Never Mind the Beasts novel
Excerpts from my nomadic surrealist novel Never Mind the Beasts (Dostoyevsky Wannabe 2020).
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Mercurius Magazine
I am super happy to have an excerpt from my novel Never Mind the Beasts in Mercurius Magazine (out of Barcelona and the world). The excerpt is from the immigration to Vegas section. Circus Circus. Meat loaf and bishops. Irish ninjas. Lotsa hunks. You can read it over here. Read more
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Down the Shankill
Before moving to Spain, I visited my birth country. Portadown, N. Ireland and then Belfast, to see my biological father. He was a gardener. His wife died. I got an old worker´s hat from her father. World War I. We walked the Shankill. Here is the journey. From my novel Never Mind the Beasts. Available… Read more
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Doom Drone
In 2016, when I lived in London, I went on many journeys. I was trying to align my mind with my body. Lunch room tongue assessments. Spine alignment. A doom drone concert. A magic rabbit hat. In the basement where I worked, I got the phone call. I was going to become a father. Then… Read more
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Squirrels and Ooglers
Have you squirreled away yr nuts? Are you a hidden oogler? Winter is upon us. Here is a short reading. Read more
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Travels from Never Mind the Beasts (Part One)
When I lived in London, I visited Poland twice a year with my partner. The Polish mountains in the summer. The Manhattan Estate in Katowice for Christmas. For a few years, during spring break, and also summer, we also visited Portugal, Italy, and Spain. We have tried many things for healthier living, mentally and physically.… Read more
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Pink Gums
When I lived in the Docklands of East London, next to Commercial Road, it was a battle to keep my gums pink. Here is a short reading, from my novel Never Mind the Beasts, about the many routines from my time in the Docklands. Close to Poplar, in the Lansbury Public Housing Estate. It is… Read more
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The Future is in the Wind
When I lived in East London, we walked along the canal near Christmas and ate the Christmas cake. I thought about my family, especially my brother Aaron, gone now 8 years. We were very close growing up as new immigrants in America, and also in Milton Keynes, where he was born. Read more
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LOVE IS TO SPOON AS ROCK IS TO CHIP
After Turkey, and a stint of dog walking in Italy, he moves to London, falls in love, lands a gig as an adjunct professor at an American style university in London. He feels a sense of community with the avant garde poetry community iand starts to write a novel from his experiences living in various… Read more
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SOUTH KOREA 2006
Doraji doraji doraji! I walk over the pass where balloon flowers bloom. Hey-ya, hey! An ya hey say yo! I walk over the pass where balloon flowers bloom. Hey-ha hey! An ya hey say yo! Reminds me of mother and twinkling boys. Hey-ya, hey! An ya hey say yo! Read more
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THE DOCKLANDS
Don Whiskers and Pineapple live in the Docklands, East London, in a council flat. They visit the river for ancient histories. They take the Mega Bus in the Mega City and visit Amsterdam. They stay on a boat called The Gandalf. Back home, they stand on the balcony from the cheap seats and look at… Read more
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YOUNG LOVE
He took a long time to do it, or at least a long time for some. After the mission, at age 20, he went back to N.Ireland and England, tried on a condom at his cousin’s house, just for the fitting. He wanted to become bohemian and watched Pulp Fiction at the theatre. He met… Read more
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THE TRIAL
After returning home early from the mission, I had my first sexual experience, it was called docking. I took off my secret garments and attended the trial, in a big wooden room. The devils were coming. I couldn’t return to my job at the mercantile. Every job interview in the small town asked me if… Read more
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THE HOLY MISSION
My debut novel, Never Mind the Beasts, has many movements, from many lifetimes and many countries. When I lived in North America, I lived in many states, both physically and mentally, and you might also say spiritually. I went on a holy mission (from 1993-1994) to Boise, Idaho. Age 19-20. But I returned home early,… Read more
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COFFEE HALL
Worzel Gummidge is on the telly. The father has a new calling in the new church to convert more converts, and also a job in London, driving a train in the underground. There is also Bletchley, a swimming pool with a slide, and hot chocolate, from the machine. He learns how long to brush his… Read more
