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.
Books
Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens was published by Proxima Books in September 2011.
The Scott Prize-winning short story collection Dot(.), Dash(-) will be published by Salt in 2012.
Dec
1
A Couple More Reviews
Filed Under Mrs Darcy, Reviews | Leave a Comment
I was really pleased to see yesterday that Our Book Reviews had given Mrs Darcy an enthusiastic thumbs up. Five stars and this:
Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens is filled to the brim with my sort of humour – lots of in-jokes and obscure TV quotes that I needed to share with anyone who’d listen. I’d like to tell you about all the funny bits but would probably end up reading the book to you.
Not a book I’d recommend to Austen purists but for everyone else it’s a ‘must read’.
Couldn’t really ask for more.
I also received an e-mail from an old chum of mine, with the subject “Critique”. Here is the entire body of the e-mail:
Ek – Ek – Ek – Ek!!
Ek
PS Ek – Ek
Spot on, I’d say. (For more information on kk’Ekk, see here.)
Nov
17
Mrs Darcy versus the Lolcats
Filed Under Mrs Darcy, Reviews | Leave a Comment
One of the things that strikes you if you study YouTube for any length of time is the sheer number of cat videos with humungously high view counts. But I thought, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So I enlisted the help of Marvin and this is what we came up with:
Despite appearances, I think he really would like to be a star – a bit like Maru perhaps. So do please feel free to share this far and wide. I mean, really, do feel free. Please. Do it for Marvin.
Meanwhile, the book has made its first appearance in a national magazine, courtesy of a passing reference in Amanda Craig’s review of the PD James book-that-we-will-not-mention in the New Statesman. It’s a start, I guess, so many thanks to Amanda for slipping that in.
Oh, and one other thing: issue #16 of the now late-lamented Murky Depths just got another review, with a very favourable comment on my story “Teamwork”. Many thanks to Michele Lee for this:
Teamwork by Jonathan Pinnock is one of those fabulous dark SF stories of space exploration and technology where the reader knows from the beginning something is wrong, but doesn’t really appreciate it until the end. This one’s deserving of a Hitchcock episode.
Nov
3
Quick addendum to the last post. The lovely Cassandra Parkin, author of the imminent “New World Fairy Tales”, has just posted a stupendously comprehensive and favourable review on her blog here. Do make sure you read the second footnote: she writes with authority 
What was I saying about roller-coasters?
Sep
24
When Two Blog Tours Collide…
Filed Under Mrs Darcy, Other people, Reviews | 5 Comments
Today’s a bit of a first, because on Day 24 of the Never Ending Blog Tour™, I’m visiting Jane Lovering’s blog at the VERY SAME TIME as she visits mine. This may well cause some kind of violation of the laws of physics (eat your heart out, CERN) but we’re going to try it anyway.
Jane’s latest book, which happened to come out on the very same day as “Mrs Darcy”, is called “Star Struck” and I must admit I approached it with a certain amount of trepidation, because it is after all a romance. I am a bloke and Blokes Do Not Read Romance (although with the advent of the Kindle, more and more are apparently). However, I needn’t have worried, because it’s a terrific story, romance or no romance.
“Star Struck” is the story of Skye, one-time actress and sci-fi obsessive, and Jack, show runner for her favourite series, “Fallen Skies”. Both are damaged goods, but during the course of what sounds like a pretty dreadful (if all too convincing) convention weekend in Nevada, they meet and – no, we’re not doing spoilers here, thank you. You’ll have to read it to find out what happens.
It’s actually quite a dark story in places, but it’s constantly leavened by Ms Lovering’s engaging wordplay. I particularly liked the reference to a drugged Skye being dragged along a hotel corridor “like room service for a shy serial killer”. And later on there’s a beautifully sad couple of lines: “I could just feel the faint valium-induced haze pulling down across my mind. Nothing much, a whisper of net-curtain between me and the prurient world.”
To summarise then, if you’re looking for a romantic story with emotional depth and engaging characters in a decidedly unconventional setting, I would definitely recommend this one. Although there is one teensy-weensy problem, which happens to be the first thing I asked Jane about when she dropped in…
There’s just one thing that bothered me about “Star Struck”: the hunky, smouldering sci-fi writer. There are two adjectives there that don’t seem to compute. Or am I wrong? Name your top 5 SFWILFs, please.
