A Few Enjoyable Reads from Fiona Johnson

Last week Fiona Johnson stopped by the blog to tell us about her love of reading, how our own imagination can bring things to life, and what inspired her to write the short stories that are contained in her latest short story collection, Peat Smoke and Primroses. Today I'll talk a little bit about her short story collections.

I remember when I first met @McDroll (Fiona Johnson) on Twitter a few months ago when she was just starting to share her short stories on her personal blog. And now, here she is with not just one published short story collection, but three.  

The first collection is Kick It by McDroll, and contains five emotionally charged short stories, with the combination being a perfect bundle for a debut collection. Three of the five short stories are about one of my favorite female tough-girl characters, Gemma Dixon. Gemma is a female cop working her way up in a man's world and proving she's got more balls than some of the men she works with.  She's sharp, witty, not afraid to get dirty, and has no problem holding her own when things get rough.  In A Pot of Christmas Soup, Gemma learns what the real ingredients are in a tasty dish served up by a female inmate. Then in The Red Glove, Gemma and her team find the remains of a young girl, and Gemma gets a note with startling information. The third story featuring Gemma Dixon, and the one that always brings a smile to my face, showcases Gemma dressed undercover in six inch heels and working a street corner as a whore in It Takes Years of Training.  The two other stories in the collection feature a sperm donor meeting his daughter in Number 74, and a school teacher bringing a dramatic end to a difficult day in Drowning.

We get another helping of emotionally charged stories in Kick It Again by McDroll. This time the stories showcase a fairly wide range of characters, from a couple of shady guys getting a beat down in A Straight Game, to a mother with no place to go but down in No More Choices. My two favorite stories are told in The Return Journey, a haunting tale of a daughter returning to her abusive past to finally take her mother's hand, and The Trip, the disastrous story of a family road trip. Perhaps the most emotional story for me was Unrest. In this story we read about the terror of war and the fear of being found by the enemy...  "all hope of rescue was now gone."  Absolutely chilling.

Next you'll find Fiona telling stories of love in Peat Smoke and Primroses, all welcome after reading the first two collections.  It might be the smallest collection of the three, but the stories are just as powerful. Peat Smoke and Primroses contains a story of lost love in Together, a man's love for his VW Golf van and the marriage that becomes possible when it finally breaks down in Love of My Life, and the possibility of buried treasure in Whiskey Island.  With the details of the landscape so beautifully written by Fiona, you'll easily see yourself on a beach one minute, and driving down a single track-road near Glasgow on a windy autumn day the next.  

Fiona might be writing under two different names, but don't think for a second that the writing style changes when the name does. Her style... is solid.

Fiona Johnson lives in Argyll, Scotland, easily one of the most beautiful places in the world, steeped in history from prehistoric standing stones to Celtic crosses with castles and countless lochs and glens. She sits at night, laptop on knees, and writes about romance or murders depending on what mood she is in…well, what else would she do?  Fiona has had stories published in Shotgun Honey and The Flash Fiction Offensive. KICK IT and KICK IT AGAIN her collections of crime/noir short stories have been published by Trestle Press. Fiona is one of the contributors in OFF THE RECORD and THE LOST CHILDREN, both charity anthologies. Her most recent collection of short stories PEAT SMOKE AND PRIMROSES is also published by Trestle Press.

Fiona also writes under the names McDroll and F.G. Johnson.

Her books are available here:

KICK IT by McDroll

KICK IT AGAIN by McDroll

PEAT SMOKE AND PRIMROSES by F.G. Johnson 
  
THE LOST CHILDREN: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY

OFF THE RECORD

Imagine That! A Guest Post by Fiona Johnson

I would like to welcome my very good friend, Fiona Johnson, to My Friends Call Me Kate.  Fiona and I met on Twitter, and together we have been able to build a wonderful online friendship thanks to the amazing world of Skype. If we could, we'd spend hours sitting in front of our computers sharing our concerns with one another, and dispensing to each other solid advice about the important things in life, like, where to hang a picture... or what book to read next. No, seriously, although we've never met, we've become quite close.  I love her like a sister. Lately, Fiona has been busy writing and publishing a series of short stories with Trestle Press. And today she is going to talk to us about the power of imagination... our imagination; the things we see when we read. 

Thanks so much to Sabrina for allowing me to appear on her blog today because I’m not sure that she knows what she’s let herself in for! Anyway, don’t let that worry you, settle back and come on into my little world for a while and you never know, you might like it and decide to hang out with me but beware, you’ll not find any of the cool kids here – just the nerdy writer types who love words and the worlds that only exist in their crazed imaginations.

And that’s where I want to start – imagination…do you have one? I know Sabrina has because most of the time in her head she’s cycling up and down roads on a pink bicycle in her pajamas or other such crazy stuff. I’ve been thinking about imagination today because earlier on I was reading a story called ‘The Bird, the Mouse and the Sausage’ to a class of 5 and 6 year old children. I had only just started when the little ones at the front were demanding, actually nearly tugging the book from my hands, to see the pictures. I stopped and explained to them that I wasn’t going to show them the pictures this time because the pictures that their imaginations can create would be even better. Some of the kids weren’t particularly pleased with me so I explained how the books I read don’t have any pictures at all but I see everything that happens very clearly. This was news to them….

So where am I going with all this? Well have you ever considered how hard a writer works at creating those pictures in your imagination by only using words made up of 26 letters? Recently I finished reading ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS by Anthony Neil Smith and his ability to take me to places in my imagination just blew me away. The book is set in two polar opposites, the freezing cold of Minnesota and the arid heat of Somalia. Smith used his awesome talent to make me feel the cold, the snow, and the ice and then taste the dust in Mogadishu. Remarkable.

