Avatar for Dai Lowe

Dai Lowe

not yet ranked

first registered 09.10.08

last online 442 days ago

report abuse
about me

Dai Lowe (2003-2006), from Nottingham, is a self-confessed dilettante (or, as we say in Scotland, 'waster'), living in Edinburgh, painting, writing, eating and drinking until the money runs out. In fact, until the government recognises bone-idleness as a medical condition, I'm hanging around outside the wolf's door.

PLEASE NOTE:

* I dislike the whole concept of 'swap' reads. By all means ask me to read your book, I will certainly take a look. If nothing else I am a nosey parker.

*** I dislike the new system so much, I have removed all books from my shelf and would rather you didn't put mine on yours, only to get in the way of more deserving writers.
So I'm sorry, I will not be commenting or shelving at all now. I will read for my own amusement and you are very welcome to read and even comment on mine (I'd love that but have no reason to expect it).

* I am ashamed to say I have serious problems with the format on authonomy which makes it impossible for me to read the texts here in any meaningful way. 90% of the time I can only assess if a voice or style is interesting.

* I will still look at most books I become aware of; though a fat lot of good that will do the authors. Sorry. But if you want your books published, get submitting them to real publishers and agents.

* I am prepared to look at any genre but I feel that some, like fantasy or scifi, are so far from my normal reading that I am totally unable to judge what is 'good' writing or not.

* I am no good at commenting anyway, also to my shame and, having upset one writer with a mild caveat in a good review, have decided not to do so any more. Don't tell me you have a thick skin, they all say that. Sorry. If you do have more confidence than I and still want to comment on mine, my gratitude will, like a dead kangaroo, know no bounds.


My books are here for your enjoyment (if you are undiscerning enough), not my advancement. I assume yours are there for mine. What's to swap? Sorry but I will simply ignore swap requests, just as I did when I was backing.

favourite books

I Love You from Miffy, Ulysses, A la Recherche etc, Finnegans Wake, Catch-22, Emma, Anna K

my websites

http://www.lucidity.ltd.uk     http://www.poonlop.com

HarperCollins is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Self-publish with CreateSpace

my bookshelf

info
none
none
none
none
none

my books

Fardel's Bear

 

Fardel's Bear
J D Lowe
rank 1230

Fardel's Bear

J D Lowe

graecum est: non legitur

Now complete at 136,300ww
Part I: 85,900, II: 50,400

~chunk 11 now edited. Leaving it for now.


York, 1979

— After all, life is much easier for the unpublished than the published author.
— What's the difference? asked Amanda, right on cue.
— Why, before you're published, people ask you what your book is about. Afterwards everybody tells you.
— Oh, I wish I'd said that.
— Well, sod off, Oscar, 'cause I said it first.

The last great novel of the 20th Century? Probably not.

Full text available as two .rtf files at www.lucidity.ltd.uk/bear.htm

view book 126 comments
complete
 
Little Mr Poonlop's Seventh Holiday

 

Little Mr Poonlop's Seventh Ho....
J D Lowe
rank 3295

Little Mr Poonlop's Seventh Ho....

J D Lowe

A very silly book about a nice little man trying to plan a relaxing holiday,not helped by his rather mischievous(but good-natured)author. www.poonlop.com


When Little Mr Poonlop decided it was time he had a holiday it all seemed so simple …
But it wasn’t …
First we had to decide how many holidays he’d been on before ~ and that was before he started looking at the brochures and visiting travel agents, which only confused him. Eventually, in a rather odd way, he got somewhere. Where? That would be telling. See if you can guess from this excerpt …
--On the river bank Mr Poonlop could see many people walking along holding hands. A young man on a bridge showed Mr Poonlop a box of hands and asked him if he'd like to buy one to hold. Mr Poonlop said 'no, thank you.' He told me he thought that was a very sick joke, so I crossed it out.
Not very helpful, was it? You'll just have to read the book.

--Just then,Mr Poonlop heard a rumbling sound, getting louder and louder. Abdul pointed to a cloud of dust which was rushing towards them across the sand. “Camels!” he shouted. “Stampede!”

“Wait a minute,” said Mr Poonlop; “that doesn’t happen in the book.” “I know,” I said. “But they don’t.” You do now.

view book 302 comments
complete
 
Knights in the Gardens of Spayne

 

Knights in the Gardens of Spay....
Dai Lowe
rank 5451

Knights in the Gardens of Spay....

