Rory Haymont
Books
Kirby
So many were willing to risk all to be part of the kind of adventure that no longer exists on earth. To go somewhere completely new.
The journey was dismissed by astrophysicists. Yet it was being organised by one of the most highly regarded but secretive designers of all manner of advanced technologies.
To earn a seat as as member of the crew, thousands of Candidates must endure Challenges more arduous than anyone expected.
The Hand of Tæranon
Richard’s life as a novelist was collapsing before him. His most recent offering had tanked and his publishers had torn up his contract. His sister gave him an ‘ideas generator’ a fantasy tragic had built to help novelists who’d run out of ideas create unique storylines and then give them a virtual experience to help with the creative processes.
Richard couldn’t find a combination of plot elements he found appealing. A grime covered button in a briefcase with a neural net, never before pressed, read ‘Let it Roll’. It draws Richard into a world where things were simply not how they were supposed to be.
He meets people, and creatures and takes on a role in this strange world he could never believed he would be called upon to fill. But Tæranon was full of surprises. And so, it turns out, was Richard.
Nance
Nancy, a gentle, intelligent though a somewhat meek schoolgirl has a terrible experience. Nance emerges from the cuts and scars. She’s friendly, affable and generous. Just don’t fuck with her unless you want to be spoon fed for the rest of your life.
Nance reimagines and recasts relationships with those around her.
As soon as she can leave her small town she will. She wants adventure and starts a journey to places she would never have predicted.
Bruja
The world on the surface has been torn apart. In one place a man lives alone deep underground for decades thinking there are only the ruined things that were once human above.
There is a an underground city built by the wealthy in anticipation of destruction on the surface. And there is a small, sharply divided enclave on the surface which was protected from the destruction. They are the remnants and vassals of a hidden power.
Zen
What if you could start again? Be youthful but bring with you all the hard-won lessons of age. What if you could find true love and grow old with someone you cherish? Do the type of gratifying work you always wanted to, while enjoying travel and pursuing interests you never had time for. But there’s a catch. Nothing comes for nothing.
The Survivor
From the Bridge of a Cruise Ship the First Officer sees what he thinks is a man washed up on an atoll. The old Navigator with him suggests it’s only a log in the shape of a man, but eventually must relent to the concerns of this fellow Officer.
During the nightmare that gradually unfolds on the ship, the First Officer could not regret more his insistence on recovering the Survivor. A man that causes the ships crew and passengers to fall into a state of degradation, violence, and misery and called upon to make choices they would have found abhorrent only days before. A luxury vessel with over four thousand people on board are cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped in a horrific nightmare of abused and abusers.
The Navigator and the Survivor are playing out another deadly game in what has been an ancient contest to stop the Survivor reached populated land, where his outrages would migrate unchecked wherever his wanderings take him. The old Mariner is terrified that this time he will fail.
This book contains material which some may find offensive or disturbing. This includes coarse language, depictions of graphic violence, including sexual violence, torture, suicide, drug taking, horror and supernatural themes.
Proximity
Why did they start to dislike her all of a sudden. She was so ordinary. Yet everyone she comes in contact with now are mean and hurtful. Even her best friends and her mother, who she loved so much are off hand a disappointed in her without warning.
A man who’d been turning up in her dreams was the only one who wasn’t affected by this malaise. Indeed, when she was with him those in close proximity behaved normally, though they seemed to be becoming shallow and even stupid. Unfortunately the perimeter around which the man who had this effect was closing in. And dislike was morphing into a hatred that had become a global phenomena.
She wasn’t going to take this lying down. Although a little out of character her mantra and coping mechanism was now. ‘Fuck you.’
The Dreamer
Has he awakened from a dream? Or has he fallen into one. Is the life he remembers the dream?
Whichever it is, he’s accused of committing grotesque murders. His strange journey is changing around every corner. All the while he’s uncertain if the people he grows to love and hate are real, or just characters in a dream.
The Blue Groper
The Blue Groper is a story about a boy who loved fishing. Then he loved fish. And they loved him back. Then he loved a girl. And then it all came together.
The other stories span body snatchers, kidnapped drug addicts, a backpackers run by gods, head kickers, and keeping your shed tidy. And oh yeah. How about a disabled person gets to be the villain.
Three Short Novels
Reaper The US President is being blackmailed. He’s plunged into self loathing and his constituents into confusion with the reversal of so much that made up his election platform. Among other things he’s forced to increase the acquisition of drones with machine learning capabilities. But things go badly wrong. And everyone gets hurt.
The Girlfriend Experience: By the time Bobby realises she had been the love of life, it was too late and she was gone. Could he recreate her? A full sensory Kirsten. In his mind.
The Reputation: An FBI graduate doing her PhD stumbled on what must be the most prolific killer in US history. Yet he didn't recall any of it, and was the consummate gentlemen. But after twenty five years something terrible happens to a young man he’s befriended. In his mid seventies he decides to dust off his Fedora, one last time.
