@paulphillips44
My bird app went peculiar, so I'm here, but still there. Hmmm... Post-WWII spy/action thrillers THE BORODINO SACRIFICE, THE HERRENHAUS FORFEIT & THE SAFEHAVEN COMPLEX – plus ANIMUS, nine stories of suspense – available on Amazon: mybook.to/PaulPhillips
99p/99¢ (today only!)
THE SAFEHAVEN COMPLEX is the third in the CHASING MERCURY series of spy/action thrillers. Picks up where THE BORODINO SACRIFICE and THE HERRENHAUS FORFEIT left off but can be read as a self-contained adventure.
mybook.to/Safehaven
Without the occasional Jumbo Jet grabbing our attention on the glidepath into Heathrow––that moment when the engines seemed to rev up in alarm––this might have been an actual wasteland, an actual war zone. The ruins were our world.
for #WIPSnips from my novella '76'.
(Last day to grab ANIMUS, btw)
We stare at the girl left in the woods like discarded rubbish someone couldn’t be bothered to take home. Despite the sun you grow #pale.
‘Your first?’ I ask.
You nod.
‘It gets easier.’ It seems the right thing to say. But it’s 18 years for me. Each one still feels like the first time. #vss365
#vss365 #poetry
Sometimes the world’s
Just a spinning cube
The moon a yucky #pale yellow
With the stars barely holding
The sky up
But still I wake up
To march on
Thinking about the sunshine
While my soul slithers away
Withering invisible with time
Still FREE for one more day – the chart-topping short story collection beside which even Life and Lust #pale by comparison... 😉 #vss365 mybook.to/ANIMUS
"I thought you were on the path to redemption... What happened to 'Things can only get better'?"
– breaking ground on a sequel to the title story in ANIMUS for #WIPSnips today (& the original is still free to download!)
What is this? His sixth sense? His imagination? A half-forgotten memory... and if a forgotten memory then whose?
– something for #WIPSnips that might go in ANIMUS (RELOADED). BTW, ANIMUS itself is currently free to download.
Like a wounded man in a foxhole he wrestled with his wet raincoat until he found the hip flask of cognac...
#wound for #vss365 from ‘The Illusionist’, collected in ANIMUS (nine stories), which is FREE today here: mybook.to/ANIMUS
👍
#Ghost owl
Beats whisperless wings
Fading into nothing as it floats away
From a cone of downcast roadside light
Out of sight
But I watch
Hopeful
To see it drift back into view
Back into existence
Back into life
#Vss365
wonderful, Dan!
Your #vss365 #prompt for Feb 4 is #ghost
"But that isn’t all.
Some of my ghosts are planets.
Not bright. Not young.
Spiraling deep in the dusk of my body
as saucers or moons
pleased with their belts of colored dust
& hailing no others."
'Ghosts', Kiki Petrosino
#4
We see the expedition members switching positions, swapping equipment, preparing to approach the simple wooden construction that’s wedged into the rock face. A frame, a door, a window. A row of icicles. A line of blood-stained rags.
#WIPSnips from ‘We…’, which may be collected in ANIMUS (Reloaded)
These disgusting revelations about Mandelson bring back the #pain of first discovering the rot at the heart of Blair's government. Which was very much the bitter inspiration for the title story in ANIMUS. Although, of course... completely fictional... etc., etc. #vss365
Re neutron activation: pay special attention to chocolate, cocoa, soya, oatmeal, nuts & other foodstuffs with high nickel content. (Also, there’s calcium & phosphorous in Fido’s food, just as there was in Fido himself.)
Packaged non-perishable food. Dispose of packaging... #WIPSnips 'HANDOVER NOTES'
#WIPSnips from my not-quite-a-childhood-memoir '76...
Her lips pursed a little more, suggesting not so much a smile as a sympathetic wince. I saw the orange squash move up and down inside the straw, as though we were caught in some kind of endlessly repeated moment, forever winding back and forth.
The formations march past an old-style analogue billboard, a vandalised mug-shot of Mayor Jedward Johnson beside his much-mocked catchphrase KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON, to which has been appended the ambiguous graffito ROBBIN’…
a #WIPSnips from 'Once Upon', which may one day appear in ANIMUS (Reloaded)
Limping a little in the clutch of so much cold stone, the third American peered behind each pillar, scanned every shadowy alcove and searched the obfuscating patterns of ornamental ironwork for a familiar silhouette. Surely she would have come…
an #obfuscate for #vss365 from THE HERRENHAUS FORFEIT
“We have lift-off...”
This was the moment he had been waiting for, when all those memories or what remained of them were blasted away and the only thing that mattered, and all that would ever matter now, was the mission to put the world back the way it was meant to be.
('Aftermath' for #WIPSnips)
He must have been recording himself as he went along:
“...was wrong... we’re not pilgrims, we’re paladins... Grail knights... Rosicrucians... The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn... Oh Christ, it’s a sodding quest!”
#WIPSnips from the short story 'We', perhaps for the mooted ANIMUS 2 (RELOADED)
He kept a shrine to his beloved indie authors. Copied out their desperate posts, in blood. #Dappled himself with tattoos of their covers. Displayed selfies he’d taken with them at book events––bordered with the hair he’d surreptitiously removed.
He just didn’t buy their books.
#horrorprompt #vss365
Quick update then I'll stop selling... today is the LAST DAY to pick up THE BORODINO SACRIFICE for 99¢/99p here: mybook.to/Chasing-Mercury
Wow! Hope you enjoy! 😃
There's still time (just...) for those last-minute Christmas presents!
Plus, if you're in the UK, the paperback of THE BORODINO SACRIFICE now qualifies for FREE delivery on Amazon here mybook.to/Chasing-Merc... – even without Prime.
(Or simply gift it as an eBook for only 99p/99¢!)
A brand new collection of suspenseful short stories, out now! mybook.to/ANIMUS
For the first time – and not for long! – ALL the Chasing Mercury thrillers are reduced to £0.99 / $0.99 here: mybook.to/Chasing-Merc...
"I really like the writing style of the author. The stories flew by and I flew along with them."
SpyGuys+Gals is an amazing compendium of fictional spies run by true fan (& sometime doyen of the secret world) Randall Masteller.
Very proud to be in there!
spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.a...
Crime, espionage, history, satire, with undertones of the speculative (perhaps…)
And all for less than two quid.
Out on 22 November.
At Oxford Indie Book Fair 23 November.
Pre-orders now available.
#vss365 #undertone #oxindiebookfair mybook.to/ANIMUS
Monday morning. One hour late.
A hollow voice unanimous –
The inanimate will #sublimate!
In stories branded ANIMUS
#FromOneLine #vss365 #horrorprompt 1960
(Due out 22 November. Pre-order now.) mybook.to/ANIMUS
Not just A chance but THE last chance to pick up THE BORODINO SACRIFICE for only 99¢/99p on a #KindleCountdownDeal today here mybook.to/Borodino.
And speaking of the definite #article – I'm very grateful for the great new review from Nik Morton. #vss365
nik-writealot.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...