Dai Lowe

What happens when a football team reduced to playing in people's gardens when they're out, gets drawn against Man Utd at home in the Cup?


The once (almost) mighty Wanderers now play for fun and anywhere they can ~ and that's usually Mr Snodgrass's back garden when he's out. Even when an administrative error puts them in the FA Cup, they think it'll mean only a laugh and a quick exit. But flukes can sometimes lead us deeper into trouble ... Meanwhile, local Lothario, Jeremy Jardine sets his lascivious sights on a high-powered consultant, sent to put Wyberton, Spayne and Spigwell on the world map (once she can find it on an English one). She wants to make the area famous, he just wants to make her. For once, he seems to have met his match. For once, Mrs Jardine suspects something. Just a rather silly story of country folk, it should come to a satisfyingly silly but rounded conclusion. No Spayne Wanderers will not win the FACup but will Jardine 'FACup' his marriage? For now, Part I (General Life) is up plus a synopsis plus some old blogs about shelves. Enjoy.

view book 33 comments
incomplete
 
The Cleobury Quartet

 

The Cleobury Quartet
Dai Lowe
rank 5451

The Cleobury Quartet

Dai Lowe

Stuck in the pouring rain on a windswept hill, what tales, what memories are those?


Four men gather in the Shropshire Hills for a walking and drinking weekend. But the weather suddenly changes and they are stuck in their host's isolated cottage with nothing better to do than tell tall tales. But as their stories unfold it seems that each is concealing a dark secret, some misdeed they have tried to forget ~ and seem to have got away with.

But have they?

A complete Novella at just under 9,500 words, with a few notes added to make up the ten k.

Also available as an rtf file at www.lucidity.ltd.uk/Cleobury.rtf

view book 20 comments
complete
 
Tortillas de Camarones

 

Tortillas de Camarones
Dai Lowe
rank 5451

Tortillas de Camarones

Dai Lowe

Collected blogs of a broken-hearted Brit in Spainland

illustrated versions at www.lucidity.ltd.uk/camarone/home.htm


In 2000 I went to live in Cádiz, Spainland, where I became known as el inglé' loco. As the inhabitants of that city are known for collective insanity, I assume that means I am normal.

Then again an Irish visitor said to me ~ "I overheard you talking and I thought, 'that guy will know where to get the best drugs'. Then I listened some more and thought, 'no ~ that guy's brain is already in the state the rest of us have to pay good money to achieve!' But do you know where ...?"

So, though I didn't know they were called blogs back then, these are mine. Illustrated versions available on my site.

Warning ~ they do take a flexible attitude to so-called reality.

view book 34 comments
complete
 

my friends

view all

leave me a message

click here to leave a message

latest

ndaye wrote 230 days ago

(rafica_4ndaye@yahoo.com) My name is rafica i saw your profile toda....

B. Worm wrote 305 days ago

Good old Dai. Missed. Not forgotten.

Favourlove wrote 357 days ago

Complements of the day to you. I am Favour how are you, hope you a....

Dilettante wrote 396 days ago

Hello Dai Lowe, Some people seem to think (or hope?) I am you. As I'....

j.l. wood-miller wrote 399 days ago

Hello Mr. Lowe: "An Unfinished Innocence" explores adulterous alco....

view all

my comments

latest

I wrote 585 days ago

I really hope you don't recast this as YA. I see the YA phenomenon as a major signifier of much that is wrong with our culture today and I'd hate to see it devouring all that is right, snuffing out the lights of originality wherever it finds them and turning them into more adolescent pabulum to f... view book

I wrote 626 days ago

I don't do comments but I must say that the previous one is way out. Unless you've changed it, you are not switching tenses, as far as I can see. That the dialogue is in present tense but you are reporting it in past seems perfectly normal to me. view book

I wrote 687 days ago

Gosh; thank you! Welcome to the select band of Poonlop backers! view book

I wrote 800 days ago

Ooh, thank you, Cully! Yes, I have always had a problem with books in which authors are the main protagonists; though I do believe writers should write largely about the milieu they know, they should bear in mind their readers mainly don't ~ so I sort of compromised by writing about a not-very-go... view book

I wrote 909 days ago

Ah right. Well, yes, I am one of the people who sees the 'Wake' for the hilariously funny, evocative and moving work of genius that it is. The intellectual 'trickery' is always at the service of the underlying effects. I guess I was fortunate in that I read Joyce before anyone told me he was suppose... view book

view all