“Bread crumbs”(perhaps how you got here)

Most of my time is spent writing novels; for some reason, I find the longer form congenial. At my best, when all is going well and there are no interruptions, I can write a novel of some 70,000 words (the “classic” and preferred length) in about two to three weeks.

Of course, this leaves my fingers sore. My first novel, then called Celeste’s Christmas, was written in about that length of time and was actually published by eXstasy Books in 2005. The work has since gone out of print and the novel has morphed into something quite different from what I thought it was. In fact, the whole “Celeste” series has become something of a cottage industry. The Celeste novels have their own home page.

The other novels are quite different:

• The Last Cub is a kind of mystery or thriller (I can’t decide which) that deals with, among other things, the illicit trade in children sold into sexual slavery. This work has the potential to be expanded into a series.
• Kate ’n’ Judy is a simple comic novel that includes an accidental murder and its consequences.
• The Playground of the Blind is another work centered on the interaction of the worlds of adults and children. It involves a boy’s struggle with the truth after he has accidentally witnessed a gruesome rape and murder.
• Delfi and Robbie is a comic work that grew out of a short story. That short story was in its turn an experiment in self-reference. It is given here; the novel begins with a slightly adapted version of the short-story.
• One Last Mission is a thriller concerned with the doings of the Irish Republican Army and the long, sordid history of unrest in Ireland, especially Northern Ireland. The material for this work was supplied by my cousin, Rod Jacobsen.

 All text on this page is the work of J W Durham and is licensed only under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Other licensing terms may be available. E-mail me