EVERY flight crew's nightmare is some passenger will get unruly at 35,000 feet; every passenger's nightmare is that the plane will hit turbulence and dinner will end up on someone's head.  Hope Barrett's journal of neuroses and aviophobia will speak to all travellers who have  found themselves stranded, strapped in by turbulence, and stripping for security.  Wry, wrought, and wary, Attitude at 35,000 Feet will have you laughing, thinking, fastening your seatbelt, an...

WHEN BAD things happen, the erudite Chinese does not look up at the skies and ask "Why?" Instead, he looks at his house, his job, his spouse and decides which of these three is causing the problem. On rare occasions, it is the latter, but the Chinese learned in his astrology would have avoided such an error from the get-go.Whatever Paula Abdul (1962, Tiger) may sing about opposites attracting, Chinese Astrology advises that there are other ways of learning to grow rather than takin...

IT HAS been seven months since the planets and airlines aligned so that we might find ourselves in the same country, in the same space, face to face.  Normally this kind of movement in the skies only occurs once every two years.  After 25 years of being there for each other through heart-break, angst, and a particularly nasty case of food poisoning (good job there were two toilets in the house), we are nothing less than life-long friends.  But... as warm and happy as our...

When the machine went into bonus mode, irrespective of whether it was Cleopatra or Used Cars, head-witch would shout to her two followers, "Touch it!" and the two would dutifully start touching the 'belly' of the machine. "Rub it!" she would order, and they would both do as they were told. I don't know which disturbed me more, the fact that Macbeth's witches had escaped into the 21st century and were disrupting my game; or that of the three grown women, not one had the sense to know th...

Despair is the kind of friend you would rather not have, because he never says 'I understand' but "I told you so.  Why are you so blind?  It was there in front of your face."  Or, if he is feeling really good, "You're stupid, you know." For once, I would like Despair to just be quiet.  Shut up. THIS SHORT AND CLEVER TALE of one-night with Despair is the first in author Hope Barrett's Black Series.  A mu...

*"THE classic mid-Victorian pantomime was essentially a fairy play with comedic elements and as such, it was fiercely defended by critics such as John Ruskin and Charles Dickens Jr, journalist son of the great novelist. The man they held chiefly responsible for the 'music hall invasion' was Sir Augustus Harris, the manager of Drury Lane, popularly known as 'the national home of pantomime.'"But in the 1880s and 1890s he was seriously challenged by the now forgotten Oscar Barrett who...

Foolish Heart had discovered love. Dizzying, perturbing, amazing. Foolish Heart was in love with CC. If only CC's name wasn't short for Can't Commit. Pia was looking to escape, from the bird collector who kept her in a cage. Pia could barely breathe. THIS SECOND title from the Black Series offers up the question: what is a triangle, if not a math equation? And what does Ruth, the palmist, mean when she says, "You are soul mates, but sometimes soul mates aren...

Somebody Get Me A Hammer 2!! continues to chart the battle against probability, and just what playing with self-preservation means. Is it quitting after you win $32,000? Or when you call it a day after leaving USD$115 million on the table? This biting account of what happens when governments makes gambling a key source of revenue will resonate and educate.

Patience and Reason decided they needed to talk to Love. "Listen," said Reason, "you have to do something.  You are the one who allowed the twins in." "I know," said Love, and coughed.  Blood came out. FROM THE author of Somebody Get Me A Hammer!! comes this biting account of twins Passive and Aggressive, two individuals in search of a good time at the expense of Reason, Patience, and Love.  C...

Everytime she opened her mouth snakes and centipedes spilled out, along with some kind of sticky clear liquid that shrivelled the hairs in one's nose, on smelling it. One time a startled frog showed up in the expelling and almost spoiled everyone's lunch. AT THE CENTRE of this dark bedtime story is a character with a unique predilection: every time Ava opens her mouth snakes come falling out...   

A LAWYER sues God, as a banker sees just how indiscreet he can be.  In another part of the world, a mother lays claim to her sovereign right over her daughter, while the lost soul searches for The One.  From the author of The Black Series, this intricate tapestry continues the study of complex human relationships ~ and the absurd  of the 'entitled'.

DEFIANT and unconventional, Princess Fartalot finds herself at the edge of the forest and sanity at the offering of doo ~ yes,that would be poo ~ in Part Two of her ongoing adventures.