Thursday, 30 August 2012

Eh? (aka Richard Hirst Will Not Co-Operate Even When You Offer Him Puppies)

Note: This could be about anyone. It just so happens I've used the name of Richard Hirst, who did rather well in the 2011 Manchester Fiction Prize. Except, well, despite a reference to his wonderful drawings of cats, it's not him really. I read this story to Richard Hirst on the Bad Language stage in August 2012.
A tidy cul-de-sac lined on both sides with driveways so regular, you could slide a tab along the road and zip it right up. Shorn lawns bordered by paving scrubbed magnolia.

Suburbia.

Lost cat signs in Helvetica; lunching on bruschetta; elbow patches in leather.

Here, said Richard Hirst.

The first house had colourful window boxes. The doorbell chimed Casio Big Ben. The woman who answered was all pearls and pleats highlighted with cerise eye shadow. She was Lucinda Cooper, retired nurse, not bad at whist. Richard Hirst knew everything.

I’ve been expecting you, she whispered. Her cheek was the colour of bruised apple. She angled her face away.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Peppa Pig in the belly of Peppa Pig


1

Peppa Pig crouches in the shadowed damp of an underpass. This time, she tells the knife. This time.

2

Peppa Pig exhumes the remains of her grandmother. The demons will dance tonight, she thinks.

3

A sun explodes. A solar system is annihilated. Peppa Pig strokes the curved universe in ecstacy.

4

Peppa Pig cures Porky Pig of his stutter then suffocates him, saying "it wasn't meant to be like this".

5

When Christopher Robin yells "Piglet!" during coitus, Peppa Pig weeps and weeps until the camera's memory card is full.

6

Peppa Pig throws some grain onto the bedroom floor. It lands in the shape of a unicorn. She hides under her duvet, shivering with fear. 

7

Peppa Pig looks at George's toy dinosaur, keeps looking at it, does nothing but look. Whispered incantations form solid blocks in her mind.

8

Millions of Peppa Pigs cascading into the mouth of Zoe Ball, their little limbs snapping on her yabbering tongue. 

9

Richard Madeley pins Peppa Pig to the wall. "You snorting at my missus?" Thirty years of hate form clouds of blistering halitosis. 

10

Peppa Pig draws chalk curly tails on alleyway walls to prepare us for Batpig's arrival. He doesn't come. The rain falls long and hard. 

11

Peppa Pig gathers toys for playtime. A bouncy ball, a wooden yoyo, a coal-fired incinerator.

12

Peppa Pig at a job interview, crawling on the desk. Her laughter is violent. She is thanked for her time.

13

Peppa Pig bursts into a thousand colours, translucent, flowing, a pulsating memory of herself.

14

Rastamouse has a Peppa Pig dream. When he wakes, his mouth is dry. He says nothing. Goes about his day. 

15

Balloons drift over trees. Bunting snaps in strong breezes. The party is over. Peppa Pig is dead. 

16

Her brother George tries to think of a eulogy, a regret, anything. He's distracted by a fly in a spider's web. He never thinks of her again. 

17

A stuttering pig of some repute. In the drawing room. With a butcher's knife.

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Review of Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues on the Manchester Salon website


"There is a long tradition of surrealism in Britain, the works of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear being prime examples... Roland’s work certainly appears to be a protest against reality, but one that seems to be holding a mirror up to the face of that reality."

Click here to read more at Manchester Salon. Click here to buy the book.

Thursday, 31 May 2012

Order Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues now


“Crosswits presenter Tom O’Connor was still talking. I brushed him in the face until he stopped.”

My debut illustrated anthology Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues, which contains the first UK printing of the Manchester Fiction Prize-commended story You. Me. And This, is now available to order,

Title: Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues
Author: Fat Roland
Illustrator: Fat Roland
Price: £5.00 (+p&p)
Size: A5
Pages: 84
Publication Date: 8 June 2012
Format: Paperback
BIC code: FYB
BIC subject: Short stories
Audience: General/trade 
Click here for full product details.
Order now. Allow a few days for delivery.

Order Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues

UK buyers, click here to order the book now.
If you don't want to click there, do this instead:

Pay into this Paypal account: dj (at) FatRoland.com.
The amount you're paying will tell me how many copies you want.

In the comments to the seller, include: Your name and delivery address. 
Very important!

1 copy (incl p&p): £6.00
For each additional copy, just add on £5.25.
So... 2 copies (incl p&p): £11.25
       
3 copies (incl p&p): £16.50
       
4 copies (incl p&p): £21.75
       
5 copies (incl p&p): £27.00
Non-UK orders: These are UK rates only. For a non-UK delivery, just pop your order on an email to dj (at) FatRoland.com and I'll quote you a delivery price.
Non-posted orders:. Copies will also be on sale from me and from events I attend because I'm the ultimate book pimp ("bimp").
Non-paper orders:. Will there be a Kindle version? No. This is a real book that you can punch / kiss / shred / vote for mayor.

Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues information for media

Click the picture to see a larger, readable version on Twitpic.


Click the picture to see a larger, readable version on Twitpic. Order the book here.

Monday, 28 May 2012

Announcement: debut Fat Roland anthology out on June 8th


84 pages of odd prose and pictures, to be launched on the Bad Language stall at Comma Press' Manchester Independent Book Market on 8 June 2012. Order it here.

I will also be reading from the book at 4.30pm on the Friday of the self same book market. There are other good readers too so get there proper early.

Order Adropiean Galactic Lego Set Blues now by clicking here.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Eyeball scrawls: Chorlton Arts Festival

Chorlton. It gave us the BeeGees, Dangermouse and the hipster.

And tomorrow night, Wednesday 23 May, it will be the home of Flashtag when the group hosts its live final for the Flashtag Writing Competition.

The shorlistees will read from their pieces and we'll announce the winners in a tense countdown-stylee. (As in an actual countdown, not Countdown.) We'll have a few word games too and a special guest in the form of the wonderful Valerie O'Riordan, whose chapbook Enough I have just bought with some groats.

It's all part of Chorlton Arts Festival and it will take place in The Beech pub at 8pm. More information on our site.

We'll also all try to forget that most of the BeeGees are no longer with us, half of Dangermouse's creators are sadly no longer with us and, tragically, the hipster is well and truly alive.

Such is Chorlton's eternal burden. Let's feel sad for Chorlton. That's it. Feel the sadness. No, that's my leg. Feel the sadness.

There, that's better.