Dickimaw Books Blog 
Tales for Our Times: Raising Funds and Awareness for St Martins Housing Trust 🔗
The book costs £10 and can be purchased at the book launch or ordered online from Smokehouse Press. So if you’re looking for a gift for a loved one, why not buy a copy and help the homeless at the same time?
In early 2023, I joined Ex-Cathedra, a group of writers from Norwich and surrounding villages, and over the past year we have worked together to produce this book. The group was formed by students from a creative writing course at Norwich Cathedral in 2008/9. One of the original seven members remains in the group, and new members have joined. The group’s previous publication was Ten Minute Tales, also published by Smokehouse Press. The profits from that book went to the Alzheimer’s Society.
The Ex-Cathedra members who contributed to Tales for Our Times are: Shirley Buxton, Alison Court, Patrick Linehan, Stuart McCarthy, Moira Newlan, Avril Suddaby, and (me) Nicola L C Talbot. The book includes a foreword by Dr Jan Sheldon, the Chief Executive of St Martins, an introduction by one of our members and forty stories. (The stories include reprints of my ebook short stories, The Briefcase and Smile for the Camera.)
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Convinced that his secretive wife, Annie, is cheating on him, Aide meets an attractive young goth at the pub who helps him pick the lock of Annie’s briefcase to search for incriminating evidence. Recent Posts
Tales for Our Times is an anthology of forty stories featuring loss and hope, dreams of love and belonging, biography and science fiction and adventure. Written by Norfolk-based writing group Ex-Cathedra and published by Smokehouse Press, the book will be launched on World Homeless Day 10th October 2024 midday at the Norwich and Norfolk Millennium Library. All profits from the sale of this book will be used help raise funds to support Norwich-based St Martins Housing Trust in their work to help the homeless into independent living.Convinced that his secretive wife, Annie, is cheating on him, Aide meets an attractive young goth at the pub who helps him pick the lock of Annie’s briefcase to search for incriminating evidence. 
Evelyn, a CCTV operator, sees too much information while she monitors a store’s self-service checkout tills in this cybercrime short story about identity theft.
The DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords “Read an Ebook Week” Sale is on from 3rd–9th March 2024. My crime novel “The Private Enemy” and children’s illustrated story “The Foolish Hedgehog” both have a 50% discount and my crime fiction short story “I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing” and cybercrime fiction short story “Unsocial Media” both have a 100% discount (i.e. free!) for the duration of the sale. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords? 2024-03-02 📂 Books Children’s Illustrated Fiction Crime Fiction Speculative Fiction 🔖 I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing News Sale The Foolish Hedgehog The Private Enemy Unsocial Media
The DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords has their end of year sale from 15th December 2023 to 1st January 2024. My crime novel “The Private Enemy” and children’s illustrated story “The Foolish Hedgehog” both have a 50% discount and my crime fiction short story “I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing” and cybercrime fiction short story “Unsocial Media” both have a 100% discount (i.e. free!) for the duration of the sale. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords? 2023-12-15 📂 Books Children’s Illustrated Fiction Crime Fiction Speculative Fiction 🔖 I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing News Quack, Quack, Quack. Give My Hat Back! Sale The Foolish Hedgehog The Private Enemy Unsocial Media
The DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords has a sale from 1st – 31st July 2023. My crime novel “The Private Enemy” and children’s illustrated story “The Foolish Hedgehog” both have a 50% discount and my crime fiction short story “I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing” and cybercrime fiction short story “Unsocial Media” both have a 100% discount (i.e. free!) for the duration of the sale. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords?Search Blog
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- Illustrated fiction for young children: The Foolish Hedgehog and Quack, Quack, Quack. Give My Hat Back!
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- The crime fiction category covers the crime novels The Private Enemy and The Fourth Protectorate and also the crime short stories I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing and I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing.
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- Sub-genre of speculative fiction, alternative history is “what if?” fiction.
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- I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing
- A crime fiction short story (available as an ebook) set in the late 1920s on the RMS Aquitania. See the story’s main page for further details.
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- Smile for the Camera
- A cybercrime short story about CCTV operator monitoring a store’s self-service tills who sees too much information.
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- The Briefcase
- A crime fiction short story (available as an ebook). See the story’s main page for further details.
- The Foolish Hedgehog
- Information about the illustrated children’s book. See the book’s main page for further details.
- The Fourth Protectorate
- Alternative history novel set in 1980s/90s London. See the book’s main page for further details.
- The Private Enemy
- A crime/speculative fiction novel set in a future Norfolk run by gangsters. See the book’s main page for further details.
- Unsocial Media
- A cybercrime fiction short story (available as an ebook). See the story’s main page for further details.
- World Book Day
- World Book Day (UK and Ireland) is an annual charity event held in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on the first Thursday in March. It’s a local version of the global UNESCO World Book Day.
- World Homeless Day
- World Homeless Day is marked every year on 10 October to draw attention to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.