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NEVER MIND THE BEASTS OPENING
Never Mind the Beasts, an experimental working class novel, begins in Portadown, N. Ireland, with my biological father, The Troubles, in one way or another, and then the move to London, first a homeless hostel, and then later Milton Keynes, with government social housing. It begins in the 1974 and then moves into the 80s,… Read more
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Class consciousness
There is so much of it, and from an early age it was all about the work, working hard to climb a ladder, and we are all climbing ladders, of some sort, hoping for something better, and too much moaning doesn’t help, but it’s there, sometimes hard to put your finger on it, it’s there,… Read more
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VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Art can help us see and hear and smell and taste and touch with a more attentive mind. And there is so much to explore. Art can help us have a beginner’s mind. Empty and open. Art is my medicine and also my spiritual practice. Here is an interview, upon the release of my first… Read more
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HOT OFF THE PRESS
Super grateful. My debut novel, Never Mind the Beasts, 10 years in the making from many countries, is now available for ordering. You can choose Blackwell’s or Amazon. Waterstone’s, Foyles, and Barnes and Noble will be added as an ordering option soon. Here is a description: Never Mind The Beasts is Marcus Slease’s second book for… Read more
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MILTON KEYNES 2
Here is an another excerpt from Part One of my novel, Never Mind the Beasts, coming this month (May 2020) from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Religious conversion, E.T., a used Chopper, the dole, government housing, wow comics, the toothbrush lesson, Jesus Christ Superstar, rugby and fire hoops, hammer and piggy, a millennium falcon. Read more
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MILTON KEYNES 1
Field Day, the magic of bathtubs & Milton Keynes roundabouts, a pet gerbil, Copperfield Middle School lunch room, a popped football, peer pressures, Bletchley swimming pool, hot chocolate from a machine, brussel sprouts, a man in the bushes, play dough and Worzel Gummidge, a rock through an old woman’s window. Read more
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WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
Your surname is supposed to tell you all about your lineage and heritage and prestige. Authors, who want to be prestige, have prestige surnames, some even use initials for their first names. I am not prestige. Read more
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COVER FOR NEVER MIND THE BEASTS
Feeling joy, excitement, gratefulness. Proofs finalized. My novel, Never Mind the Beasts, over 10 years in the making, coming out this month from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. The cover. A 1 dollar high roller Vegas chip, sent to the press by Jennifer Hodgson (She is the person responsible for re-publishing Ann Quin’s works with And Other Stories… Read more
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READING FROM NEVER MIND THE BEASTS PART ONE
The first part of Never Mind the Beasts begins in Portadown, N. Ireland, in 1974, during the height of The Troubles, and then moves to Milton Keynes, England in 1980s. Here is a sample reading, from part one of the novel, in N. Ireland and Milton Keynes, England (a homeless shelter, a rocket ship in… Read more
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Mutation
Two more days till the Stay at Home Fringe Lit Fest, out of Glasgow, and everywhere, and I am thinking about what to read at the Dostoyevsky Wannabe event, from my soon-to-be-released novel, Never Mind the Beasts, 10 plus years in the making. How it has mutated over the years, over and over. First it… Read more
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Stay at Home Glasgow Fringe Festival
A week from today, on May 8th, 6PM UK time, I am reading from my first novel, Never Mind the Beasts, coming this month from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Along with some other fab writers from Dostoyevsky Wannabe: Colin Herd, Maria Rose Sledmere Ruthie Kennedy, and Rhian Williams. It’s part of this virtual fringe festival, out of… Read more
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A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
Battlestar Galactica is partly Mormon. Sci-fi is a big part of Mormon. Do you know the planet Kolob? When we immigrated to America, and my family converted to Mormonism, I had a hankering for sci-fi. Read more
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Fruit Flies
What did you do in biology? Frogs? Baby pigs? Did you colour the muscles. Identify bones? We had a special project with fruit flies. We had to make them mate. Here is a microfiction about fruit flies in high school, in the early 90s, from my novel Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in May 2020.… Read more
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WHAT IS A BATHTUB?
