12-Bar Blues is a soulful, shadow-soaked collection of short stories that explores the music that lingers in pawn shops, back alleys, lonely bars, and stretching to the far edges of the universe. From haunted guitars and ghostly harmonicas to midnight cab rides with long-gone rock legends, these tales trace the journey of the blues across decades and continents. Rooted in […]
12-Bar Blues is a soulful, shadow-soaked collection of short stories that explores the music that lingers in pawn shops, back alleys, lonely bars, and stretching to the far edges of the universe.
From haunted guitars and ghostly harmonicas to midnight cab rides with long-gone rock legends, these tales trace the journey of the blues across decades and continents.
Rooted in the deep traditions of the Delta yet alive with supernatural echoes, each story plays its own verse in a larger chorus of longing, wonder, sorrow, and grit.
Whether set in smoky juke joints, forgotten London streets, or places that flicker in and out of existence, 12-Bar Blues captures the mystery and magic at the heart of the music; and the way the blues follows us long after the last note fades.
Available on Amazon.
Tales of rock ‘n roll retribution, fast cars, haunted Cadillacs and other stories and poems that I have amassed along the way.
Available from Amazon in Kindle and Paperback formats.
“I gave the last rites to Joseph Hickey before they took him to the electric chair.
I remember the look on his face. I remember his twisted smile as I made the sign of the cross.
And I remember wanting to kill the sonofabitch with my bare hands.”
Sing Sing Prison, 1962. Troubled prison chaplain, John Henry Beauregard, gives the last rites to Joseph Hickey, a psychopath sentenced to death for killing a young family in New York State.
After witnessing Hickey’s execution, John Henry quits his job and moves to a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains in South Carolina.
Soon after, another family is murdered in identical circumstances, and John Henry is drawn into a mystery that has devastating consequences and leads to a showdown where his life and soul are at stake.
Near Death is published by Burning Chair and available from Amazon and all good bookstores.
“Hobo John” is an English blues enthusiast on a pilgrimage to present-day Mississippi. One night in Clarksdale he meets the mysterious Fat Man, who offers him the chance to see the real blues of the 1930s. Unable to refuse, Hobo John embarks on a journey through the afterlife in the company of Travellin’ Man, an old blues guitarist who shows him the sights, sounds and everyday life in the Mississippi Delta. Along the way, the Englishman discovers the harsh realities behind his romantic notion of the music he loves and the true price of the deal that he has made.
E-Book / Paperback – available from Amazon
Fat Man Blues has been adapted to screenplay for a feature film, and there is a storyboard for a 10-episode TV series.