About this site
My name's Jonathan Pinnock. I lead a dual life. In one half of this, I run a software development company called Jonathan Pinnock and Associates. If you've come here looking for that, here's where you need to go.However, if you've come here to find out about the other half of my life, as a writer of fiction and non-fiction, you've come to the right place.
If, on the other hand, you've arrived here by accident whilst searching for Japanese Tentacle Porn, I suggest you try using a different search engine.
If you'd like to contact me, my e-mail address is jon AT jpassoc DOT co DOT uk.
Sep
18
Woo Tiddley Hoo!
Filed Under Competitions, Placings | 4 Comments
Here’s a tip that I offer for free. If you’re getting twitchy about rejections, competition failures and the like, write a maudlin blog post about all the bad things that have happened lately and how no-one likes your stuff any more. Within 24 hours you will receive an e-mail telling you that you’ve won one of the prizes in a competition. It’s not guaranteed of course, but it’s certainly worth a try.
After all, it just worked for me. More in due course …
Sep
17
Where Was I / Where Am I?
Filed Under Real life | Leave a Comment
So, back home again after a very pleasant week in Cyprus. Touched down at 11PM last night, bang on schedule, and then waited for over an hour in the queue at Border Control and then a further three quarters of an hour for bags to turn up. This of course meant that we missed our train and had to sit around until the next one at 2:30AM. This one (of course) didn’t go all the way across London, so we had to change to a replacement bus service at London Bridge to take us to St Pancras. Finally crawled into bed at 5AM. Welcome to the UK, where everything works so much better than the rest of the planet.
And today we had to go to the vets to pick up the mortal remains of one of our cats who met a premature end crossing the road without doing her proper Green Cross Code routine. We found out what had happened whilst we were away – the driving instructor whose pupil had the misfortune to be at the wheel when Sybil decided to make a run for it very bravely called us to tell us what had happened. Not sure who was more upset – us or her. So we’ve now gone through the process of dealing with it all twice over. Rule #1: if you don’t want to have to cope with loss on a regular basis, don’t keep pets. Especially ones as glamorous and reckless as Sybil, who liked nothing more than strolling down the middle of the road showing off to the world – that is, when she wasn’t exploring our roof. She was really quite something.
So I don’t really feel like writing much tonight, despite a looming deadline for Round 1 of the TWIWrite Zone. Quite a few rejections this week, too, along with several competitions that must be shortlisting around now and seem to have neglected to tell me about the fact. Ho hum.
Sep
10
Natural Selection
Filed Under Publications | 2 Comments
My story “Natural Selection” has just gone live at Short Story Radio. Must say it’s absolutely fantastic to hear a professional production of something you’ve written – Charles Armstrong’s reading is first-rate, and the choice of music is spot on. You do not know how chuffed I am.
What is more amazing is that if you take a look at the front page of Short Story Radio, all three authors that are currently featured are members of the Verulam Writers’ Circle – the other two being Julie Mayhew and Nick Cook. Isn’t that extraordinary?
Incidentally, I believe that Julie is also involved in the current Short Story Radio project in her other capacity as an actor, reading one of the stories to be broadcast later on in the series. She is quite disturbingly talented.
Sep
7
Ada and more Nano-Fiction
Filed Under Anthologies, Publications | 4 Comments
Owing to a bit of a cock-up with the post, I’ve only just received my copies of the very wonderful Leaf anthology, Ada and more Nano-Fiction, but the wait has definitely been worth it. My piece “Think Tank” is in there, along with seventy-odd others, and the collection is a lot of fun.
In other news, I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.8.4 after a hacking scare forced me to reconsider my no-upgrade-until-absolutely-necessary policy, and it seems to be working fine. I found this out on Twitter, so that’s one positive benefit to chalk up already. I’ve actually been on Twitter now for a couple of weeks, and have found it a rewarding experience, if only because I can now laugh along with the rest at all the idiots in the mainstream press who don’t understand it.
Sep
1
Hidden Shallows
Filed Under Publications | Leave a Comment
It’s all go here. “Hidden Shallows” is now up at Every Day Fiction. It’s quite different from my usual stuff, in that it’s not remotely odd or dark – just a straightforward story about two women. Light as a feather, and about as fluffy.
And that’s the lot for the time being, I think.