Xavier Leret

I have never been able to explain why I write. It is something that I have always done. I’m not sure if I write because I love it, because often the process is torture, not just for me but for those around me. I don’t remember choosing to write. I just wrote, not very well I might add. It was also not an easy thing for me to do, but I always approached it with a sense of discipline – actually I’m lying, I have no discipline. When I sit down to work I tend to spend a lot of time not doing anything. I call it hanging around waiting for the Big Bang. I do a lot of hanging around. The worst time is when I’ve gone to bed on a real high thinking about the next days work and where the story is going. I have amazing conversations with my characters and we drink a lot of wine. We discuss the narrative from all angles, the symbolism, the existential agenda, the resonance of meaning within the action – you name it, we talk about it. But the next morning nothing happens. All those great ideas vanished into the magic hat of my vanity. And then the doubt kicks in. Sometimes the doubt is so bad I leave stories alone for weeks on end. If I look at them – I hate them. I am inconsolable about my wretched lack of talent, overcome with self loathing. And then somehow I start again. And something amazing happens. I might trash what I wrote before – but this is liberating – OK, liberating when one has the benefit of hindsight. It took me five or six years to write Heaven Sent, nearly all the work I wrote in the first four years ended on a pyre. That wasn’t fun, all those false starts and blind alleys, though sometimes it was satisfying to edit great swathes of work in the same way that pulling a scab can feel great.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Carlo had no idea what the film was about. His attention was captivated by Daizee who was sitting beside him engrossed in the movie, twisting her short hair with her finger and spooning popcorn into her mouth. She hardly noticed him, at least that was what he thought. Every time she laughed it brought a smile to his face.

» Read the rest of this entry «

It went so well yesterday that I’m giving the novel away again. But only for one more day.

Just visit the link below quote the code and it is yours – and if you like it, please, just pass it on, its DRM free. And even if its not your cup of tea perhaps you might know someone who would appreciate it.

HEAVEN SENT by Xavier Leret

Mix together Romeo and Juliet with Bonnie and Clyde, then sprinkle it with Catcher In The Rye and you have Heaven Sent.

“an explosive, brilliant and breath taking novel”

“like Romeo and Juliet turned inside out.”

When Daizee crashes into the life of sixteen year old Carlo he veers off the good Catholic path his parents have carved for him and finds himself fighting to save a girl the rest of the world has both abandoned and abused. Caught between wreckage or redemption, Carlo soon realizes the world may not be as straight forward as he was taught and that real love takes more than a leap of faith.

”A wonderful coming-of-age story.”

“poetic, tragic, contemporary, riveting”

“a work of genius.”

Go to Smashwords & use code YN84H

p.s. Tis dark, bring a torch.

To make his point Carlo took Daizee to the top of the red-bricked Cabot Tower.

Bristol was laid out before them. To the left the Georgian buildings stood four stories tall and blended with the gray and straw rectangle cut outs of the twentieth century. Ahead of them the park gave way to the docks and the pristine business park with a paving courtyard and glass tall buildings which mirrored the hill and the bright sun in the sky and beyond that stood old converted warehouses and beyond that the city stretched out before a clear line divided it from the countryside beyond.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Will was alone, his ear to the door, the pain beyond it near splitting the wood. He heard the doctor issue orders and pushed himself away from the door as the Nurse, whose face and hands were covered in blood, dashed out of the bedroom to call for hot water. The sight of the blood made him shudder. Through the door he could see his wife lying pale and exhausted on the bed. The doctor was by her side talking, though she was barely able to listen. The whites of her eyes showed, her face contorted and then her whole body buckled in agony. Her scream wrenched the nurse back.
» Read the rest of this entry «

I was on my phone to my Toots, when this body splat and cracked on the floor beside me. Fuck I, it made me jump and I dropped my phone. It chipped the plastic a bit, but the screen was fine and Toots was still there. I said, Fuck.

What? Toots said.

Like totally fucking dead.

Who is?

Fuck I.

What?

I looked up at the sky. He like must have, I said. Fuck me.

What?

He must have. He must have. Fuck it, got to go.

Rufus, talk to me.

Got to go, Toots.

I hung up, looked at the dead kid. There was blood and brains oozing out of a crack in his head. And I thought, oh fuck it, switched the phone into camera mode, and started snapping away. I got down onto my knees to get close ups. I had to lie down to get the pics of his face, what was left of it.

» Read the rest of this entry «