Category Archives: Books

It’s TERMINAL

August 23, 2024Books, Death, Fictionsincere corkscrew, Terminalricky

Finally, an explanation for why things have been quiet on this blog in recent times!

argonaut books x sincere corkscrew present Ricky Monhan Brown's TERMINAL book launch. September 20th, 7-9pm, 15-17 Leith Walk

My new book of short stories, TERMINAL, drops in the UK on 20 September, and is available for preorder from sincere corkscrew press NOW. As well as the Leith launch, we’re planning events in Glasgow and hopefully elsewhere in Scotland.

We’re looking to arrange some U.S. launch events and outlets, too, so please do stay tuned if you’re from that side of the Atlantic.

in the meantime, I’ll also be dropping additional content and drip feeding some snippets from the book here.

BUT FIRST, check out the early notices:

From visionary writer Ricky Monahan Brown comes Terminal: fourteen tales of ‘the end’. From the neo-Gothic to sci-fi, Leith to Brooklyn, this is vibrant short fiction which will shock, humour and astound in equal heady measure.

“Smart, trippy and irreverent”

"Terminal lives up to its titular promise of hurtling towards many different senses of ‘end’. Smart, trippy and irreverent, Monahan Brown’s narrative style is just as confident crawling under the bonnet of sci-fi as it is doing Celtic realism, moshing or luring us, fable-like, close to the wood wide web. What use is there for existentialism in an accelerated world of sex dolls, conceptual thanatos and perpetual technical difficulty? Drift on to find out" – Maria Sledmere, author of Midsummer Song

“Summons the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Poe”

“Tense, funny and original”

PRE-ORDER FOR U.K. DELIVERY HERE

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Thirtysomething Yr

July 14, 2022Books, Pop Music, Sci-fi, ScienceJon Hopkins, Orbital, Webb space telescopericky

https://twitter.com/ricky_ballboy/status/1547735825437167617?s=20&t=CXeW2HdIkFq7Tc19e9LLcw

“I SAID, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE MAASTRICHT TREATY?!?!”

1992. Halcyon days. At least, if you like war in Europe and riots in America. Yep. So much has changed now. Better days.

One of the closing themes of my book, Stroke, is the subjective nature of time. So, it’s interesting to hear two remixes of Orbital’s Halcyon, thirty years on.

Logic 1000 strips it back and makes an asthmatic middle-aged stroke survivor think he could still rave it up in a sweaty whitewashed cube of a room somewhere in Edinburgh – if such a place still exists, Grandad.

John Hopkins makes some concessions to the passing of time and makes an A.M-a.S.S. think he could really dig it after the Wee Man’s gone to sleep, on a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

None of it convinces me that 17-year-old Ricky was right in his conviction that time’s arrow was dragging us into a future that could only get better [sic].

On the other hand, Long-sufferingreaderoftheblogpaul introduced me today to a trilogy of science fiction books which opens with Earth awaiting an invasion from the closest star system. So, things aren’t necessarily all bad.

*“One of these days, we’re going to cut you up into little pieces”*

Cheery-bye!!!

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Embra Calling

July 4, 2022Books, Edinburgh, Politics, Pop MusicGutterblood, Joe Strummer, Public Enemy, RTJ, Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods, The Clashricky

I went to @Lighthousebks to hear @leftacademic talk about his book, The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer.

Now I'm thinking about politically charged music of more recent vintage I've been listening to – https://t.co/UeWLwas2kh

Yeah. I’m blogging again (in a shorter format). pic.twitter.com/j74VdWzFjp
— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) July 4, 2022

Or maybe it was Michael Howard? "Peepil, peepil who need peepil" — *I’m pretty sure that was Barbra Streisand, wasn’t it?*

The conversation got to the author remarking that he hadn’t listened to much more-or-less-political music with the impact of Strummer’s work (with and without The Clash) since the late punk’s death.

Conversely, I don’t seem to be able to listen to anything that isn’t angry about something right now. Not least since, now he’s five, the Wee Man is all

Public Enemy, the Bee Gees or die, Sucker!
My son, every day (not really (but yeah, kinda))

Maybe by the end of the month, I can expand his palette to include Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods and the great new(ish) Leith/Peebles band I checked out at the Banshee Labyrinth last month, Gutterblood.

Poor wee sod.

Oh yeah, and Mrs Stroke Bloke stumbled across an article about Killer Mike from Run The Jewels in the paper today.

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An Imaginary Line

May 30, 2019Books, Dr. Who, Sci-fi, TelevisionDay of the Triffids, Doctor Who, High-Rise, Ian McEwan, John Wyndham, Philip K. Dick, The Children Act, The Muppetsricky

After the last two posts collectively regarding strokes, pigs, and sci-fi (Kicking A Dead Pig and Mind Reading), I recalled that I have a short short story of speculative fiction sitting in a metaphorical drawer about a man suffering quadriplegia, pigs, and sci-fi.

