HOORAY!

Awesome news friends, readers, and people who have stumbled across this page and are now baffled... I got another story published! HOORAY!! I am a-buzz with excitement! I am smiling so much that my face is actually hurting a little bit...The lovely people at Cafe Lit have decided that they like my story enough to put it on their website for the foreseeable future. So feel free to have a click on the title below and have a read!

Eternity

 by Jessica Cooke 

(I realise I don't need to put my name up there, but it feels wrong not doing it! So there it will stay.)

My story was originally a homework piece for my short fiction class back at university, the assignment was to do a modern day rewrite of the story of Echo and Narcissus by Ovid but I won't give any more away or spoil it!


So I have to say a huge thank you(!!) To Cafe Lit for being wonderful enough to give my story a chance. 

One of the things I like best about Cafe Lit is that it puts a quirky spin on the typical creative publishing websites, in particular; each story that is sent in is assigned the name of a drink that reflects the nature of the story. For example; a dark piece of fiction might be called an Espresso, a light, heartwarming story might be a Hot Chocolate. I even read a story that was a 'Shot of Whiskey' - that was definitely hard hitting.

Hope you enjoy it.
x

Unfinished Books

Despite my love of the written word I sometimes have trouble finishing books. We've all had that book which we've heard great things about, we long for it, and by the time we finally get our paws on a copy it has either been over hyped by critics/friends, or else our own anticipation kills it. You get one chapter in and it gets discarded and whenever you see it on your shelf it actually causes a sharp pinch in your chest. I have found this with a plethora of books recently. This upsets me greatly. 

The books in question are as follows:

• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundra
• The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
• Nights At The Circus - Angela Carter
• Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
• The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen/Seth Grahame-Smith

When I think about it rationally; a few reasons why I disliked a few of the books upon first try were rather silly; Lewis Carroll's use of parenthesis really got on my nerves, it caused me actual pain every time I saw something in those damned brackets, so I discarded it. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies seems like a fantastic idea (I am a huge lover of Zombies) but I cannot say that I have ever really enjoyed any of Jane Austen's works, so why I purchased it is a bit of a mystery to me. However, as an avid Angela Carter lover, it is really bothering me that I can't seem to warm to the character of Fevvers at all, of course she is portrayed in a slightly detestable way, but I still can't seem to will myself to learn more about her. I am determined to get through this book though as I have heard so many amazing things about it. 

Now, since starting this little list (I say little; to me it looks quite large, but I guess that depends on your outlook on life) I have managed to plough through two of the books and I can say that I am happier for finishing them. 

Alice In Wonderland & Alice Through The Looking Glass are absolutely fantastic stories and I can't believe I ever doubted them. I was a fool. Perhaps my favourite part in the stories has to be when she meets the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Doormouse and finds out that the reason they are constantly having a tea party is because of a feud they had with Time, who made it forever six o'clock. How beautifully whimsical. I am in love. (I even found myself chattering about the Alice stories only three days ago in the toilets, at a gig, with a girl who had a tattoo of Alice hugging a deer on her forearm.)

The second book I finished wasn't quite so well received. Perhaps it is because I started it in my first year of university, and, upon realising I had a rather vast reading list, discarded it until now. John Connolly's 'The Book of Lost Things' has its positive points in the way he rewrites all of the different children's fairy tales, making them dark and twisted; when the Crooked Man/Rumpelstiltskin started to die, it was down right gruesome! But the way he ends his book really displeased me. In fact as soon as I read the line; '...but he became a writer and he wrote a book. He called it The Book of Lost Things, and the book that you are holding is the book that he wrote.' I just had to shut the book and put it back onto my shelf. Terrible.

I am hoping that by the time I get around to finishing the rest of these books I will see that I was wrong for not having read them sooner.

The Boy With Eyes The Size of Miami Football Stadium

The Boy with Eyes the Size of Miami Football Stadium by Andrew Gilmore is an innovative and very funny take on traditional children's picture books. The story itself is about a little boy, named Kevin Eckleburg - who is having a very bad Saturday - forced to do chores while other children play - but when his parents take him to a football game things start to look up. That is until he feels a peculiar twinge in the whites of his eyes... Without giving too much away; his eyeballs inflate to gigantic proportions and a rag-tag group of brave, and loving, toys come to his aid. 

My favourite part of the story comes right at the very beginning when Kevin is described as a 'soggy cloth'. Absolutely fantastic. It was such a strange, brash, and unlikely description. It threw me completely offguard and was the first clue that this was going to be anything but a conventional children's story. 

In fact, this book reminds me of two books from youth; the first being 'The Oddkins' (1988) by Dean Koontz, which I read as a child, and 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories' (1997) by Tim Burton which I read many years later as a teenager. Both of the books embody a darker element onto the typical children's fable that widens the books audience, meaning older readers derive pleasure from it too, which is why this one was so difficult to suss out at first.

Another part that stuck with me was when the Grim Reaper was introduced as a 'moody individual, one-time dance champion' to then see him pictured wearing, what looks like, a spandex (or leather) skin-tight black suit. Instantly his voice became that of the Goblin King from 1986 classic family film; Labyrinth. Though perhaps this is just me. The bright, acryllic illustrations were done by Gilmore himself and were inspired by paintings by Clive Barker and drawings by Tim Burton.

The Boy with Eyes the Size of Miami Football Stadium is available from Amazon and through iBookstore, and can be read on mobile phones and Kindle Fire through many free apps. Personally, I think the story would be better received as a paper copy, rather than on a technical device, as then the reader can enjoy it in full; with pictures alongside the words.

Andrew Gilmore is an writer and artist based in Manchester. His fine art has been shown at venues around the UK including The Cornerhouse. While his illustrations have featured in magazines and been used by bands. His first horror novel Gate will be published this autumn.