Hunky sci fi writer is almost the definition of ‘oxymoron’ isn’t it? Therefore, I should like to present for your delectation – Toby Whithouse, Joss Whedon (I know, small and gingerish but I’d do him…) Hal Duncan, Neil Gaiman and Alan Garner (if I’d got to him thirty years ago). Enough? Because I could go on, you know… or maybe it’s just that my taste in men is a little questionable.
If you were given an unlimited budget to purchase anything from the Forbidden Planet online catalogue, what would you go for?
Forbidden Planet, with an unlimited budget? Do they sell chocolate? Sigh, no, I already know the answer to that one. I’ve lived without a FPlan for so long that I forget the sheer joy of walking through the door and being greeted by all those lovely geeky boys inside… at least, I think they were greeting me, their mouths moved and they blinked a lot. What would I buy? Probably the limited edition hardcover version of ‘Neverwhere’ – the story I’d most like to see buffed up and re-presented to the public. Plus, you know, Neil Gaiman…see above.
Star Trek or Star Wars?
Star Trek. Every time. Preferably DS9 (which is still Star Trek in my opinion), but otherwise TNG. Original series is far too Alpha Male for me. And there’s far too much hair in Star Wars.
33 1/3, 45 or 78?
33 1/3. Because it’s more numbers. Numbers scare me, but I see their purpose. It’s to KILL US ALL.
John, Paul, George or Ringo?
John, Paul, George and Ringo? Those are all Popes, aren’t they? Can I vote for Heraclas of Alexandria?
Branston or Marmite?
Marmite. Because Branston looks like sick.
What is your favourite dinosaur and why?
Favourite dinosaur has to be Baryonyx. Mostly because it looks like someone took half a dozen unrelated animals, cut off the useful bits, stitched them together and allowed them to gallivant around the world eating fish. A bit like Rick Stein.
Finally, what question have you never been asked that you wish you had and what would the answer be?
And the question I wish I’d been asked? ‘Do you and Johnny Depp really have to make so much noise when you’re having sex?” And the answer, I shall leave you to guess…
Brilliant answers there, I think, apart from being hopelessly wrong about Star Wars. She does at least redeem herself by being right on the money about Branston. “Star Struck” is available online at all the usual places and is also on promotion in WHSmith Travel. Go and get yourself a copy now. And many thanks to Jane for dropping in!
Now let’s go and see what she’s said about me, eh?
Jul
14
Good Timin’
Filed Under Anthologies, Publications, Reviews, The Publishing Industry | 2 Comments
In the immortal words of Jimmy Jones, you need good timin’.
When I sent my entry in for the Scott Prize to Salt Publishing at the beginning of last October, I had no idea whatsoever that Salt were about to launch Proxima Books and even less idea that barely a month later I would be signing a contract for Proxima to publish Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens. By the time the Scott Prize announcement came around, the release date for Mrs Darcy was already set for September 1st which made things look a bit complicated, given that all three Scott Prize winners were due to be launched during National Short Story Week – November 7th to 13th.
Something had to give. So yesterday the decision was taken for publication of Dot Dash (my short story collection) to be put back to 2012. I’m obviously slightly disappointed about this, because my first love is short stories and I’m desperate to find out what the world thinks about this collection. But I can also see that from a marketing point of view, bringing two very different books from the same author out at almost the same time would be insane.
So 2011 is now going to be solely the year of Mrs Darcy, whilst 2012 is going to be the year of Dot Dash. Unless of course everyone suddenly starts clamouring for that sequel to Mrs Darcy, in which case life gets very complicated indeed. But in a good way.
Meanwhile, Scott Pack is reviewing stories from the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize anthology, and today he’s given a four-star review to one of mine, “rZr and Napoleon”. Like the other story of mine that bagged a four-star review from him (he has such good taste), it will of course appear in Dot Dash in 2012. But if you want to read it in the meantime, I strongly recommend getting hold of a copy of that anthology – it really is very good indeed.
