Tag Archives: Novels

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Setting, Research, and Revisions

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, involved just as much research as usual, though this time into many unexpected areas.

Given the authoritarian political states in the novel, a certain amount of investigation into those with extreme views was inevitable. I looked at a lot of the more cult-like leaders on the US evangelical right-wing, as well as extremists on the left, and their groups and organisations. I also read up on so-called “incel” groups and those who believe they can have loving relationships with an android. At first, I feared the ideas for my novel would be too ridiculous even for a satire, but real life was always three steps ahead of me.

After researching several US cities and states, I took the decision to not name any real city or geographic location in the novel, other than to talk in vague terms about east and west (with California and the west coast having fallen into the sea, following the “big one” earthquake). Apart from anything else, I didn’t like to assign particular social, political, or religious ideologies to any one city, so it seemed best, on balance, to have the cities in the novel remain nameless. It’s also worth mentioning that several parts of the novel deal with news media organisations, for which I drew on my own television experience. This was more for the personalities and their attitudes than the technical side, though I should stress no characters are directly based on real people.

The plot came to me fully formed in early 2018, in a strange “download”. At first, I expected my protagonist Sam to be American, but then I realised I needed an “outsider” perspective for this story, so made him an English refugee (in the novel, an unspecified “Catastrophe” has rendered the UK and Europe uninhabitable). As I wrote the story, little changed from the original outline in terms of characters and events, but I did ruthlessly prune everything I considered “preachy”, I hope successfully. Peaceful Quiet Lives is not intended to be a political statement of any kind, and I wanted the events to speak for themselves, without editorialising.

I also cut a number of lengthy sequences, especially in part two. A chapter where Sam and Eve attend an illegal gathering was removed, largely because it felt superfluous in light of the Halloween party they attend earlier. This gathering involved people indulging in all manner of “rebellious” activity; not just unregistered (and therefore legally “unconsenting”) sexual activity, but also free and frank political and spiritual discussion, without fear of state punishment for expressing undesirable views. In that draft, the priest from the final chapter made an earlier appearance, discussing his resistance work in both nations with Sam. I liked this section of the novel, but took it out because it felt a little on the nose, as well as being unnecessary. I revised the novel so Sam only meets the priest in the final chapter.

If you’ve not yet read Peaceful Quiet Lives, why not give it a go? Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK), or here (in the US). You can also order from Smashwords here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: The Cover

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, has a superb cover, courtesy of my graphic designer friend, the excellent Denisa Trenkle.

Denisa and I discussed a variety of concepts. One early rough mock-up (complete with amusing typo) emphasised the surveillance angle of the novel.

Another explored the brainwashing angle, and another featured the provocative image of lovers trapped behind prison bars in the shape of a map of the USA. A revised version of the latter, without the figures, was fully completed. We considered using this one as an alternative.

At one point, this cover (created by me – nothing whatsoever to do with Denisa) was used as a temporary measure, but never intended to make it to publication. For complicated reasons, a couple of these were printed, so if this novel is ever hugely successful, these two copies featuring my inept attempts at graphic design will end up being worth a fortune.

However, in the end, we settled on this cover:

The final cover subtly hints at different elements of the narrative around the central title text, through use of colour and symbolism. It also looks nothing like any of my other novel covers, which was a key part of the brief I gave Denisa. Given that the subject matter is outside my usual gothic horror or children’s adventure oeuvre, it really needed to stand out.

What is the subject matter? Check out the blurb from the back of the book:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Pick up your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). It is also available from Smashwords here.

To see more of Denisa’s splendid work, click here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Second Excerpt

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, is out now. Last year, this post revealed the opening of the novel. Here’s a taster from early in the second half.

‘You will be expected here, at the Department of Tolerance, to begin your Enlightenment Conditioning classes tomorrow morning at nine o’clock sharp.’

‘Thank you. What about Eve?’

‘As I said, we are not quite finished with her.’

‘But how will I reach her?’

‘She will be told where you are staying in due course, and obviously we will rehouse her as well. For the time being, you cannot have any contact with her.’

I stare at Adams and Lucas. Something isn’t right.

‘What aren’t you telling me about Eve?’

