"Moon Beaver" was my first published novel and was published by ENC Press in May 2004. It is also available here as a $5 e-book download.
I began writing "Moon Beaver" in 1992, left it for a while, and finished it in 1999. Stylistically, it's quite different from my regular fiction. Nevertheless, I'm very proud of this novel and it gained some good reviews.
The back cover blurb stated:
"Benny Henderson works for the Company, an increasingly influential multinational organisation. In a city where the occupants embrace freedom from choice, his love for co-worker Louise is the only thing that matters.
"Enter this world one Moon Beaver, a girl with one foot in the past and the other in the future, who attempts to manipulate time by remaining in the present to achieve heartfelt immortality. A one-woman cult blending a Sixties hippy philosophy with a post-tech-boom head for business, Moon Beaver embraces hypocrisy for her own game plan and is indifferent to the consequences (so long as they work out in her favour). Embroiled in her self-perpetuating fantasy, she isolates Benny from his past, leading her bewildered disciple on a whirlwind tour of Bournemouth, Moscow, and Bangkok, drip-feeding her idealogy like Chinese water torture.
"In the meantime, Louise pieces together Moon's past from the barest of information, trying to find an angle from which she can reclaim her lover. And in American Midwest, an overweight chicken farmer mulls over the detritus of his life and lost love, while stubbornly resisting the takeover of his business by a large, familiar Company.
"Packed with wisecracks, cynicism, and naive hope, Moon Beaver examines the meaning of 'self' in a society where individuality is a commodity and wasted lives are commonplace."
I launched the book in London in May 2004, and in February 2005 flew to New York to give a reading at the Symposium bookstore. Some pictures of the New York event can be viewed here
Here are some sample reviews:
"Bottom line, if you like novels that take risks with narrative and where you don’t know what to expect from one page to the next, if you want to read books that are not afraid to tackle the big issues, but do so in a non-portentous way and with a smile on their face, then the sexy and sassy Moon Beaver may just be the girl you’re looking for." Pete Tennant, The Third Alternative
"Those with long memories may remember when certain writers of slipstream had been tagged ‘miserabalists’. There isn’t any of that old miserablism here, though serious matters are touched upon with a light hand." Rosanne Rabinowitz, LauraHird.com
"Moon Beaver is a thoroughly enjoyable ride; be sure to book your place on it." Dave Hebblethwaite, The Alien Online
"Moon Beaver" can be purchased direct from the publisher at ENC Press