When I lived in Milton Keynes, before immigrating to the States, I wanted to take a bath with my 8 year old girlfriend. It was very exciting: the bathtub. What is your memory of bathtub? A lot can happen in a bathtub. Here is a microfiction about bathtubs, in the 1980s, from my novel Never… Read more
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DESTROYER AND PRESERVER
John Prine died yesterday, and I keep listening to “Hello in There.” I’ve been thinking also of a microfiction, from my novel Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe next month, entitled “Destroyer and Preserver.” “Destroyer and Preserver” was written in Madrid in 2016, near La Elipa metro stop. It was my first year in… Read more
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WET N’WILD
In Vegas there was a water park. An exciting adventure, for the whole family. I was hitting puberty and my accent had changed, from Northern Irish to working class British to western American. I wanted to become hairy, it was the 1980s, Tom Selleck was a stud muffin. Here is a microfiction about Vegas, in… Read more
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SKULL
When the virus came to Spain, it gathered momentum quickly. The fear. Death is hanging over us, always, but it is here even closer, disrupting our usual distractions. Fear and more fear. Did you touch it? Do I bleach it? How do we boost our immune systems when we are not allowed out for a… Read more
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SQUIRRELS
Spain is in strict lock down, stricter than Italy, no exercise outside, only outside for groceries, pharmacy. But still the numbers are spiking. Following the trend of Italy, soon the health services will be overrun. The whole world is moving into some form of confinement. Hoarding/not hoarding. It is good to keep up our spirits.… Read more
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RABBIT HAT
It is hard to find a good hat. Back then, more than now, I was searching for a good hat. Although a good hat is always a good hat. Here is a microfiction from my novel Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in May 2020. It is called “Rabbit Hat.” Read more
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920
Shame. Too much or too little. I have it too much. Before leaving London for Madrid, I was gifted a free massage, via Groupon, in the fancy part of London, near South Kensington. Here is a microfiction from my novel Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in May 2020. It is called “920.” Read more
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MEAT HELPER
When we immigrated to America, in the 1980s, we started off in a trailer park, in Vallejo, California. We sat on a sofa and watched the telly. There were so many adverts. We weren’t used to the adverts. There were TV Dinners, and for many weeks we watched the meat helper. It was supposed to… Read more
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JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
In the 1980s I lived in Coffee Hall, in Milton Keynes. Near coffee Hall, there was Bean Hill. The underpass between Beanhill and Coffee Hall was painted with a Wizard of Oz theme. Magic! I went to Copperfield Middle School, now closed since 31/3/2004, and there was a special teacher: Miss Foster. It was the… Read more
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WANKER
The crowd is dangerous, and also liberating, but mostly dangerous. A mob. When you’re younger: peer pressure. When I lived in Milton Keynes, Coffee Hall housing estate, there was a place for playing football, next to the playground. I showed up in my red Liverpool kit. Liverpool was everything, especially Ian Rush. I wanted a… Read more
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God is Watching You
Here is a small excerpt, from my novel in Microfiction, Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming in May 2020 from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. This one takes place in Milton Keynes, England, after the conversion, before immigrating to America. It is called “God is Watching You.” Read more
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HOWLING DOGS & CRINKLED WHISPERS
The first place we landed, upon immigrating to America, was Vallejo California, a trailer park. I had a funny accent. Part working class British and part Northern Irish. No one can understand me. We ate something Hamburger Helper every evening. And NBC movies, with so many adverts, with Clint Eastwood and monkeys, and also Lee… Read more
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Survival of the Fittest
Long ago, in another lifetime, I lived in Milton Keynes, England, on a government housing estate called Coffee Hall. Long ago, in another lifetime, I was knocked down by a car, in Portadown, with a poke in my hand. Long ago, in another lifetime, with my childhood friend Tina Adams, playing a game of stepping… Read more
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HAMMER AND PIGGY
Here is a story from Milton Keynes, England, in 1982, Coffee Hall Housing Estate. It is close to Christmas and after Guy Fawkes. Everything is shiny, especially the new 20P coin, an equilateral curve heptagon. This microfiction is from Never Mind the Beasts, my novel in flash fictions, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in April 2020. Read more
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All American
