From the award winning author of ‘No Hope for Gomez!’ comes a collection of impossible tales. Permeating the cracks between the past and the present is the realm of Unspent Time; time that was allotted but never spent. This is where we find the stories that could have been true.
Read how to enter below. Excerpt

“This is not what it looks like,” he said, glancing about nervously. “And even if it was,” he added, “which it isn’t, then it still wouldn’t be. Understand?”

I shook my head.

“You think I don’t know what I’m talking about?” He tried to move a lock of hair from his face, which was odd, as he was one of the baldest people I’d seen in a long time.

“What business would it be of yours, anyway?” He shot me a defiant look. “I mean, it’s just a pen. Am I not allowed to hold a pen? If I hold a pen, then cannot I write?”

Perspiration appeared above his brow, he dabbed at it with his sleeve. “Is it perhaps the first time you’ve seen someone holding a pen? Not that I’m holding one, of course, although I can see how it may look like I am. But, see, if I was holding a pen, then what would it be to you? It’s not even your pen. If it was a pen, which it isn’t.”

His expression grew more frantic by the minute. His eyes darted about wildly as if scanning for danger. “You may not know this,” he explained, “being a year younger than I am, but, in this universe we live in, there are, well, I’ll just come right out and say it, there are things that look like pens but which, when you get right down to it, are not. Like this thing right here.” He indicated the pen he held in his right hand. “Which is not your pen and wouldn’t be yours even if it was a pen, which it isn’t.”

I let out a slow breath of air. “Are you feeling alright, Gregory?” I tried to move closer without scaring my brother back into his room, which he’d turned into a fortress of blankets and upturned furniture. “You seem a bit on edge.” I moved closer still, and touched his forehead with the back of my hand. At first he was weary, but he allowed it to happen. Something deep inside him still trusted me. But Gregory was in bad shape, worse than I had ever seen before. And he was burning up. “Did you eat? Did you sleep?”

Gregory nodded, his eyes still scanning the room as if he expected something very bad to happen any moment.

“Did you take your medication? Remember how we discussed with the doctor that you should take your medication every day?”

Gregory waved it away. “I’m fine,” he said, still perspiring profusely. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I have a lot on my mind. For some reason, I can’t shake his horrible feeling that dark forces are after my pen.” He smiled apologetically.

“Aha!” I said, slaying him with my broad sword. “I knew it was a pen!”

… continued in Unspent Time

How to enter:
For the launch of the new novel I decided to discount it to $0.99 for today (PC and eBook), give away some exclusive content, and raffle off two Kindles. All entrants will get:

Graham Parke is responsible for a number of technical publications and has recently patented a self-folding map. He has been described as both a humanitarian and a pathological liar. Convincing evidence to support either allegation has yet to be produced.

www.grahamparke.com
www.grahamparke.blogspot.com
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