With deft turns of phrase and an imagination that would make Philip K. Dick jealous, Clive foresees a dystopian future, the seeds of which are definitely being sown right now. The story is a chilling glimpse of what may come to pass, warmed by a thread of love that raises the narrative beyond despair. I found the stories disturbing and breath-taking in equal measure. The Apparat and Dirigiste tribes are ranging across our solar system seeking peace by waging war, raising the question: is humanity actually capable of peace? A riveting read.
Lorna Howarth, The Write Factor
June '19 - now +70,000 downloads of my work via Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Apple & other ebook sites & aggregators
my fiction
Solitude - a place where stories are linked by recurring themes of urban and future decay – splintered glass, dust motes and cracked plaster; the loss of loved ones, of the ability to remember; black and white movies of the mind; shafts of golden light shattered by war; haunted memories and the night darks.
There is a poetic lilt to the narrative, that delights in the minutiae of observation, bringing the mundane into the spotlight, giving it a meaning and beauty that is mostly lost on us busy ones; there is the terror of the ordinary, the shadow in the midday sun; and then there is the humour: sharp, cynical, painfully astute.
"...stories reverberate in the mind, long after they've been read. They connect us in their telling, because we relate to these deep, dark moments of human emotion that make us who we are." (Lorna Howarth, The Write Factor, 2016)
My first novel, Songs of Bliss, appeared in 2011, with subsequent volumes of short stories appearing in print between then and 2017.
My stories and poetry have appeared regularly in anthologies in the UK, and my work has been shortlisted in competition by the likes of Ragged Raven, bluechrome, and Leaf Books.
My latest novel, A Solitude of Stars, was published in 2018.
You can download all of these titles for free by following the book cover links below:
tales from the world's firesides
Tales From The World's Firesides is a grand project. I've collected ‘000’s of traditional texts as part of other projects. Many of the original texts are available through channels like Project Gutenberg, but some of the narratives can be hard to read by modern readers, & so the Fireside project was born.
Put simply, I collect, collate & adapt traditional tales from around the world & publish them for free as a modern archive (and I can think of nowhere better than Smashwords to do this).
Part 1 - Europe, consists of 19 titles covering a host of nations & regions. I'm not laying any claim to insight or specialist knowledge, but these collections are born out of my love of storytelling & I hope that you'll share my affection for traditional tales, myths & legends.
These collections of stories bring together magical tales told by firelight since the very first people tried to make sense of the world around them. These tales are universal. These tales have instructed us, have cautioned us, & entertained us for millennia. Read a few of these stories in soft light with a glass of something warming by your side. Read them aloud to friends & family. These stories are magical.
Wales
Scotland
Ireland
Ireland
England
England
Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Viking
Finland
Norse
Spain
Italy
Greece
Balkans
Germany
Hungary
France
Romania
ABOUT...
I was born in 1962 into a predominantly sporting household – Dad being a good footballer, playing senior amateur and lower league professional football in England, as well as running a series of private businesses in partnership with mum, herself an accomplished and medal winning dancer.
I obtained a degree in History from Leeds University before wandering rather haphazardly into the emerging world of business computing in the late nineteen-eighties.
A little like my sporting father, I followed a succession of amateur writing paths alongside my career in technology, including working as a freelance journalist and book reviewer, my one claim to fame being a by-line in a national newspaper in the UK, The Sunday People.
I also spent 10 years treading the boards, appearing all over the south of the UK in pantos and plays, in village halls and occasionally on the stage of a professional theatre or two.
Following the sporting theme, and a while after I hung up my own boots, I worked on live TV broadcasts for the BBC, ITV, TVNZ, EuroSport and others as a rugby "Stato", covering Heineken Cups, Six Nations, IRB World Sevens and IRB World Cups in the late '90's and early '00's.
I try to combine my love of storytelling with a passion for information technology, and am currently Vice President - Technology with a major UK FinTech company.
You can find out more about me on the Bio page or at www.clivegilson.com. You can also find my books and other info at:
