Radgepacket Online
Bringing you Radgies and Renegades since 2008...
You can stick ya chick lit...!
Stephen Cooper
Stephen is originally from Co Down and has lived abroad for over ten years, settling in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has a dog called Seamus who is a she, {not a bitch as some would say}, and he enjoys drinking beer to dull the pain of supporting Newcastle United since a boy, blaming this solely for his weird and wonderful insanity.
Stephen, we know how you feel son!
A Huge Mistake
Clueless
A Ride's A Ride
King of The Toilet
Gareth Mews
Gareth is a perpetually travelling, piss taking, self parodying, film geek and cricket fanatic.
He’s a proper Northern bloke who’s rarely serious and never 100% joking. He writes about a world that makes him laugh and despair in equal measure. A chemically fuelled past has injected him with inspiration but robbed him of brain cells. In fact bollocks to Frank, talk to him.
Smoking Kippers
Nick Quantrill
Nick Quantrill lives and works in Hull (never mind eh...). When not worrying about the fortunes of Hull City AFC or where his next coffee's coming from. His novel 'Broken Dreams', will be published soon by Caffeine Nights Publishing.
Ticket to Ride
Sucker Punch
Merry Xmas, Here's A Present
Side Orders
Craig Douglas
Craig has been writing sporadically since he was sixteen. When he got sick of being a long haired student at Peterlee College he joined the Army and embarked on a ten year drinking spree. With his liver and kidneys just barely functioning he likes nothing more than going to Afghanistan and Iraq. When at home he assumes the role of husband and dartboard to a Russian - make sure she doesn't get you in the 'bullseye' Dougy.....
Bad Karma
Opportunity Knocks
Poetic Justice
Flesh and Blood
Masturbators and Charlatans
Predators
Gary Lashmar
Gary's purpose in life is to reduce the vast amount of nonsense in his brain by writing it down and bribing his friends and family to read it. He has written stacks of short stories, most of which were lost when his last computer exploded. He also runs an Event Video Production Business and isn't like either of the Mitchell brothers!
Dog
Keith Gingell
Keith is a young bloke in an old man's body. He wishes it was the other way round(don't we all mate!) After too many years writing fiction (better known as sales literature) and technical presentations, he decided to try writing decent fictional literature and poetry. He’s been at it (writing that is - steady now!) for about two and a half years and has had a few poems published.
The Buzz
Jon Tait
Jon has been a joiner, builders’ labourer, plumbers’ mate, bakery packer, UPS package handler, Royal Mail postman, a sportswriter, racing tipster and was the press officer at defunct Scottish soccer club Gretna. He now lives in Cumbria with his wife Sally and cats Giuseppe and Arcamone and has written two football books and a prose poetry collection.
He most enjoyed the racing tipster job as he got to do overtime waxing John McCriricks Sideburns.
The Island
Sarah Goldwell
Sarah Goldwell is a mother of three grown up children who likes to write in between working and socialising with friends. Sounds good to us...well apart from the working bit anyway! This was the winner in a recent short story competition and we're sure it won't be the last either.
Taking Yourself In Hand
AJ Kirby
A.J (or Andy to his mates) started to write seriously after just losing out on winning a cash prize on a TV game show, despite being told the answers beforehand… What they say about your mind going blank when you’re in front of the TV cameras and sweating because of the lights really is true.He’s been featured in a wide number of publications and was runner-up in the 2008 Huddersfield Literature Festival creative writing competition. He lives in Leeds with his girlfriend and incredibly noisy cat, Eric.
Politicking
Harry Steel
Harry is a plasterer by trade and has always wanted to write. Well you've certainly come to the 'write' place kidda!
I'll get me coat...
Barbara Comiskey
Barbara is a northern 'grannie' and now mature student just finishing a Creative Writing MA at Tesside University. She grew up in Liverpool in the sixties and has worked in North Africa and Australia. She writes poetry and short stories that show how big events affect ordinary people. Word of advice boys....never, ever mess with a 'Northern Grannie'.
Dirt Under the Nails
Gary Robins
Gary has a degree in English as a mature student after a lifetime in heavy engineering and has had a book on prefabs published together with a play about allotments ( Bitter Harvest) performed at a literature festival. He is currently working on a collection of short stories and has pieces due to be published by Leaf Books, and in The Raconteur magazine.
Jesus.....how much energy has he got? I'm knackered just reading that !
Showbiz
William Diamond
William Diamond exists in every mind in the country. He is brash, loveable, untrustworthy and a bit of a pain the arse to be honest. He is your worst neighbour and your best mate. He likes all things wrong and excels at breaking the rules. But hey, he's a Gateshead lad so who fucking cares.
Danny Hill
Danny has been writing short stories for years, collaborated with different artists and held exhibitions in Stoke. He also writes for an online music journal - stokesounds.co.uk. He discovered Byker Books by accident and on reading our ethos immediately thought to himself: 'this is a bunch of people I want to be involved with.' Nutter.
Sneyd Green Karaoke Queen
The Couple Next Door
Chris Carr
Chris is married with seven kids. They’re not all his, four are grandkids but the amount of time they’re in his house he has to count them. He's from Liverpool. Some people know it as the Capital of Culture but when he was charged £11.75 for a double vodka red-bull and a pint of Guinness he renamed it the Culture of Capitalists. He writes comedy, loves 'Viz' and has written a comedy novel about grave robbing called 'The Stash'.
The Sphinxter
Alan Donaghue
We're not big on poetry as a rule but this is more of an 'anti-poem' and we liked it's anarchic nature (we're from the North - where we do what we want!)
Alan has written and edited much non-fiction and produced this piece as a riposte to a 'professor of creative writing' pontificating that ‘above’ and ‘dove’ just about exhausted the stock of rhymes for ‘love’. Red rag to a bull and he shoehorned sixteen into this epic tale of passion, tragedy and happy ending.
Good work fella.
A Modern Betrothal
Elaine Harris
Elaine has been writing for several years but has only recently started submitting work to magazines and websites and has also been 'honourably mentioned' in the odd poetry competition. She has never thrown green custard at a politician. Shame.
The Box and the Social Conscience
Nik Jones
Nik is a Geordie lad who's debut novel '9987' has recently been released by Tonto Books
and he's set for world domination anyday now - remember us kidda eh!
Cock Rot Apocalypse
Barrie Darke
Barrie has been writing for a good few years now. He's had some plays, long and short, performed in his locale and is currently working on a couple of BBC projects - one for the theatre, one for radio (we're talking a proper writer here kids - see how we look after you). He's had short stories published here and there and sends out a new novel every three years or so to agents. He has never been on Big Brother.
The Wrecking Company
An Estate Idyll
Caroline England
Not well known for her pyrotechnics, Caroline’s had some stuff published in magazines - Transmission, Parameter, Pipeline, Chimera, Lamport Court, Peace and Freedom Press, nr1, This Zine Will Change Your Life, Recusant, Succour, Pen Pusher, Positive Words, Twisted Tongue, The Text, White Chimney and The Ugly Tree - not done much at all really has she?
She is currently working on a novel.
Invisible
Rebecca Barrow
Rebecca has studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and is currently working on a quintet of novels about inner city vampire gangsters. She managed to escape the urban sprawl of Solent City, and now lives in South Norfolk, where they shoot things with feathers rather than things with National Insurance numbers.
Yellow Diamonds
Nick Boldock
Nick first appeared in 'Radgepacket 1' - if you read it then you'll know that he's good (if not a little twisted) if you didn't read it (more fool you!) then here's one of his little festive offerings. By the way he's from Hull - so don't expect this to fill you with warm feelings or owt...!
Christmas Past
Phil Clark
Phil was born in Leicester and currently lives in Manchester. He writes of magical/imaginary realism and also general stuff about things that get on his wick. Some of his writing to date has appeared in various online and print publications including Geeek, Fissure and Bad Marmalade. Bit of a nutter then really.
The day to day allegiance of love and Hate
Sean Burn
Sean is a writer, performer & outsider artist with a growing international reputation. His work includes nine plays commissioned/performed; two full-length collections of his writing and a third in the pipeline with a brilliant title – ‘they say the fuchsias bright’ – He’s also a proper Byker lad so don’t give him any cheek!
Melibee Street Takeaway
Glyn James
Glyn lives in Stoke and supports Stoke City FC. In an entirely unrelated fact he travels overseas for a living...mind you if I had to watch Stoke every week I'd get out of the country as often as I could as well. This is funny, read it.
An Even Greater Surprise
Pauline Masurel
Pauline is a writer and gardener who lives in the South West. She's into rope bondage, fire juggling and extreme punctuation. And that's just on school nights. Don't ask what she gets up to at weekends. Instead, check out www.unfurling.net for details of her short and even shorter fiction
The Baby and the Bath Water
Fiona Glass
This story was shortlisted for the 2008 Lambda Award and originally published by 'The Haworth Press' but we thought it was good enough for another airing and what we say goes!
Fiona has been published many times in various forms (print, e-books and online) and specialises in 'twist in the tail' stories. She has also lived in both Birmingham and Liverpool for many years so if you ever have to ring her about anything you'd best use a translator...
Any Means Neccessary
Emma Lee
After a knee injury forced Emma Lee to give up an ice-skating career that in any case was only destined for the chorus line of ‘Holiday on Ice’, she turned her attention to writing. Many of her short stories and poems have been published in magazines and anthologies. Her full length poetry collection is ‘Yellow Torchlight at the Blues’ (Original Plus).
'Ice' work Emma...I'll get me coat!
Football and Flames
Andy Rivers
Andy is an exiled Geordie currently working on his third novel while his first two, 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' and 'Special', bounce around the desks of publishers and agents looking for a good home. Living in the south however, hasn't managed to shield him from the sheer misery of following Newcastle United as he still trails around the country being disappointed by them and writes regular columns on their (mis)fortunes in the North East based football magazine Players Inc. He thinks, given time, he could become a cult...we think he's not far off being one now.
The Invisible Man
Glenn Upsall
Glenn is a Dental Technician by day and a Screenwriter by night. He is also the Chairman of the ‘South Shields Writers’ Circle.’
He has had a couple of short Plays performed on stage, and been published in a couple of local Anthologies. His debut Script, Fat Of The Land, was runner-up in the Northern, Film & Media’s Writers’ Bursary Scheme 2007, and will be soiling the desks of Agents/Producers around the country very soon.
All he asks from his writing is a ‘hill top house,’ ’15 cars,’ and ‘his own star on Hollywood Boulevard’ – Hang on….That’s a Rockstar, isn’t it!!???
Darrell Irving
Darrell is yet another Geordie. He has recently finished his first novel 'On the March', which has been likened to 'Virgin Soldiers for the chemical generation' and in order to keep his spirits up whilst he is rejected in favour of whichever stupid twat wins Big Brother this year he wrote this short story. We like it - hope you do too.
The Nature of the Business
Jan Carr
Jan is a mum of four, wife of one and harassed community worker at the bottom of the country. In fact she’s getting on for as far South as you can get – nightmare! She’s also a wannabe writer of kids books, two thirds of the way through editing number one and sometime author of bits of fluff like the below.
Tangerine Tide
Kate Winser
Kate is a shockingly young thirty seven years of age and a struggling writer dreaming of recognition and the credit she deserves. She loves eating, reading, writing and drinking. In no particular order. One day she would love to win an Olympic Gold medal in an event yet to be established. She lives in Portsmouth and always has done, a place she loves and hates in equal measure. Above all, she hopes you enjoy her story.
A load of Rubbish
Anne Ayres
Anne was born in County Durham but has been slipping south ever since. She came to writing late. While waiting for an acupuncture appointment she picked up a flyer for a writing course and was hooked; She writes short stories and poetry and her work has appeared in “Digitally Organic”, “Shoogle Tide” and “Survival Guides” all published by Earlyworks Press.
In a Box
One Small Step
Cain Michaels
Cain is a teacher married to a gorgeous girl from the USA and has a teenage son. He has thus far written four children's novels and is working on the fifth, however, this is the first short story he has ever written. You never know, if you're nice to him he might write another one...
Life and Soul
Tom Arnold
Tom lives in Chester with a two year old puke machine and his wife - he works as a SAP Guru (it's an IT thing apparently - bet he couldn't bloody fix this!!) for a big Oil company. He mainly visits the zoo in his spare time and changes nappies. In the remaining 3 seconds left after the puke monster goes to bed - he writes and recently completed his fourth novel.
Life in Passing
Mark Hibberd
Mark is a forty year old single-parent who lives in The Midlands. He has been an employee of the Civil Service since 1992, before that he was educated at Coleg Harlech, N.Wales and is currently studying for two Degrees with the OU. (We imagine he fits his studying in when he's on strike..ho hum) he has just completed his first novel, 'Jeremy and the Summer of Stalking', from which 'Shopping' is extracted. He hopes that you enjoy it.
Shopping
Ragna Brent
Ragna Brent thinks it's a miracle that she manages to construct a sentence. As a wife and busy mum of six, in her early forties, and still coming to terms with being made a granddmother by her eldest daughter, she lives the majority of the time in chaos. When she's not writing, or reading, she can be found on Facebook networking, or struggling around the roundabouts in her hometown of Milton Keynes. She has never tried to milk a concrete cow.
The Legacy
Mr. Mum
Rod Glenn
Rod is a published author who is currently working on his third novel - he will be appearing on our interview page very soon and there may well be some kind of competition in the offing (hint, hint). He used to be a personal bodyguard and is, frankly, fucking rock.
