Unwritten Celebrates...Derek Haines!

Want to celebrate someone who's made an impact on your life? 

E-mail: mystiparker@yahoo.com with Unwritten Celebrates in the subject line.

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Please give a big Unwritten welcome to author Derek Haines, as we celebrate his work and influence in others' lives!

A message to Derek from author Jack Eason:

My good friend and fellow writer Derek Haines has been labelled by some as a Douglas Adams wannabe because of his absolutely hilarious science fiction Gloth series featuring such characters as February the Fifth, HAL, Milo Moon and Septimity.

I would argue that in fact Adams was a Haines wannabe.

Derek doesn’t only write sci-fi. One of his books, which I absolutely loved, is called “Louis”, the life story of an extraordinary character who Derek knew. Then there is his latest “One Last Love”. As its title suggests it is a love story, but with a difference. It takes place between two terminally ill residents of a hospice.

One last word, he is the most generous person I know. He has helped me so many times.

Thanks Derek.

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Bio:

An author of fiction, historical fiction, essays and poetry, Derek Haines writes his books from a view of what fascinates him and not from a formula based on one theme or genre. Starting with poetry before moving into essays and fiction novels, his writing is varied but is always written in a style and voice that communicates with, and engages his readers. 

Most of all, the stories told by Derek Haines are about people, their feelings, regrets, hopes and struggles with life. Ordinary people, but with extraordinary qualities that makes their story worth telling. With splashes of sometimes black humour or simple satire, his stories can develop from the simplistic to the complex and back again leaving the reader to decide if it is time to laugh or cry. Or both.

Born in Australia, but now living in Switzerland with his wife and a black cocker spaniel, his stories cross a wide geographical range but often draw from elements of his life and experiences in the two countries he calls home. From the rugged, dry and hot desert country of Australia and its crowded cities to the cafés of Europe and the peaks of the Swiss Alps. The hustle and bustle of Sydney to the quiet life of the Swiss countryside.

When not writing, he is usually doing what he equally enjoys. Teaching English.

Website: www.derekhaines.ch

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Here are a few of this multi-published author's works: 

Buy it HERE!

One Last Love:

Life has the habit of delivering its perverse twists at the most unexpected times.

For Bonnie his life had been lived, and the bitter sweet memories of his wife, along with the never ending sorrow of losing his son so young remain with him, but were now ebbing slowly with the passing of the years. His days of love, warmth and tenderness well past and all that was left were his last few quiet years to grow old. Alone, yet content.

What he had done, he had done and what had happened, had. All that remained was to live out the rest of his life in a new place, far away from his checkered past. His days passing with the regularity that an old man desires and deserves. Until the dark day arrives that signals an impending end to his new found life, and with it, all sense of hope. 

In facing mortality, Bonnie resorts to using his crusty exterior and bravado to hide the frailty and fear he feels within himself, until he is presented with stark realities beyond his understanding and is forced to come face to face with his own prejudices and beliefs. In meeting Danny and Angeline, Bonnie begins to reshape his thoughts about his acceptance of those he had habitually admonished, and of the bigoted life he has lived. While Charlie and his daughter Beatrice realign his set concepts of how he has habitually rushed to judge people too quickly. 

However, it is only when Bonnie meets Madeleine that the most unexpected eventuality turns his hard held beliefs, and his very set views about life, people and love, on their head.

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Buy it HERE!

February The Fifth:

A young fool becomes king and quickly discovers he has some very nasty enemies. Particularly the ones who are shooting at him. 

In a remarkable turn of events, a young man with a lot definitely not going for him, somehow manages to come to terms with a startling reality. He has to grow up. Being handicapped by not only having rather nasty acne and an odd eye impediment, he also has to suffer the fact that his name is February. Or at best, Feb to his very limited number of friends.

While not at all wishing to rush into this startling new reality, circumstances and a few elbow nudges from his very protective elder sister ensure that his ‘not at all wishing’ turns out to be a complete waste of time. Thrust totally and altogether unwillingly into a position of authority by early afternoon, February finds himself with a new appendage tacked on to the end his name. 

