Afterworlds
My new ebook of eschatological* short stories is now up on Amazon Kindle (*eschatology: the academic study of the afterlife)
If you haven’t enjoyed my very occasional short-story postings, then don’t read any further… Normal service next week, with Dickens and Wilkie Collins on Carrock Fell in the rain.
I’ve just built an ebook (50,000 words, about 150 pages in paperback) containing 13 short stories (well 12 short stories and one rather longer) set in various afterlives. Two of them have appeared as Substack postings, and there’ll be another one later this month, but the others don’t really belong on this newsletter as
a) they’re too long
b) they’re not about mountains.
Instead they’re about ghosts, demons and ancient gods.
Afterworlds is illustrated here and there by Rosey Priestman and published by Fox Bones Press (in other words, by me) at £2.45 (or €2.95, or $3.06 at current exchange rate, get in quick before Trump’s tariffs come along … )
… and you can get it on the Kindle with the button above. Where you can also preview the first two stories. I printed 13 hardback copies (using a firm called WTTB/Where The Trade Buys, recommended) but those have all been given away already.
“It’s a crazy story, colourful and engrossing. I confess to getting a bit lost in all the levels of souls and bodies” – a family member, on ‘Tut-Capet’
If you should decide to splash out the £2.45, a review on Amazon is always appreciated unless it’s a seriously nasty one. Or if you’ve ideas as to how I could do them better, feel free to add a comment here. The suggestion so far has been that they’re a bit dense and difficult to get into, and I should maybe take more time explaining what’s going on…
Summaries of the stories are below; but honestly, it’s worth it just for Rosey’s illustrations.
Birds of the Afterworld A deceased birdwatcher strays into an inappropriate afterlife.
Golf Balls of the Material World Col. Mackenzie’s 250-yard drive goes clear across the Keltie’s Burn. Or does it go much, much farther than that?
The Black Loch of the Beast A winter meeting between a grieving climber and... someone else
Fairway to Heaven The golf course is threatened with redevelopment. But what can Fraser and the foursome team do about it – given that all four of them are already dead?
The dogs of golf The Masters are gone, wiped out by a raiding tribe of Homo sapiens. But then, ten thousand years later, a single golf ball hops along the fairway.
The Love of Granite To die on the granite is better than living on the ground.
Rock Candy Mountain Freshly-squeezed lemonade trickles down the rocks and the cee-gars grow on trees. So can Cross-tie Joe find happiness here?
The demon cheerleader The demons have conquered America. But does that mean they can join the cheerleading team?
The Cloud of Unknowing Gerald Macdonaldson, youth group leader, finds his own mapreading leads him into confusion.
The Haunting of Climb B People feel something on the second pitch, and then they fall off. But oh, the rhyolite is so lovely.
Adventures in the Bardo Plane Dying on Shishapangma, will Bibi Armbruster end up in the Preta-realm of the miserable ghosts? Or might he, even, attain enlightenment?
In the night airport A middle-aged man is trying to download his boarding pass. But a voice from the past keeps breaking in.
The Death and Afterlife of the Boatman Tut-Capet When her devotee Tut-Capet is brought to judgement under mysterious circumstances, river goddess Annaket decides to investigate.
‘People feel something on the second pitch, and then they fall off. But oh, the rhyolite is so lovely.’ Haha
My brain stubbornly read the title as ‘Afterwords’ until I went hunting on Amazon… Anyway I’ve downloaded to my Kindle though it will have to join rather a long queue.
Good one!
Love the sound of this!