‘We have told you everything. She simply needs further time for processing. Remember, she has been the victim of patriarchal oppression in a society that hates women. She has suffered a lot more than you, and we need further time to ensure she is not a political threat.’

‘A political threat? You just said she was a victim!’

‘It is precisely because she was a victim that she could be a political threat. Women who are oppressed the way Eve has been oppressed will often fall back on expected behaviour patterns, even unconsciously. We need to be sure that she will not display or even encourage such behaviour in the DEAR.’

I can scarcely believe my ears. ‘You’re telling me you’re worried Eve will go around telling women in the DEAR that they need to be subservient to men?’

‘I don’t think she would do so intentionally,’ Lucas says. ‘But we have to be sure, nonetheless.’

I slump back in my chair, unable to believe my ears. ‘This is farcical. Just spend some time with Eve. Have a conversation with her. She is one of the strongest, boldest, most independent people you will ever meet. She has such a great sense of humour, and she is…’

‘Ah yes, humour… Another area where you and Eve will doubtless require Enlightenment Conditioning.’

‘Humour?’

‘Given the situations you were in, I expect you and Eve used dark, offensive, and insensitive humour as a means of coming to terms with your predicament. Here we cannot allow such things. There is no need for it, and such jokes will only cause distress.’

‘You want to make sure we don’t make the wrong jokes?’

‘The Department of Tolerance has many sub-divisions, including an Office of Humour, which regularly advises citizens on what is and isn’t funny.’

I burst out laughing. ‘You can’t legislate humour!’

‘Humour isn’t a laughing matter, Sam. It can be perverted into a terrible weapon of oppressive propaganda.’

‘Eve and I are hardly Goebbels! We’re just two people who love each other and want to live together in peace. I can assure you we will not make offensive jokes to anyone else.’

‘That is good Sam. But we must also make sure you don’t make them to each other. As I said, you will both require Enlightenment Conditioning, if you wish to live as successful citizens in the DEAR.’

Intrigued? Here’s the blurb from the back of the book.

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). It is also available at Smashwords here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Influences and Inspirations

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, is informed by a number of classic novels, whilst also being very much its own unique story. Here are five texts that were influential in some way.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell) – Orwell’s masterpiece casts a long shadow over all modern dystopian fiction, and to not acknowledge it would be disingenuous. The Winston and Julia romance informs some of what Sam and Eve experience, as does their suffering at the hands of the authorities. However, the central relationship has a very different purpose and outcome in my novel. There are also parallels between the censorship of Nineteen Eight-Four (including “newspeak”) and the censorship rules in both nations in my novel, which operate at opposite political extremes. However, once again, the kind of censorship is very different.

The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) – The religious oppression of the Gilead regime to a degree did inform the oppression of women in the NPAR (New Puritan American Republic), in my novel. However, there are vitally important differences. For one thing, there is no population crisis, and women are not forced into marriages for breeding purposes in the NPAR. However, women are strictly controlled in terms of the lives they can lead, the careers they can pursue, and so forth. Furthermore, marriages have to authorised by religious authorities.

A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) – The brainwashing of young Alex to “cure” him of his wicked ways did in some way influence the torment Eve suffers at the hands of interrogators in the DEAR (Democratically Enlightened American Republic), in my novel. However, unlike Alex, Eve is a far less contentious subject, nor is the reader invited to feel torn or backed into a corner over her treatment. I expect and indeed hope that unambiguous sympathy is the reader’s response in her case.

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) – A state where all books are banned is the horrifying premise of Bradbury’s most notorious novel (the title refers to the temperature at which paper burns). Not all books are banned in the two nations of my novel, but many are. Sometimes the same novel is banned in both states, but for entirely different reasons. For example, a novel banned for sexual content in the NPAR could also be banned for perceived sexism in the DEAR.

The Trial (Franz Kafka) – Like the protagonist of Kafka’s novel, Sam finds himself chewed up by the inexplicable and unfair machinery of legal processes in both the NPAR and the DEAR. The prosecutions he faces are nonsensical, but are intended as a satire of the fears often expressed by extremists on both ends of the left/right political spectrum. In particular, the trial in the latter part of the second section of the novel reaches an absurdity of hair-clutching proportions, but I shan’t explain how, for fear of spoilers.