The Fifth. The new and very authoritative part of his name.

Of course, as is the case in all such rapid and thrusting types of promotion to positions of power, there will be those who are not happy about it. In February’s case however, he finds that in fact these those amount to just about everyone apart from his three sisters. 

Undaunted by this reality, Feb accepts his new responsibility and by early evening sets about getting himself into a real tangle. His only true achievement being that he discovers that quite a few of these those who weren’t so happy, are in fact really very upset about the whole Fifth appendage deal. By bedtime, he thinks he is in trouble.

Before lunchtime the next day, he is sure.

The Glothic Tales Trilogy: February The Fifth is the first book in the Glothic Tales trilogy and is followed by HAL in book two and Septimity in book three. Enjoy all three comic science fiction adventures.
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Buy it HERE!

Louis:
No one wants to be a spy. Circumstances create spies. For a young innocent boy, there was no choice. He was born to be a spy. This is the story of Teremum who begins life in Cairo and becomes my friend Louis in a small country town in Australia sixty years later. 

It is a story I have been wanting to tell for more than forty years. A story of a man who lived, and then disappeared from all memory. I felt this was unworthy of a man who had sacrificed his life for what he believed to be right. Not that he always was, but in his heart he lived a life true to his morals and had an understanding of a side of life we will never know.

Two world wars shaped his life as they did for many others. However Louis moved through them, between them and after them as a chameleon. Ever changing and ever re-inventing himself. He was a man of secrets. Both in his work and in his life. He was a man who had few friends, but a plethora of faceless enemies. Above all he was a human who lived an extraordinary life. A life that should not be forgotten.


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Buy it HERE!

HAL:
Millions of years before February The Fifth, Gloth was making a nice little profit from the planet Erde, with the help of some cunning Popes and the very, very secret Star Chamber. 

Being disowned by his father and booted out of his family manor in England, then transported off to the distant sun drenched shores of Australia didn’t sound like such a bad punishment for Hal. All things considered. Sydney however, didn’t prove to be his cup of tea, but a quick move to Brisbane leads Hal to a wonderful new life full of friends, back yards, barbecues, beer, surfing, The Breakfast Creek Hotel and Narelle. 

The idyllic life.

For a short time unfortunately, as so often happens just when you think things are beautifully perfect, someone or something comes along to throw a spanner in the works. In Hal’s case, his idyllic life gets hit my a number of airborne wrenches. Then when he thinks things are are about as bad as they can get, they of course get a whole lot worse. 

Afflicted by an allergic reaction to dust and scary things, Hal does a lot of sneezing as he goes about trying to make the whole lot worse a whole lot better. 

The Glothic Tales Trilogy: February The Fifth is the first book in the Glothic Tales trilogy and is followed by HAL in book two and Septimity in book three. Enjoy all three comic science fiction adventures.
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Buy it HERE!

Dead Men:
Evolution hasn't made a lot of difference as far as men are concerned. The end of the chase has changed little over the eons, as he drags his woman back to his cave in the belief he needs to spread his genes. When she rebuffs his advances, he resorts immediately to violence and roars in disbelief at the rejection. Our society may have changed, but as far as the Alpha Male is concerned, little has changed in his belief that he is the dominant hunter and protector. 

Although believing we live in a civilised society, when men are rejected by their women, primeval urges are difficult to repress. A hurt male, is a hurt male, so beware. Dead Men is a raw, undignified and sad tale of men who have trouble in accepting their own failings and fragilities, and an instinctive need to blame the women in their lives for their sudden demise. Having difficulty in accepting that their women and children are not their possessions, they regress to needing vengeance, retribution and humiliation on their path to renewal. Dead Men is disturbing, uncouth and at times vulgar. 

A story that may surprise, offend or shock, but will certainly not be forgotten. Whether you are man or woman, single, married or divorced, you will connect with the characters and their human reactions to the trauma of lost love and rejection. At times ugly, but always too very real. 

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If you know Derek or are familiar with his work, please leave him a message in the comments below so we can celebrate him today!