The Bitten Bullet

Well I’ve bitten the bullet and am going with Smashwords
As a test I have uploaded a free story (Needs a little work) called Crosscut at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/98767
Next I am planning on uploading the prologue to Parallel and see what response I get. After that comes the big one, load Parallel with a few free chapters and make the novel for 5 bucks, give or take. Stay tuned for more details.
In a way this is an experiment in self publishing and I’m throwing it open to the world to learn from the mistakes and lessons I pick up along the way.
Guess we’ll see how it goes.
Chris K.
Part Time Lunatic

Flying out of Sydney

I wrote this while in Sydney.

I’m back
Back in this city,
This birthplace
This bruise upon my soul
Back where I grew up
This cage of concrete,
This hole.

Where beggars, like bottles
litter the street
Men broken and shattered
like glass at my feet
And everyone’s squeezed
Till like plasticine they,
Lose all of their colour,
Leaving nothing but grey
Where corporate junk-men
Dressed up in their suits
While the punks are dressed up
In their Doc Martin boots
And the speed gives them both
Dark rings under their eyes
As their nostrils are filled
With the dust of their lives,
I see building block buildings,
Stacked higher than high
And the skyscrapers scrape
At the dirty grey sky
And the trees grow confined
To their cages of steel,
While the people ignore
All they see and they feel.
And so, I breathe deep
Of the foetid grey air
And am grateful that I
No longer live there.

Chris Kneipp