But Space Pig, it's the other way! — ‘I must rush to check that out!’ – Doctor Who Space Pig

Now. You might think that all sounds a bit silly. And you might be right. But read on…

[And in the meantime, visit the Apoplexy Newsletter for a soundtrack to distract you.]

Continue reading →

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Truth Hides

April 17, 2019Books, Brexit, Current Affairs, Law, MindfulnessAsian Dub Foundation, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Critical Legal Studies, Fatboy Slim, Theresa Mayricky

https://youtu.be/GJMUkLTBXEk

Back once again (at last)

I was in the supermarket today, and the first thing I saw was a pile of pizzas for LESS THAN HALF PRICE!!! Simultaneously, I had two thoughts:

That must be actually true. They couldn’t get away with it otherwise.
Or have they just gone for such a brazen lie that I’m going to think, That must be actually true. They couldn’t get away with it otherwise?

Then I thought, I doubt Goebbels runs the marketing here; let’s just buy a pizza.

[That’ll take ten minutes to heat up. Check out the Apoplexy Newsletter while you wait.]

Continue reading →

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Be Yr Own Brain Experiment II

December 14, 2018Books, Healthcare, Movies, Rehab, StrokeEEG, Hatfields & McCoys, Sandstone Press, The Conversation, The Medusa Touchricky

No so long ago, I was reading the final proof of my survival memoir, Stroke, before my publisher Sandstone Press sent it off to the printer. If you can’t wait till January for the – I’m reliably informed – beautiful hard copy artefact, you can get a brilliant deal and receive the e-book before Christmas here. Just tell ’em Stroke Bloke sent you, and leave a complimentary review. 😉

Replacing the original pull quote: 'Wet-yourself-funny' — C’mon, folks. You’re making my book blush!

It’s interesting to reflect on the events of six years ago, now that our lives are in some sort of equilibrium again. Notwithstanding Stroke Bloke Jr’s efforts! And the fact that the big push for Stroke: The Book is in the offing.

[Check out the Apoplexy Newsletter for more wryness and more personal insights.]

Continue reading Be Yr Own Brain Experiment II →

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Treasure Islands

November 13, 2018Books, Comics, Death, Great British Strokes, StrokeArcher, Jekyll and Hyde, Jorge Luis Borges, RLS Day, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stan Lee, Strokericky

Happy RLS Day! Robert Louis Stevenson is 168 today.

Hoping flattery will get me everywhere — Don’t worry, Bob. You don’t look a day over 43.

He really doesn’t though, does he? Look at the light in those wee eyes! To look at him, you wouldn’t believe that he would be dead by the end of the next year.

[For more personal and whimsical reflections, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading Treasure Islands →

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Tour de France

October 17, 2018Art, Books, Brexit, Brooklyn, EU Referendum, TravelBoris Johnson, Brexit, France, James Baldwin, Le Corbusierricky

For some reason, I was thinking the other day that I’ve “only” ever been to France once.

Because we're, like, super conpetemt. — “Hey, look! They’ve got the same editorial team as BBC News!“

And I was thinking, maybe I should try to fix that while I still can.

[My whimsy’s just about been extinguished, tbh. Find the last of it in the Apoplexy Tiny Letter] Continue reading Tour de France →

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Lingo Frankly

June 12, 2018Books, Football, TelevisionAjax Penumbra, football, Jonathan Meades, linguistics, Pompey, World Cupricky

Hiya! Sorry to miss you last week – it’s been a pretty hectic few weeks. Here in Edinburgh, we’ve been marking Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief‘s Death Awareness Week, and the Hidden Door Festival has been taking place down the road in Leith.

Get yer sambas oot — Aye, there’s a pretty interesting story about this.

[For more about those sorts of things, check out the Apoplexy Newsletter.] Continue reading Lingo Frankly →

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Specimen Daze

April 24, 2018Books, Brexit, Brooklyn, Football, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Poetry, TelevisionDonald Trump, Henry David Thoreau, Louis Theroux, Ossian, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walt Whitmanricky

I can’t say that I’m any less furious about the state of the world this week than I was last week.

LOOK WHAT BEING A ROYAL BROOD MARE DID TO ME!!! — CHEER UP YOU MISERABLE SOD!!!

No. Shan’t. I don’t care what you say, Royal Baby Announcement Town Crier Guy. I’ll thcream and thcream ’till I’m thick.

[Maybe a good tune is what we need – check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading Specimen Daze →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

Category Archives: Books

It’s TERMINAL

Thirtysomething Yr

Embra Calling

An Imaginary Line

Truth Hides

Be Yr Own Brain Experiment II

Treasure Islands

Tour de France

Lingo Frankly

Specimen Daze