This is why I love reading and writing so much; the ability to be moved out of my everyday setting and transported to another world, to a place that I’ll never visit or experience but through the talent of the writer I can at least imagine what these amazing places might be like. You can’t get this from a photograph or even by watching a programme on TV. The written word is special; it has a human connection that no other medium can bring.

So where can I take you? Well, if you care to come along, I’d love to show you the Scottish islands, to take you to the most perfect deserted beaches and to let you hear the silence of a summer’s evening. This is a world that I know well as I spent nine years living on a little island that could only be reached by a two hour ferry from the mainland. My latest collection of stories PEAT SMOKE AND PRIMROSES is set on the Scottish islands that pepper the west coast of the country and they are amongst the most beautiful and unspoiled places on earth.

The people who live there are also very special as they have a heritage and culture that is still alive and vibrant, now long gone and missing from most other places that I have lived in. Even today, islanders don’t need to lock their doors when they go out and when you drive along the single track roads you wave to every passing car because everybody knows everybody else.

So I invite you to come with me for a little while, leave the hustle and bustle of the 21^st century behind and discover a slower more peaceful way of life. You never know, you might quite like it!

Fiona Johnson lives in Argyll, Scotland, easily one of the most beautiful places in the world, steeped in history from prehistoric standing stones to Celtic crosses with castles and countless lochs and glens.

She sits at night, laptop on knees, and writes about romance or murders depending on what mood she is in…well, what else would she do?

Fiona has had stories published in Shotgun Honey and The Flash Fiction Offensive. KICK IT and KICK IT AGAIN her collections of crime/noir short stories have been published by Trestle Press. Fiona is one of the contributors in OFF THE RECORD and THE LOST CHILDREN, both charity anthologies. Her most recent collection of short stories PEAT SMOKE AND PRIMROSES is also published by Trestle Press.

Fiona also writes under the names McDroll and F.G. Johnson.

Her books are available on Amazon:

KICK IT by McDroll

KICK IT by McDroll

PEAT SMOKE AND PRIMROSES by F.G. Johnson
 
THE LOST CHILDREN: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY

OFF THE RECORD

Click x 8

Things I've recently purchased for my Kindle.

Old Man Coyote by R. Thomas Brown

Merciless Pact by R. Thomas Brown

Harry Truman v. The Aliens by Emerson LaSalle

Gallows Pole by J.D. Rhoades

Like A Bone in the Throat by Lawrence Block

Three in the Side Pocket by Lawrence Block

Kick It Again by McDroll

R. Thomas Brown will be stopping by the blog on Tuesday to share with us his thoughts on Merciless Pact and why he wrote a horror novella. And later this week I'll be back to review that very book and talk about some of his short stories I've recently read.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend, friends.

Click x 6

Before I share my purchases from last week I want to announce the winner of the first four books in the Black London series by Caitlin Kittredge.  The winner is Mary B. I want to thank all of you for taking the time to visit the blog and for leaving comments.  I'll get the books to you ASAP, Mary. Congratulations!

Okay, my Kindle purchases last week contained some pretty great reads.

Already Gone by John Rector  $4.99

It looks like past sinister deeds come back to haunt University teacher, Jake Reese, in this incredible thriller by John Rector. If you click on the above link you will find a Q & A with John Rector on the Amazon site. Great stuff.

I met John Rector at Bouchercon. Okay, I didn't really "meet" him. We were never formerly introduced. But I did mistake him for someone else thanks to the mood lighting in the hotel bar.  I held his hand, made some conversation, and was in the process of sharing my deepest thoughts when I noticed his name tag.  Ugh!

Kick It by McDroll $0.99

Hey, lookie, my good friend Fiona has a book. This collection of short stories will introduce you to one of Twitter's favorite female short story characters, Gemma Dixon, a young investigator starting out at the bottom in her career. You'll be begging for McDroll to write you a novel when her character pulls you in with her subtle humor, tough-as-nails exterior, and heartbreaking case load.  Yep, this is just the beginning for McDroll's writing. 

The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology edited by Thomas Pluck, Fiona Johnson, and Ron Earl Phillips  $2.99

This anthology is what happens when people step outside themselves and give to the greater good. Prompted by a photo (see the cover) people were invited to write short stories... from there my good friends put together this anthology with all the proceeds benefiting children's charities.  Hey, for $2.99 we can all afford to give.

Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled edited by Scott D. Parker and David Cranmer  $0.99
"BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled is a compilation of uncompromising, gritty tales following in the footsteps of the tough and violent fiction popularized by the legendary Black Mask magazine in its early days." 

What's really great about this collection of stories - besides the cover - is that I know pretty much all of the contributors. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

No Rest for The Witches: A Dark Mission Novella by Karina Cooper  $1.99

For my friends following Karina Cooper's Dark Mission series, you'll definitely want to snag her latest novella.  Oh, yeah, now would be a good time for you to pre-order the next book in the series, All Things Wicked, scheduled for release on January 12, 2012.

The Caretaker (Two Short Stories) by J.D. Rhoades  $0.99

"A couple of tales from the graveyard...

In "The Caretaker," William Cain doesn't know why only he can see the new arrivals in his cemetery, or why they tell him their stories--but he knows how to take care of their unfinished business. 

I've added some links to the side of the blog that will highlight some books available for pre-order.  I'd like to invite you to check them out and pre-order if you feel moved to do so. Also, for my coworkers, if you see a book that you are interested in and would like me to order it for you, just holler.  Nothing makes me happier than placing a book or two in your hands.