Members are already stirring from Winter's dormancy and, apart from entering various writing competitions (no winners as yet but very good exercise!) we have excellent news in that two members have had their novels published. See Full report for details.

'Who's Got A Cushy Number?' A Rep's Life by Malcolm Jaffrey published by Olympia ISBN 9781848970304.

Mike, the heroic rep goes from crisis to crisis as well as from girl to girl in his task of meeting sales targets.

If you’ve ever known a sales rep. or ever been one, then you’ll recognise the types that turn up at the annual United Products conference. There are the usual area managers, puffed up with self-importance, reps moaning about ever-increasing targets and an awful lot of drinking.
But this year the stakes are high as the most successful sales reps will win a holiday to the Bahamas.

Mike, our intrepid sales rep and narrator, realises that he will have to work at it from now on and get the orders in. But this is easier said than done as Mike’s life can be complicated by the temptations of a few beers or a pretty face!
To make matters worse, he’s been told he will be working another area as well as his own. He will also be sent up North to carry out a training exercise with a new sales rep!
 

As Mike goes about the task of beating his sales targets, we see him lurch from one crisis to the next, spending most of his time juggling girls and customers with sales managers chasing his sales figures. With scarcely enough time to sleep and eat, let alone fit in work, his targets and Bahamian idyll seem evermore unattainable.
How can one man possibly keep so many balls in the air at once?!

'An Indian Summer' by Stan Apper. Published by New Legend Press ISBN 9781849238342. It is a story of discovery, adventure and romance in the high mountains bordering Victorian India involving warring tribes, the Russians and that icon of the British Army 'The Regiment'

 Young growth hardens and matures rapidly,
a maturity necessary for survival
in the heat of an Indian summer.

There is fighting in Afghanistan. No surprise there but this is the India of 1894, where the Imperial Powers of Britain and Russia are jockeying for influence in the mountain kingdoms beyond the Indian borders. Four children flee a train, wrecked by hostile tribesman and, after some harrowing experiences, reach the mysterious mountain kingdom of Lashir. Given sanctuary by an itinerant chief, they have to survive internal feuding and tribal warfare while hoping for rescue. It is against this background that Garould and Ernest discover their own strengths and weaknesses; Amelia re-assesses her relationships and the future as the three encounter the passions and emotions of adult life. Oh yes, the youngest, Albert, adopts a tiger cub which becomes a focal point of opposing factions. All this and ‘The Regiment,’ the icon of the British Army, is taking the long march to their rescue - and the Russians!

Both the above books are available through David's, Amazon and other major book shops.