Peaceful Quiet Lives was also informed, to a lesser degree, by Gulliver’s Travels, Brave New World, The Hunger Games, and even satirical BBC classic comedy series Yes Minister. Here’s the blurb from the back of the book to whet your appetite:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). It is also available at Smashwords here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Themes

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There can be no doubt that my latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, has been informed by the ongoing so-called culture wars in America. These culture wars, whether social, political, or religious have been a simmering division in America as far back as I can remember, and in one sense, are nothing remarkable in a western democracy.

However, in recent years, these divisions have become a lot more exacerbated. I’ve also noticed a militant tendency in the language and behaviour of extremists on both sides that is remarkably similar. This militancy, fuelled by social media, television news, and opportunistic politicians, has stirred up some serious unpleasantness. One need only look at the aftermath of the recent US election for evidence.

Let me be absolutely clear: Peaceful Quiet Lives is not a political statement of any kind. It came to me in a strange download in early 2018, whilst writing my (as yet unreleased) Dark Ages set romantic fantasy tale Ravenseed. After getting this download, I wrote Peaceful Quiet Lives purely because I thought it was a good story. I had no political agenda at all.

The central idea – regarding opposite extreme authoritarian states being two sides of the same militant coin – I thought would make an intriguing backdrop for a doomed romance. But I also wanted the novel to be a satire of the worst fears of both sides in the US culture wars. The first half of the novel plays on fears that the US could turn into a religious theocracy. The second half sends up fears that the US is headed for a “woke” dystopia. The novel isn’t so much intended as a warning against both scenarios, neither is it an attempt to lash out in despair at the current problems in America, but rather it is an exercise in absurdity. I hope the tragic lunacy of such a future is inherent within the text, and that as a result, perhaps the fears of both sides will be eased, just a little.

Despite such grandiose ambitions, I hope people enjoy the novel as simply a damn good read.

By the way, the title derives from a couple of New Testament verses; one urging people to live a quiet life and mind our own business (in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4), and another passage urging prayer for those in authority, that we might live peaceful and quiet lives (in 1 Timothy chapter 2). The title is ironic on a number of levels, since events in lives of Sam and Eve are neither peaceful nor quiet.

Here is the blurb from the back of Peaceful Quiet Lives:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). It is also available from Smashwords here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Initial Reviews

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Reviews have started to come in for my latest novel Peaceful Quiet Lives. So far, all are positive five-star raves, but what most surprised me is how different facets of the novel are standing out to different people, depending on the personality, temperament, and background of the reader.

For example, one reviewer on Amazon called it “political science fiction on a very high level”, citing “parallels between the societies in the book, and the current political climate, where you are labelled as a traitor for having a deferring opinion”. He goes on to call the book “deadly serious”, saying it sends shivers down his spine.

By contrast, one reviewer on Goodreads said the novel had “several laugh out loud moments”, calling it “thought-provoking, disturbing, and at times hilarious”. He goes on to label the novel “an awesome thought experiment concerning what extremes of left and right ideology could lead to, should freedom of speech disintegrate in our post-modern era”.

Another five-star review on Amazon commented: “Who doesn’t love a great love story?”, focussing on the romantic plight of protagonists Sam and Eve, who are chewed up by the political machinery of the narrative.

Why not give Peaceful Quiet Lives a read yourself, and discover how you respond to it? Here’s the blurb from the back of the book to whet your appetite:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). It can also be ordered from Smashwords here.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: The First 400 Words

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, is out now.

Here’s the first 400ish words, as a taster.

The morality inspectors are late.

  I glance at my watch. 7:37am. They were supposed to be here seven minutes ago. Typically a morality inspection of a premises the size of my apartment takes a good twenty minutes, not allowing for nervous small talk, or, if you know the inspectors well, salacious tales of impounded illegal political materials, banned books, films, drugs, alcohol, pornography, and so forth.

  Morality inspectors are usually punctual to a fault, but if they don’t turn up soon, I’ll have to re-book my bi-annual inspection, or I’ll end up missing the train and be late for work.