Jun
2
… is of course not being talked about. So it was really nice to see my story “Teamwork” being singled out for praise in SFCrowsNest’s review of Murky Depths 16. Many thanks to Gareth D Hunt for the kind words.
It was also nice to see Scott Pack dipping into “The Archangel and the White Hart” once again for his Me and My Short Stories blog – this time to review Richard Bruckdorfer’s terrific story, “Will o’the Wisp“. So that’s two stories from our anthology that have been highlighted, and I have to say I’m dead chuffed.
Meanwhile, Wickhampedia continues to expand, most recently with entries on the kk’Ekk language and Austen’s third novel, “The North Abbey Hanging.“
May
13
Me and My Short Stories
Filed Under Reviews | 2 Comments
That nice chap and all-round good egg Scott Pack has reviewed one of my stories for his Me and My Short Stories blog. Fortunately, he seems to like it. If you want to read the story, “Advice re Elephants”, it’s available online, at Metazen. Scott’s short story project is turning up some really interesting stuff, by the way, and it’s definitely worth following.
Apr
10
I guess I should start with a bit of a disclaimer. I met Ed Siegle when we shared a stage at Sparks 11 in Brighton last November and I subsequently went along to the launch of “Invisibles”, where I drank quite a lot of Myriad Editions’ wine.
However, I am not a man whose affections are easily bought, and I approached “Invisibles” with an entirely open mind. And what a fab book this is.
“Invisibles” is the story of Joel, brought up in Brighton by his glamorous mother Jackie after fleeing Rio following his father’s second incarceration. We join the story twenty-five years when Joel is convinced he sees his father on a news report on television. This is tantalisingly exciting for Joel, because he has long understood that his father is dead, and utterly appalling for Jackie, for pretty much the same reason.
Joel immediately decides to head off to Rio to find his father, where he meets up with lowlife Nelson, who promises to help him in return for money and the chance to escape out of the desperate situation he has found himself in.
This is an exceptionally assured debut novel (actually, sod that patronising “debut” epithet: exceptionally assured novel, full stop). The story of Joel’s search for his father is paced to perfection and cleverly interwoven with the back-story of his mother’s tempestuous marriage. The plot is intricate but, unlike some books by better-known authors I’ve read lately, doesn’t rely on outrageous coincidences to work (I’m looking at you, Kate Atkinson). The characters are well-rounded, engaging and totally believable, and the pages fairly sizzle with the heat of Rio.
I think what impressed me most about “Invisibles” was the sheer confidence of the writing. Siegle is an accomplished short-story writer and it shows. He isn’t afraid to drop you right in the middle of an exchange of street banter that a lesser writer might feel obliged to explain. And whilst this is on the surface for Joel a very middle-class search for his roots and identity, Siegle makes it abundantly clear that for Nelson it is a matter of life and death – but he also very cleverly manages to find common ground between the two men, despite their very different backgrounds.
So, then, this is highly recommended. But be warned: reading this book may prove expensive. I now have a desperate urge to hear more Brazilan music, and I’m actively investigating what I need to hear next after wearing out my one Getz/Gilberto CD. As it happens, on the day after I finished reading “Invisibles”, my iTunes DJ turned up a Tom Jobim track that I wasn’t aware that I possessed (it was on a compilation) – “Cronica Da Casa Assassinada”, and I think this is would make a rather good soundtrack to a film of “Invisibles”. What do you reckon?
Mar
26
Review: “Sharaf” by Raj Kumar
Filed Under Reviews | 2 Comments
You’ve got to admire Myrmidon’s sense of timing. With the Middle East kicking off left, right and centre, there could hardly be a better time to bring out a novel set in Saudi Arabia, currently sitting nervously at the far end of a long line of wobbling dominos.
I’ve long had a soft spot for Myrmidon, and not just because they are the publishers of my mate Toby Frost’s wonderful “Space Captain Smith” trilogy. One of my all-time favourite contemporary novels is “The Gift of Rain” by Tan Twan Eng – one of the most heartbreaking stories ever committed to paper. So I have to say that I was well-disposed to Raj Kumar’s “Sharaf” from the start.
This is the story of Maryam, the daughter of a Saudi Major General, who has been promised to the son of an old comrade of her father’s in return for saving his life many years ago during a border skirmish. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a spectacularly infelicitous match for a number of reasons which are gradually revealed during the course of the book.
