing up, hero worship, Cambodian killing fields, to two old guys together for the last time and assessing their lives. So, a wide range of tales most of them drawn from life’s experiences.
Short fiction is increasingly popular and the book could be a good way to start off your group.
And of course, I would love to meet and talk to the readers, either here or in Canberra where we visit a few times a year, and maybe discuss with them where the story ideas come from, how I go about writing them, anything all that interests them.
Re the format, I don’t think ebooks can be printed. Meridian, as a Print on Demand, would be delivered to you as any other paperback ordered online. Buy from Createspace, they charge less postage than Amazon.
I really would be delighted if you and your mates read Meridian, then if we met I could get a face to face feedback.
I’ll check out the problems with sample pages from On the Run, it worked in the past.
Cheers
Derek
Roy Drew
Derek
Just finished reading the hardback copy of Meridian.
I prepared some comments for a Facebook post.
Then I thought perhaps l better try them out here first.
l see some of the things I was going to say are already outlined in previous comments.
The themes of time,place and distance leading to seperation,isolation desperation even is very powerful through these stories.
I enjoyed some of the stories more than others.
By that i mean some of the stories got to me more than others but only by a matter of degree.
l think that’s a matter of taste and what l relate to and find relevant.
Others obviously will have differt views.
l was particularily drawn in by the story of the grapepicking days in the summer heat of NSW and the confronting story set in the timber workers camp in the winter cold of the same NSW.
I could feel the the rawness of the times and places and having lived and worked in WA mining camps in the 60’s the roughness of the cameraderie that brooked no sentimentality.
Moving stories about the brothers who after growing up together went their own very seperate ways ways in the world-one staying and one leaving and reuniting many years later forcing them to review their lives.
Another set in post Pol Pot Cambodia and the reality of life and death in that tragic country pierces the comfort of modern day tourists.
Another poignant story captures the desperation of a young woman in an uncertain and indifferent world.
A very nice very very short tale of an unrequited love.
Very few will fail to be moved by this little gem.
There is lost love ,sibling rivalry and even an amusing tale of the authors brush with literary fame and his own so far thwarted ambitions…..
So all in all a patient and precisely crafted collection of vivid human stories…
and one other thing- as if l didnt have enough to read you’ve got me hooked on short stories.
Seriously a fine introduction to the form indeed.
Looking forward to more from you.
Congratulations Derek and thank you.