  I peer at the cloudy skies above the city. My apartment lies within a tall grey high-rise building, on the ninth floor, and I have a good view to the south. The streets are already busy, filled with rushing commuters getting on buses, entering metro stations, or driving their vehicles. The crowds are bad enough as it is in the morning, but they’ll be even worse if I end up leaving later due to tardy morality inspectors.

  Tardy. That’s a word I never used back in England before the Catastrophe. I’ve picked up many words living the last twenty years in the New Puritan American Republic. Other words I’ve had to stop using. Not unless I want an on-the-spot fine for contravening the Profanity Act.

  A knock at the door indicates the morality inspectors have finally arrived. 7:39am. A full nine minutes late. Shaking my head and tutting, I open the door to find Inspector Chuck Willis red faced and quite flustered, alongside two younger men in their early twenties.

  ‘I’m so sorry Sam,’ Chuck says. ‘I know we’re running late. Contraband incident in the apartment we inspected before yours. Do you still want to do this now? Or do you want to reschedule?’

  ‘No, best to get it over with,’ I say, indicating for Chuck to come in.

  Chuck and the two younger men enter my apartment. They are dressed in the austere manner of all morality inspectors, as though attending a funeral: black trousers, ties, shoes, and jackets, embossed with a lapel depicting a black crucifix on a white background surrounded by the black outline of a five pointed star; the NPAR flag. The only difference is like all government officials, they are required to carry handguns.

Intrigued? Here’s the blurb from the back of the book.

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US). Alternatively, it can be ordered from Smashwords here.

NEW NOVEL OUT NOW: Peaceful Quiet Lives

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My latest novel, Peaceful Quiet Lives, has been released. Not “dropped”, as one often hears these days, but “released”. “Dropped” just sounds careless and irresponsible, and presumably could lead to breakages.

Anyway, I have released this novel as a surprise, with no real build up, even though I have been dropping hints in posts like this one, and announcing it indirectly by interviewing one of the supporting characters, who ends up threatening me (see my post earlier this week).

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Because Peaceful Quiet Lives sits outside my usual genre writing of mainly gothic mysteries and children’s adventure novels, I decided to self-publish the novel rather than approach publishers. I’ve not released anything in 2020, so I wanted to surprise my readers with something new. On top of that, it seemed timely, given current events in the US.

I’ll be talking more about the novel on the blog in the coming weeks.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US).

What My Villains Reveal About Me

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In storytelling, a great antagonist is as important as a great protagonist. The most satisfying narratives feature determined, active characters facing off against equally determined opposing forces.

A recent article on this blog listed ten of my favourite literary villains. Here are three antagonists from my own novels that I suspect, in retrospect, personify what I take a dim view of, drawn from personal experience, as well as political and spiritual outlook. Whilst some villains in my stories must remain anonymous, for fear of spoilers (particularly those in my gothic mystery horror/thriller novels), these three I can talk about upfront, without ruining the plot.

Graham Brooks (The Birds Began to Sing) – Although he isn’t the main villain, and only appears in one chapter during the first act, Graham Brooks is small-minded, petty, power-crazed, two-faced, and vindictive. He represents everything I despise about modern business management, with his meaningless targets, character assassination performance reviews, ghastly corporate lingo, and utterly phoney belief in so-called “teamwork”. I also took the opportunity to depict how much I loathe people who insist “problems” are “opportunities” (see what I did there?). As my protagonist Alice observes, alcoholics don’t have drinking opportunities.

Imalik (Echo and the White Howl) – Imalik is an ambitious and extremely dangerous wolf, who enters into a Faustian deal with a mysterious and malevolent supernatural force. He murders the pack Alpha, and forces other packs in the surrounding land into a union by systematically slaughtering the elk, moose, and other prey in their terrain, thus making them dependant on him for food. Imalik’s totalitarian dictatorship can be read as an allegory of any fascist state you care to name, especially those that have deliberately created food scarcity as a means of control. I didn’t intend Echo and the White Howl as anything more than an adventure story about wolves in Alaska, but in retrospect, some of my despair at short sighted political stupidity and greed over issues like overfishing may have crept in.

