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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.
Jan
3
Internal Affairs
Filed Under Publications | 5 Comments
My 87-worder “Internal Affairs” is today’s story at Flashshot, so for the next 24 hours or less it can be viewed here, and then for another nine days here. Believe it or not, this piece, short as it is, was actually changed as a result of critiquing by my fellow members of the VWC. The original punchline was:
My doctor withdrew his fingers, took off the latex gloves and looked at me.
“Have you been hanging out with those magicians again?” he said.
which isn’t anywhere near as good. So many thanks to the very talented Dave Weaver for the new, improved version. Dave is another of those members of the VWC who insists on keeping his light under a bushell, and should be submitting a lot more stuff. However, you can find one of his stories, “Finding Uncle”, here. It’s rather good.
Jan
1
Happy New Year!
Filed Under Acceptances, Publications, The Hit Count | 2 Comments
So, Happy New 2009 to all this blog’s readers. And, specially for you, here’s a link to a download of the inaugural issue of TheRightEyedDeer, which contains my story “Somewhat Less Than Thirty Pieces”, which was accepted on December 28th and thus becomes my 42nd and last hit of 2008 (up from - er - 4 in 2007). TheRightEyedDeer is (as you can probably guess) the brainchild of Donna’n'Doug, the team who took over The Write Idea earlier this year and who seem to possess inexhaustible amounts of energy and ideas for new projects. Good on ‘em - can’t wait to see what they come up with in 2009.
“Somewhat Less Than Thirty Pieces” was longlisted in Cadenza’s March 2008 competition, and is a free-wheeling piece of meta-fiction that has got a bit more meta with every new version. I’m particularly pleased with the footnotes, which is why I’m really glad that it’s finally been published in a PDF format magazine rather than HTML.
Dec
30
Fishermen’s Tales
Filed Under Competitions, Publications | 2 Comments
The judge’s report on the Milton Keynes Speakeasy Competition is now up on their site, as is my piece, “Fishermen’s Tales”. I’ve wanted to write a story with a protagonist called Milo ever since I read “The Phantom Tollbooth”. Which is quite a long time ago, now I come to think of it.
Dec
18
The Truth About Uncle Joe
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Volume One, Issue Two of The Oddville Press was published today, containing my flash “The Truth About Uncle Joe”, an everyday story of Communism, five-year plans and tentacles. It’s quite probably the daftest thing I’ve ever written. But not quite as daft as the project I’ve got planned for next year, although that will sadly remain top secret for a while yet.
Dec
11
Scratching at Cardboard
Filed Under Publications | 5 Comments
You wait all year to get into an anthology and then two come along at once. But doesn’t this look cool? This is “Scratching at Cardboard“, the anthology containing the best of this year’s Whittaker Prize, and it contains my story “Dislocation”, which came second in Round One (and that was about as high as I got throughout the entire competition, but never mind). “Dislocation” is a kind of homage to “The Time Traveller’s Wife”, and it’s a rather sweet love story. I’m really looking forward to getting my copy and reading all the other stories again.
Dec
9
Gene Genii Anthology Now Available
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In all the excitement of the last few days, I forgot to mention that the Gene Genii Anthology is now available at all good bookstores. This anthology is the result of a flash charity event held by The Grail writers’ group a while ago. I didn’t actually take part in this one, but I was asked if I’d like to contribute anything afterwards, so I offered them a rather tasteless little flash entitled “Interior Design” and another one called “Interview with a Zombie”, both of which they accepted. The latter was, incidentally, rejected by the “Bits of the Dead” anthology for being “too cheeky”, so if cheeky zombies are your thing (and why shouldn’t they be?), this book is just for you. Quite apart from my efforts, there are loads of good pieces in there from some really excellent writers AND it’s in a good cause (one all too close to the hearts of a couple of the people involved, in fact), so why not buy a copy for someone you love this Christmas?
Dec
1
An Unsuitable Replacement
Filed Under Publications | 2 Comments
My story “An Unsuitable Replacement” is now up at Niteblade. This curious piece of dark humour first made an appearance during the 2007 Children in Need marathon, which means that it was written in less than an hour. It’s basically a case of following an idea to its logical conclusion and then carrying on for a bit afterwards. As you do. It’s also a kind of companion piece to my brain transplant story, “Convalescence”, which can still be found in this excellent anthology.
Nov
25
Misunderstandings
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“Misunderstandings” appears today in Tuesday Shorts. This is a classic case of re-formatting and recycling an idea that I was pretty certain was good until I finally found a place where it would fit. The rest of this post is a bit spoiler-ish, so I’ll make a break here in case you want to read the piece first (it’s very short).
Nov
3
School Uniform
Filed Under Publications | 2 Comments
The first couple of poems posted on Every Day Poets have been rather sublime. Of course, we all know where it goes after that. Enjoy.
Oct
31
Normal Service is Resumed
Filed Under Publications, Stuff | 2 Comments
Apologies for going slightly spEak You’re bRanes in my last post. As this increasingly bizarre story has unfolded over the past few days, it’s become quite clear that there are some darker forces at work here, and almost involved seems to have their own agenda, apart (of course) from the saintly Andrew Sachs. That’s the problem with Real Life - it’s always far too implausible, and usually comes to an unsatisfactory conclusion.
So normal service resumes. The schedule for the first-ever month of Every Day Poets has now been released, and I’m on Day 3. I also feel just a little overawed to be on the same bill as Vanessa Gebbie, who has just been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize. I don’t know much about her poetry (actually, let’s be honest, I know bugger all about poetry, full stop), but I’m guessing that you may find that our styles are ever-so-slightly different.