Newly married, working as telemarketers and cleaners, the midnight beam, in Utah, pulled them to a used car lot. This is their story. From Never Mind the Beasts, the first novel in my nomadic surrealist trilogy, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in 2020. Read more
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Miniature Gorilla
I don’t like to sell. Perhaps you are a seller. I am not a good seller. Long ago, at Matrixx Marketing I was a seller, but I am no longer a seller. I am not motivated by numbers and targets. Others, I am sure, are motivated by numbers. Looking back, selling accidental death insurance, all… Read more
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Invisible Monsters
I have a flash fiction invisible monster in new issue of Plastic Cocktail. Plastic Cocktail is in Bushwick. Bushwick is in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is in New York City. Someday maybe I will see Bushwick. I have seen New York City, but it was mostly in the movies. Read more
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The Hacking Powders
An excerpt from my novel manuscript, The Autobiography of Don Whiskers, is over at #thesideshow. Partly based on experiences in Katowice, Poland, Cercedilla (Spain), Madrid (Spain), and Palermo (Sicily). It is part of an ongoing trilogy of nomadic surrealist novels. Part autofiction, part magical realism. This excerpt begins in Katowice, at the Zoo, with pagan deities:… Read more
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THE TIGERS
After my brother Aaron died I went on a road trip with my brothers and sisters. We traveled from Utah to the ocean of California. Along the way we stopped in Hurricane, Utah, a place in southern Utah where we used to live. I lived there mainly for my senior year in high school and… Read more
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THE POWER OF HERMITS
Do you want the magic back in your life? Me too. Also people. It is so noisy out there. Meaning in here. How about some peace. We are all competing for endless roads to nowhere. But sometimes somewhere. I am at least 60% natural hermit, ditto Ewa. It depends on the day. Of course we… Read more
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A RABBIT HAT ADVENTURE IN LONDON
Just before leaving London/Tower Hamlets to live in Madrid, I met up with my good friend and fellow artist Stephen Emmerson. We walked across Waterloo Bridge and wandered into a magic hat shop called The Mad Hatter. I ended up with a rabbit hat (thanks to Stephen). It is a special hat. I composed… Read more
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MR WHISKERS WITHOUT THE PICNIC BASKET
The only award I ever won, and didn’t even enter, was for a poem called “Mr Whiskers and the Picnic Basket.” It was published in Hayden’s Ferry Review as a winner of the AWP Intro Journals Award. I was completing my MFA at UNC Greensboro at the time. Then it was republished at storySouth in 2004. This… Read more
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ON FATHERS
“My step father grew up in Warrington, he joined the British Army. A way out. Northern Ireland. He married my mother. In Bletchley, we went to the swimming pool. Hot chocolate, in the plastic cup, from the machine. I’ll give you a pound if you go down the slide he said. In London, in the… Read more
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THE HOUSE OF ZABKA
Excerpt from my novel in progress The Autobiography of Don Whiskers A hybrid novel (in the form of an immigrant memoir, prose poetry, and interlocking surreal flash fictions). Some influences include Richard Brautigan, Miranda July, Lukas Tomin, David Lynch, Guy Maddin, and Leonora Carrington (plus more). This except is called THE HOUSE OF… Read more
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THE HERMIT AND THE EMPEROR
From my novel The Autobiography of Don Whiskers. Finally hope to complete it after seven years by the end of this summer. Maybe. The novel is nomadic life writing plus a kind of surrealism and absurdism. A new kind of travel writing. Read more
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SAINT TOM
https://soundcloud.com/jjmars/saint-tom Setting: A government housing estate called Coffee Hall in Milton Keynes, UK. Characters: David Bowie, Neil Diamond, the Milton Keynes Bowl, hot air balloon, a mars bar,a rocket ship, an American mall, a playground, a 10 year old boy. Plot: a ten year old boy has just found out he is immigrating to the… Read more
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PUBLIC POOL
Have some wee London stories over at Public Pool with audio. “Snug” and “Dinosaurs.” From my novel in progress The Autobiography of Don Whiskers: Read more
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A MEMOIR OF MAGICAL TRAVEL
FROM MY NOVEL IN PROGRESS THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DON WHISKERS. THE COLLEGE DAYS OF SEARCHING FOR MYSTICAL TREASURES . . A RECORDING/READING OVER AT SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/marcus-slease/from-never-mind-the-beasts Read more
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MAPS (nomadic travel writing)
A very rough draft of some work for my ongoing nomadic travel novel: The Autobiography of Don Whiskers. It will undergo massive collaging and editing later. MAPS Russians to the right; Indians to the left. I go with the Indians. I follow the sign for Hind Street Community Centre. Outside my… Read more