Benjamin Smiley (Children of the Folded Valley) – Of the many villainous faces of religious oppression in my stories, none are more diabolical than Benjamin Smiley. Exactly how he came to lead the mysterious Folded Valley Fellowship can’t be revealed here, suffice to say he is a master manipulator who preys on the weak and emotionally vulnerable, as per all cult leaders. His apparently miraculous powers of healing hold his congregation rapt, ensuring his more dubious activities (including assertion of sexual rights over whomever he chooses) go unquestioned. Benjamin Smiley is based on a number of real people I encountered during childhood, adolescence, teenage years, and even adulthood. Abuse of religious power remains the number one theme I return to in my novels, time and time again.

Best read in the run-up to Christmas: Spectre of Springwell Forest

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Gripping gothic horror mysteries are best read at this time of year, when leaves are falling, and nights are drawing in. As it gets colder in the approach to Christmas, nothing beats snuggling up in front of the fireplace with a mug of tea, and a sinister, nail-biting ghost story.

Concluding this two-part series, I pick the second of my published novels best read in the run-up to Christmas: Spectre of Springwell Forest.

The novel opens in Exeter, 2010. Lily Parker learns that her daughter Olivia is to move to the village of Springwell, near Plymouth. To the surprise of her husband Andy, this sends Lily into terrified despair. She tells him that Olivia must not move to Springwell, under any circumstances. Andy wants to know why, and Lily tells him what happened to her many decades previously, in 1979, warning him that she has a horrifying secret that she had previously hoped to take with her to the grave.

In 1979, Lily and her then six-year-old daughter Olivia, along with her first husband Tom Henderson, move to the sleepy village of Springwell. Here they meet a tight- lipped community of secretive villagers who seem to have something to hide. Lily then discovers a painting of an abandoned railway tunnel in her attic, by a local artist, Alison Merrifield. Lily is strangely drawn to the painting, particularly the dark maw of the tunnel, and ends up hanging the picture in her hallway.

After meeting her neighbour and other mothers dropping their children at the local primary school, Lily is surprised to learn they all have similar paintings in their homes, all of them painted by Alison Merrifield, all of them showing the same abandoned railway tunnel. The other mothers dismiss this as something of a village in-joke, and when Lily visits Alison in her local craft shop, Alison herself insists she cannot understand why the paintings of the abandoned tunnel are so popular. But Lily senses she is being lied to.

Shortly afterwards, when Lily and Olivia go for a walk in the local forest, they come across a fenced off area in the heart of the woods where the barbed wire has been mysteriously torn apart. Investigating further inside the fenced off section, they discover the very same abandoned railway tunnel of the painting and enter the tunnel. A disturbing incident follows (which I won’t spoil).

After this incident, Lily starts to make out a mysterious figure in the painting of the railway tunnel. As time passes, the eerie figure becomes more and more clearly defined, but Lily is disturbed to discover no-one can see it but her. Worse still, as the sinister figure is revealed, Olivia starts to behave in an increasingly alarming manner.

Intrigued? Here’s what a few Amazon reviewers had to say:

“As a horror fanatic, it takes a lot to scare me in writing. Very few books manage to do it, but Simon Dillon’s Spectre of Springwell Forest gave me nightmares! After reading this book, you will never look at a painting of a tunnel the same way again… I can’t recommend the book enough, if you want something well-written, believable, and scary for a cold, dark night.”

“You cannot shake off the feeling that something is constantly watching you… But the biggest pull for the book is the climactic revelation. Here, the author deserves full points.”

“A darkly intense and intriguing horror story full of mystery, Spectre of Springwell Forest will have you on the edge of your seat. My jaw literally dropped in shock. Enter Springwell Forest if you dare, but be prepared for the consequences.”

“A wonderful horror/thriller. Creeping sense of unease starts almost immediately. Even before you know what is to come, you are shouting at Lily to leave well alone. Dillon writes excellently and believably as a 1st person female protagonist. The story is tightly written with little preamble, which has a pleasingly sudden way of throwing you into this strange and disturbing village.”

“Spine-chilling, terrifying, absolutely gripping. A fantastic read.”

Spectre of Springwell Forest is available in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon here (in the UK) and here (in the US).