The Pit and the Pilot
Lorna Windham
Lorna is a teacher. She writes and performs. Her main claims to fame are that she came in the top 22 out of 2000 with her unpublished novel ‘Toby’s Secret’ in the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction competition in 2008 and she recently won this years 'North Tyneside Short Story competition'. She can also eat three Shredded Wheat so stick that in your pipe and smoke it Botham.
The First Bite
Something I said?
No Escape
Footnote
Lorna has had some good news recently. Two of her short stories, 'No Escape' and 'Spirit of the Age' have been selected as the first to be broadcast on hospital radio across the region and she received an honourable mention in their Culloden Battlefield creative writing competition 'Hidden Stories' resulting in her being published on their website under the pseudonym, Lorna Murray.
John N Price
John is building up an impressive little collection on the site (see competition winners for another story!) some of which are adapted from his, as yet unpublished, novel. He is also the world champion at throwing eggs at fat politicians - well done John.
That Night in the Kitchen
Freak Wave
A Bitter Frost
A Charitable Ending
Patrick Belshaw
Some days Patrick can scarcely remember his own name, so it is sometimes good for him to be reminded that he has a PhD (Newcastle), is the author of ‘A Kind of Private Magic’, a group biography featuring E.M. Forster, and has had short stories published in several anthologies. Don't worry Pat - we'll remind you kidda...
The Dispatch Worker
The Sixteenth Floor
A Darker shade of Night
Barry Stone
Barry has had various bits of work produced on stage, on Radio Four and on the BBC. He's originally from Kent and he's brilliant at fixing cars. Therefore, if he ever moves into the gangster business, he will obviously be known as the 'The Facking Mechanic'. Discuss.
The Event of the Nose
Paul Crowe
Paul Crowe. Born 1964. Discovered Jane Russell, Alan Hull, Ernest Hemingway, Alan Plater and Lager aged 15. never looked back.
Arthur Dooney tries again
Danny is a published author (he's been published a fucking lot actually...) who has kindly donated a previously unseen extract from one of his books 'The Burglar Diaries' to this crackpot little site. We aren't embarrassed to claim him as one of our favourite authors anyway but this act, as well as the interview he did for us has raised him from mere 'Canny good author him like' to 'All round good bloke and friend of Radgepacket'.
Impressed now aren't you.
Darrell Irving
Story number two from Darrell (see further down the page) he's still unpublished and still deeply apathetic about it.
John Irvine
John is an old age pensioner in New Zealand with delusions of immortal failure and a cynical view of life. He has a mole under his left arm, and a wife who hates pizza and tripe. He hopes to die painlessly one day without warning, and with a minimum of leakage.
Hark the Herald Angels sing
Cathy Edmunds
Bishop Auckland musician Catherine Edmunds recently re-invented herself as a novelist/poet and illustrator. Publications in 2008 include her solo poetry collection “wormwood, earth and honey” (Circaidy Gregory Press) and illustrations for Daniel Abelman’s “Allakazzam!” (Bewrite Books).
Jan Harris
Jan writes about USB gadgets and camera phones by day, and writes short stories and poems by night, so she spends most of her life shackled to a computer. Occasionally she ventures outside to observe the people who have a life. Her stories and poems have been published in various e-zines and anthologies.
Darrell Irving
Darrell is yet another Geordie. He has recently finished his first novel 'On the March', which has been likened to 'Virgin Soldiers for the chemical generation' and in order to keep his spirits up whilst he is rejected in favour of whichever stupid twat wins Big Brother this year he wrote this short story. We like it - hope you do too.
Polmont Docherty
Polmont, as you've all blatantly guessed by now is a pseudonym, we also worked out it was a definite nod in the direction of one of our heroes so that was cool. This piece of work is actually a play rather than a short story but we liked it so much that we decided to include it in the Radgepacket showcase. Basically this is because we do what we want and if you impress us then you're in.
Glenn Upsall
Glenn is a Dental Technician by day and a Screenwriter by night. He is also the Chairman of the ‘South Shields Writers’ Circle.’
He has had a couple of short Plays performed on stage, and been published in a couple of local Anthologies. His debut Script, Fat Of The Land, was runner-up in the Northern, Film & Media’s Writers’ Bursary Scheme 2007, and will be soiling the desks of Agents/Producers around the country very soon.
All he asks from his writing is a ‘hill top house,’ ’15 cars,’ and ‘his own star on Hollywood Boulevard’ – Hang on….That’s a Rockstar, isn’t it!!???