I am an IT consultant by day and a part-time, pseudo-academic the rest of the time. I run a writing group in Liverpool, and I’m lucky enough to be a contributor to a music blog – Rock & Roll and Other Sounds. Apparently I now have a bona fide PhD, but it probably doesn’t count considering I only did it to try and prove a point. I can’t even remember what that point was now. It was something about something…
Previously, I have had some critical work on the authors Charles Bukowski and Richard Brautigan put out in academic circles – journals and stuff. I put out some fiction, Oblivious, in November 2010 – it’s a collection of twenty one short stories. The Haiku Diary – the result of a project where I kept a diary in Haiku form for each day of 2008 – followed in December. And now, finally, I’ve put out a second collection called (Slight Return) which contains twenty stories about the effect music has on the lives of ordinary people. (It also includes a sci-fi story, kind of, which is a bit of a departure for me).
There is a Spotify playlist that accompanies (Slight Return) in an attempt to be a bit more multi-media friendly…
The novel I’ve been working on for about five years is now, I’m pretty sure, officially dead. I’ve been poking it with a stick but it just doesn’t seem to want to respond anymore. Ah well. It taught me a lot about writing longer fiction even if it will never now see the light of day. Am currently messing about with a novella called Exploding Zombie Caterpillars instead. Don’t ask.
Visit my Amazon Author Page.
Or view my reviews on Amazon.
Or mooch about by using the links all over the place on this site ^>.
Or you could go somewhere else entirely by typing in a different url in the bar at the top. Honestly, do whatever you want. Don’t just listen to what I say – I’m not your dad. Unless I am, in which case Grace – go back to bed…
Twenty-Two B 
Neil
This message is personal, but I’ll put it here because I don’t have an email address for you.
I went to the British Library on Saturday as I’d said I would, and got hold of So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away. I was interrupted before I could finish it, but was most impressed. Echoes, I thought, of Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain. I suppose all American novelists echo Mark Twain one way or another. And for all the gulf between them, I thought I could hear a little of Hemingway in Brautigan’s voice, too. (There are also echoes of Coming Up for Air, but that’s surely more to do with subject than with style.) I’ll read more of Brautigan.
Have you come across http://www.orwelltoday.com? It seems a bit bizarre, with all the Gaddafi stuff. Is that meant to be there, do you think, or has someone hijacked the site? Most odd.
Good luck with Pulp Idol a week on Saturday. I’m hoping you win, just so’s I can drop your name . “Neil Schiller? Oh yes, I was one of the first to recognise him, you know . . .”
Best
Iain
Neil,
I’m contacting you because I saw you once contributed a chapter to a Richard Brautigan edited collection.
Do you happen to do scholarly work on Brautigan? I am seeking scholars to help fill out a proposed panel on any aspect of Brautigan’s work for the American Literature Association Conference
(more info here: http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/american_literature_association_2014.htm).
Also, I’m trying to start a Brautigan Society through the ALA, but, although I feel like it’s high time for Brautigan to (re)surface in lit crit, I am having some difficulty finding other scholars. On that note, if you’re not interested, do you know of anyone who would be?
Please email me: andersonwires@gmail.com