Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
A Song of Ice and Haddock Book Review
‘A Song of Ice and Haddock is the second book in The Dogsbreath Histories. Keven Shevels continues to chronicle the history and exploits of the Dogsbreath family as Ivor the Dogsbreath takes center stage. Ivor encounters Colon the Barbarian on his way to the Dark Lord Cumquat. Colon needs a guide, and he is bent on killing the Dark Lord to avenge his brother, but Ivor wants nothing to do with it. However, a traveling tinker like Ivor, who has chronic halitosis and is penniless and bare-arsed, is likely to give in at some point. But they will not be alone in this crusade; they will be joined by an exciting host of characters that includes a vulgar dwarf and a gay elf.
Some fantasy stories are impressionable while others are memorable. A Song of Ice and Haddock falls into the latter type. For starters, it does remind you of the Monty Python films. Keven Shevels takes the campaign storyline to absurd levels to deliver a unique storyline that is both humorous and adventurous. The plot is reassuringly simple, yet the setbacks, challenges, and misadventures along the course of his characters' journey provide plenty of space for tension and laughs. Lampooning the absurdity of the quest in fantasy, he provides brilliant comic relief against the seriousness of their quest without compromising on the narrative cohesion. A Song of Ice and Haddock sustains the level of humor delivered by his first book The Haddock Flies at Midnight. This is a sure-fire entertaining fantasy that will delight many.’
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About
DfC
The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.
Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.
DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.
Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org
Publications
Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.
Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com
The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from
The Inkerman Writers’ latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows
The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.
Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.
Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.
The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:
“Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.
“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.
“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.
“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”
The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3
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