David Gardiner

An expat Irishman, former teacher and “professional student”, now 77 and living in East London with partner Jean.

My most recent short story collection, “Before I Go…” contains all the stories written since my last collection (2008) that haven’t found a respectable home and that I think deserve one. Within the same time interval the little two-woman publishing house in Wales that had been handling my work ceased trading, so I relocated all my books, including the newest one, on to Amazon Kindle Direct and made them available in both printed and Kindle versions. Now self-publishing I am able to more than double the number of stories in the latest collection from 23 in the earlier ones to 52 in this one, but keeping the selling price much the same. Good value or what?

The title of this latest volume came from what I can only describe as a fan email from a young man whose first language is Spanish. I include this detail in case it might be relevant. He said, “I enjoyed your two short story collections. Why don’t you write another one before you go?”

It’s an arresting phrase and started me wondering if perhaps he knew something that I didn’t, but whatever he had in mind I could see that he was right, I had prevaricated for far too long and a third collection was definitely overdue. Inadvertently I think, he also furnished me with the perfect title for the new volume: “Before I Go…”

My most recent novel, “Engineering Paradise” (2011) is the story of Danny, a teenage boy growing up in Belfast in the 1960s, who becomes seduced into membership of the re-emerging (“Official”) IRA, later to split and give birth to the “Provisionals”. Essentially a love story, set against a background of sexual liberation, armed revolution and the boundless optimism of the times, Danny's idealism slowly sours as events reveal the mixed motives of the people he has trusted and make him realise the Faustian nature of the bargain that he has entered into. The first part of this novel has now been made the basis of a stage musical “Engineering Paradise the Musical” which has not yet received its premiere at time of writing. The full script of the Musical adaptation as well as demo versions of all the songs can be downloaded free of charge from a showcase page on Forest Radio, a local podcast station in London that I help to run.

My first novel “Sirat” (2000) is a sci fi story about the first accidental emergence of true electronic consciousness in the completely interconnected cyber world of which the Internet is only one component. I have taken this possibility very seriously and tried to examine how humanity will co-exist with the god that will become its neighbour.

My first two short story collections were “The Rainbow Man and Other Stories” (2003) and "The Other End of the Rainbow” (2008), both held together by the aprocryphal introductions of the Rainbow Man, a mildly crazy Irish vagrant storyteller who inspires the children with whom he interacts to create imaginative narratives of their own.

As a schoolboy and student I had some stories published in the pulp sci fi magazines of the late 1960s, then wrote little until about 30 years later, when success in the Fish Short Story Competition and other things, led to my acceptance onto the Merilang Press author list and provided the necessary encouragement to launch me into the world of “proper” writing.

My other interests include science, IT, philosophy, world travel, wildlife-watching, photography, contemporary folk music, scuba diving and cooking. Now retired I am able to devote more time to my writing, constrained only by my natural laziness.