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Drawn To The Deep End

For some people, the death of one parent and the incremental loss to dementia of the other would be bad enough. Or perhaps the risk of losing their job, even a dead-end, mindless job, with witless colleagues and an objectionable boss. But for Peter, these concerns are underscored by grief for his fiancée, Emma, and the guilt he feels for his part in her suicide. Having put his life on hold for three years trying to deal with Emma's death, Peter has become a passenger in his own life, spiralling into an increasingly destructive cycle of behaviour that can only have one outcome. Or can it?

Drawn To The Deep End is an honest and, at times, darkly comic portrayal of what it is to be a young man alone and adrift in 21st Century Britain. It is Martin Pond's first novel.

The paperback version of Drawn To The Deep End is available from Amazon: UK | US | DE | ES | FR | IT | JP

The Kindle version of Drawn To The Deep End is available from Amazon: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL

Prefer a physical, high street book shop? The paperback version of Drawn To The Deep End is also available from Kett's Books in Wymondham.


The Petrified World and other tales

This collection of eleven short stories from new and emerging authors takes the idea of taboos, of hidden subjects, of unspoken truths, as its loose theme. Some of the stories address potential problems for a near-future Earth, some do not, but all are linked by the idea of what is not being talked about, whether that's between families, colleagues, in the news or on a wider scale. All of these stories have been given freely in support of this collection, profits from which will be donated to Population Matters - once you have read them, why not take a moment to read more about the underlying issues, and what you can do to help, at www.populationmatters.org

The Petrified World and other tales includes stories by Mark Kilner, Ian Nettleton, Andrea Holland, Katy Carr, Sandy Greenard, Rol Hirst, Simon Poore, Sarah Dobbs, Martin Pond, Ada Carter and Arnold Pettibone. It is edited and introduced by Martin Pond.

The paperback version of The Petrified World and other tales is available from Amazon: UK | US | DE | ES | FR | IT | JP

The Kindle version of The Petrified World and other tales is available from Amazon: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL


Dark Steps

A teenage boy waits to take a sinister test he may or may not pass; a new father hears a strange voice on his daughter's baby monitor; a poisoner's best-laid plans go terribly astray; an enigmatic man gets as close to death as he can; a young boy wonders why Christmas just doesn't feel right this year; after the year from hell, a man is driven to extreme measures; a dying man reveals a black secret to his son; and, after four years in limbo, a man's life starts to unravel...

The collection includes: Waiting Room; Dream Feed; Egg; Near-Death Experience; A Bit Christmassy; Resolution; The Inheritance; and a draft excerpt from Drawn To The Deep End.

The Kindle version of Dark Steps is available from Amazon: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL

Other retailers for ebook versions of Dark Steps include: Barnes & Noble | Blio | iTunes | Kobo | Livraria Cultura | Smashwords

The paperback version of Dark Steps is exclusively available from Lulu.


Turn Around Where Possible

In this "don't go in the woodshed"-style short horror story, a young couple get off the beaten track in search of a bite to eat, and find a horrific meal...

The short story Turn Around Where Possible is published exclusively for Amazon KDP Select, here: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL


Cold

No workplace relationships (they get messy). And no relationships with married men (they get messy too). Lisa broke both these rules when she met Daniel. But when their affair ends, and Lisa realises she cannot get him back, she decides to get even instead, and exacts her revenge in a series of acts that start small but quickly escalate. And as the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served... cold.

The short story Cold is published exclusively for Amazon KDP Select, here: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL


Tesc-no - Living without supermarkets

If someone bet you that you couldn't last a month without using a supermarket - any supermarket - you'd take them up on it, right? What follows in this short narrative is a light-hearted look at what happened when one man took the challenge and tried to live without supermarkets for a month. Amidst the comedy moments that follow, some serious points emerge about the power that giant retail corporations have, and how they wield it.

The standalone non-fiction essay Tesc-no - Living without supermarkets is published exclusively for Amazon KDP Select, here: UK | US | AU | BR | CA | DE | ES | FR | IN | IT | JP | MX | NL


Other publications

The short story Waiting Room was published in Unthology No.1 (Unthank Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9564233-1-6)

The short story Near-Death Experience was published in issue 4 of Alliterati magazine (2011).

The short story Dream Feed was published in issue 15 of Streetcake magazine (2010).

The poems Despair, Watching Them Go and Idiot (worst kind) were published in The Artillery Of Words magazine (Nov 2010 edition).

The technical reference ebook Accessory - the real-world workbook for Microsoft Access developers remains exclusively available from Lulu.

Martin contributed a gig review to The Wedding Present's coffee table book Sometimes These Words Just Don't Have To Be Said (2017).