This premise is briskly set up during the first chapter, in the course of which we are also introduced to most of the key secondary characters. During this initial part of the story, Kumar has a mildly annoying way of over-explaining Saudi customs to the reader rather than letting them speak for themselves, but he soon leaves this behind and from then on the story moves on at cracking pace. “Sharaf”, by the way, means “honour”, and one thing you can be sure of is that when words like honour get bandied around, people tend to behave badly.
The main plot concerns Maryam’s illicit affair with Joe, her nephew’s American dentist. To make matters more dangerous still, he’s actually her nephew’s Jewish American dentist. As this risky liaison develops, we see other parts of the story through other characters’ eyes, gaining some startling glimpses into aspects of Saudi society that one might not have previously suspected. I’m assuming that this is all based on fact as Kumar was based in Saudi for some time, although I’m guessing that he may not be looking to go back there for a while.
This isn’t a book with great literary ambitions, but it’s a well-told romantic tale with thriller accoutrements and it builds towards a satisfying if ever so slightly preposterous climax. I would certainly recommend it as something to take to the beach this summer, especially if you fancy learning a bit about the mysterious desert kingdom that we rely on for the fuel in our cars. And speaking of cars, I’d like to end with one of my favourite YouTube clips, revealing another unexpected side of Saudi.
Nov
30
Café Doom Annual Writing Competition and Other Stuff
Filed Under Acceptances, Competitions, Reviews, Things I like | Leave a Comment
The Sixth Annual Café Doom Writing Competition came to a close today. It’s quite a feat of endurance for the participants because all the entrants have to read everyone else’s entries and then pick their top three. This year there were 50 in all, with a maximum length of 5000 words, making a potential 250K of words to be read in a fortnight.
In fact, it turned out to be a breeze to do the actual reading part because in most cases you could decide pretty early on if a story was going anywhere and the ones that did go somewhere were a joy to read. Actually writing something new for the competition turned to be a bit more challenging, what with Mrs Darcy and the Slingink Scribbling Slam both going strong at the time, so I ended up re-visiting a story from 2007. This was “Symbiosis”, the everyday story of the relationship between a young woman and her intestinal worm, which I’d originally written for a Writing Magazine competition on the subject of “Putting on the Inches”. No, I have no idea what I was thinking either. Anyway, I’d always intended to go back to it and make the ending a bit more gross, so it seemed the ideal opportunity.
As things turned out, I was quite pleased that the piece made 5th place in the popular vote and was thus shortlisted. However, that was as far as it went. I suspect that the fact that there was another worm-related piece last year (which I’d completely forgotten about) may have gone against it, along with the fact that it was very English in tone (there can’t be that many horror stories around that reference Greggs, can there?) The presence of several better stories in the shortlist may also have had something to do with it, of course. Either way, I now have another piece that is ready to send out into the world when I get round to it – along with last year’s flop and 2008′s shortlistee.
Meanwhile, “M is for Monster” has picked up a couple of nice Amazon reviews. Obviously, this is my favourite bit of the first review:
As short as it is grotesquely satisfying, Pinnock’s darkly comical tale is delivered in a staggered fashion, setting down the back-story and plot whilst Tom’s final minutes are played out. The finale hits the reader with the full force of a good dollop of splatterpunk, concluding this downbeat little tale with complete and utter horror-enthusiastic perfection.
Splatterpunk. I like that.
Next – something that I completely forgot to mention a while back. My online chum Geoff Nelder got in touch with me asking if I fancied joining him and Bec Zugor (amongst others) in contributing some ultra-short pieces to go with a book of Sci-Fi art called “The Sixty” being produced by Andy Bigwood, two-time winner of the BSFA award for best artwork. When I saw the pictures, I leapt at the chance, picking this one to write a piece for (called “Pioneer”). I in turn invited my VWC mates Oscar Windsor-Smith and Dave Weaver to join the team and I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. Should be quite some book.
Finally, stop whatever you’re doing and take a look at this extraordinary piece of video art by Richard O’Callaghan based on Tania Hershman’s wonderful story, “The White Road”. Wow. Just wow.