Names
Marylyn wasn't Marylyn. And Myles wasn't Myles. Greta had a car accident and everything changed. Marylyn was cheerful and good natured. And she also had insights to people lives that were sometimes profound and could have only been arrived at through long observation. However Marylyn was secretly troubled that she remembered nothing of her history. People respected and admired Marylyn and she was sought after as a friend and confidant. Would they feel the same about Greta?
Short Novels
The Blue Groper
The Blue Groper is a story about a boy who loved fishing. Then he loved fish. And they loved him back. Then he loved a girl. And then it all came together.
Proximity
Why did they start to dislike her all of a sudden. She was so ordinary. Yet everyone she comes in contact with now are mean and hurtful. Even her best friends and her mother, who she loved so much are off hand a disappointed in her without warning.
A man who’d been turning up in her dreams was the only one who wasn’t affected by this malaise. Indeed, when she was with him those in close proximity behaved normally, though they seemed to be becoming shallow and even stupid. Unfortunately the perimeter around which the man who had this effect was closing in. And dislike was morphing into a hatred that had become a global phenomena.
She wasn’t going to take this lying down. Although a little out of character her mantra and coping mechanism was now. ‘Fuck you.’
The Reputation
An FBI graduate doing her PhD stumbled on what must be the most prolific killer in US history. Yet he didn't recall any of it, and was the consummate gentlemen. But after thirty years something terrible happens to a young man he’s befriended.
In his mid seventies he decides to dust off his Fedora. One last time.
The Girlfriend Experience
By the time Bobby realises she was the love of life, it was too late and she was gone.
Could he recreate her?
A full sensory Kirsten. In his mind.
Reaper
The US President is being blackmailed. He’s plunged into self loathing and his constituents into confusion with the reversal of so much that made up his election platform.
Among other things he’s forced to increase the acquisition of drones with machine learning capabilities.
But things go badly wrong. And everyone gets hurt.
Short Stories
The Dog’s Dream
Running.
A beautiful warm day on the huge flat place with moving water on one side and high steep places on the other.
The Pack Leader is throwing a round thing for me. Out into where I’m jumping over the moving water. I know if I bring it back to the Second in the Pack it will make both of them very happy. I do this some of the time.
It’s warm. Much warmer than it usually is. That’s why they have hardly any fur on. I’m a little hot even in the water. I like to swim. But I like to run more. Where we live has some grass to run on. But a steep wall stops me going too far.
Holes
The two soldiers knew that the patrol wasn’t to find enemies. There were none in that area. They were there to keep the men sharp and get them off the base. It was also a way for an experienced Sargent to explain what patrolling was about to a green recruit.
What to do and what not to.
The two had walked for several hours over a generally flat, featureless landscape relieved by the occasional low ridge. Peterson asked why they didn’t get a drone to do this stuff. Guthrie’s reply was tinged with annoyance.
Clean
Adult children go off the rails and become drug addicts?
Easy.
Kidnap them. Put them in a big cargo box.
And take them the thousand kilometres away.
The Hostel
The old hostel had a lot of character even though it was falling to bits. It was cheap to have a room to herself in a hostel for two weeks while she looked around London.
But why was there a naked swordsman in her room. It was all a terrible misunderstanding.
And the those who resided in the hostel, for reasons no mortal understood, had to get her to come back.
Sheds
Sometimes bad things have to happen in order for something good to happen.
It doesn’t always stop at that though. Damn.
Revenge of the Geriatrics
It’s past the time for their pain medication.
No nap when there was supposed to be a nap.
Something very precious has been stolen from them and they want it back. These are gun wielding, fast car driving old fogies trained for violence and brutality.
Give them an incontinence pad and a walker and look the fuck out.
Death Row
Not many people get a chance to kick their ex-wife’s head around.
Nor should they.
Crayons
She has had enough of being trapped inside her own mind.
Of people being mean to her.
Now she’s figured something out. No one would ever suspect it.
Except for one man who wishes he had a different job.
The Art Piece
A painting in a gallery helped her to break free. She didn’t realise what the real art piece was.
The Last Embrace
The shark took the last thing Simon had left that made his life worth living. It plunged him into his own depths and he decided he didn’t want to return to the surface as a part of the grieving process. He wanted to find the bottom and stay there. It’s what he deserved.
Bottom Feeders
When his sister kills herself, Billy becomes outraged at the class of people who make their living out of being hurtful with no consequences.
He puts his grief aside and shows them what it feels like tobe the focus of unwanted attention by revealing a narrow and meanspirited perspective of their lives.
And what it feels like to be the focus of casual hate. But how many people around the edges will get hurt along the way?
Run
She has never known anything than this nightmare. Trapped. Then a target. Then Run. Try to find some rest and sustenance. Punctuated by strange interludes. Her life is a misery of terror and barely surviving. And she can’t even die to escape it. And again they are coming. She is coming. Even in these terrible circumstances things can get worse.
The Donation
It was not the organ Amanda was expecting. She had never transplanted one of these and it was unexpectedly large. And black. This was also and angry organ. An organ with a plan.
This was organ that would possess her friend and take her on a journey of retribution. A detective well versed in retribution would be on their trail all along. But not to convict them.