Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song

Posts Tagged Fiction

Archive

April 15, 2022 by Simon Sweetman

Short Story: The Gladstone, 1982

The Gladstone, 1982. It was better than anything you ever saw, and most things you’ve gone on to do I can tell you that right now. For free. We were up front and the microphone hit me in the face and when I tasted the sweat of the singer it went down like the coldest […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 1982, Bands, Christchurch, Fiction, Music, NZ, Short Story, Short Story: The Gladstone 1982, Story, The Gladstone, The Gladstone 1982 ·

Archive

August 8, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

My New EBook: With You, Shortly – Little fictions

I’ve just published my new e-book. My first of pure creative writing rather than any journalism. It’s called With You, Shortly – Little fictions and is a set of short stories, some very short, flash fiction, micro-fiction, prose poems, call them what you will. Just don’t call them late for dinner. Etc. I’ve been writing my short […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged $2.99, Amazon, Book, Creative Writing, e-book, ebook, Fiction, Flash Fiction, https://linktr.ee/Simonsweetman, Kindle, Little Fictions, Micro-Fiction, My New Ebook, Prose Poems, Short, Short Short Stories, Short Stories, Shortly, Simon Sweetman, Us, With You, With You Shortly, With You Shortly - Little fictions, Writing ·

Archive

July 26, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Asking For Horror Fiction Recommendations

I’ve had horror on the brain since I was about 11 or 12 years old. That’s when I ‘cured’ myself from getting freaked out by silly, weak b-grade horror flicks. That’s when I got right into the A Nightmare On Elm Street series of movies. And a year or so after that – along with […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Asking For Horror Fiction Recommendations, Books, Dean Koontz, Edgar Alan Poe, Fiction, Horror, Horror Fiction Recommendations, HP Lovecraft, https://linktr.ee/Simonsweetman, Reading, Scary, Stephen King, Want more? Check out my Substack You can also support Off The Tracks via PressPatron ·

Archive

October 8, 2018 by Simon Sweetman

RNZ Feature: Music-related novels

I’m usually on RNZ once a month to have a chat about some new albums. But the other day I got the call up to present a Music Feature for the Afternoons show. This topic was Music-related novels – books written about music and musicians that are not biographies, not non-fiction. We played some songs and talked about […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 2pm, Afternoons, Author, Feature, Fiction, Interview, Jesse Mulligan, Lyrics, Music, Music Feuds, Music-related novels, Novel, Novella, Poems, Poetry, Radio, RNZ, RNZ Feature, RNZ Feature: Music-related novels, Wallace Chapman, Whistling, You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron ·

Archive

October 24, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

Kirsten McDougall: Tess

Tess Kirsten McDougall VUP What I liked, a great deal, about Kirsten McDougall’s first book – The Invisible Rider (a set of connected short stories, not quite a novel, not just a novella…) was the way she painted the world. All at once daring but not flashy. Taking time to shape descriptions, allowing the world […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Book, Book Review, Fiction, Kirsten McDougall: Tess, Novel, Novella, Rain, Short Stories, Tess, The Changeover, The IInvisible Rider, Victoria University Press, VUP, Writer, Writing ·

Archive

April 3, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 156 Three Years of Weeks

156 divided by 52 equals 3 It’s the longest I’ve ever held a job I did have a week off when my computer went bung about six months ago Each week I seem to be able to come up with something or it presents itself But every now and then I’ll just want to throw […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 3, 3 Year Anniversary, 3rd Anniversary, Art, Autobiography, Column, Drawing, Facebook, Fiction, Guest Blog, Guest Post, Guitar, Jon Mcleary, Manslaughter, Music, Painting, Songwriting, Spines, The Ghost of Electricity, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 156, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 156 Three Years of Weeks, The Spines, Three, Three Years of Weeks, War Stories, War Stories # 156, Weekly, Wellington, Writing ·

Archive

October 18, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

The Secret Behind Mr Dompling’s Secret: My First Music Book

Mr Dompling’s Secret was one of my favourite books when I was young. It told the story of a classical cellist, keen on Mozart. It had themes of overcoming fears, of being comfortable in your own skin – and of course there was music. Lots of music. It was my introduction to classical music – […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Archives, Blog, Blog Archives, Blog On The Tracks, Book, Children's Book, Classical Music, Diana Robinson, Didy, Fiction, History, Katy, Kids Book, Memory, Mozart, Mr Dompling, Mr Dompling's Secret, Music, Music Book, My First Music Book, Piano, Robbie, Robby, Signed Book, Story, The secret behind Mr Dompling's Secret, The secret behind Mr Dompling's Secret: My First Music Book, Violin, Writing ·

Archive

October 12, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Bill Direen: Enclosures 2

Enclosures 2 Bill Direen Percutio Bill Direen’s latest “novel” is another excursion through cross-genre literary wanderings. Here in fact is not one novel but separate instances of poetry, stories, journal entries and narrative fiction combined under the pages of a single volume. It’s a website-approach to print and publishing, the banner being the theme – […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Bill Direen, Book, Book Review, Enclosures, Enclosures 2, Experimental, Fiction, Journal, Jules, Kiwi, NZ, Poems, Poetry, Stories, Travel, William Direen ·

Archive

July 17, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Miles Ahead: Film

Miles Ahead Director: Don Cheadle Bifrost Pictures/Miles Davis Properties, LLC/Sony Pictures Classics In a boldly absurd almost blindly idiotic move Don Cheadle decides to simply invent a story for his Miles Davis impersonation. Here we have Cheadle as a more than passable Miles (not as great as some would tell you, but certainly as decent […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Biopic, Don Cheadle, Ewan McGr, Fiction, Film, Film Review, Impressionistic, Jazz, Miles Ahead, Miles Davis, Movie, Movie Review, Sony, Trumpet ·

Archive

June 20, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Writers on Mondays: July-September 2016

Once again the popular Writers on Mondays sessions by Victoria Univeristy’s International Institute of Modern Letters will take place at Wellington’s Te Papa Museum (Level 4, Te Marae) from 12.15-1.15pm on Mondays from July 11 to September 26. The sessions are free and will feature writers in conversation discussing upcoming and already published works. It’s […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 2016), Anne Kennedy, Ashleigh Young, August, Bill Nelson, Briar Grace-Smith, Can You Tolerate This?, Chris Price, Circa Theatre, Claire Orchard, Creative NZ, Creative Writing, Criticism, Drama, Essays, Fiction, Free, Hera Lindsay Bird, http://www.victoria.ac.nz/modernletters/about/events/writers-mondays, In Converastion, International Institute of Modern Letters, John Newton, July, Kirsten McDougall, Lunchtime, Lynley Edmeades, Monday, Mondays, Non-FIction, Patricia Grace, Pip Adam, Poetry, Poetry Day, PR, Press Release, Promo, September, Te Marae, Te Papa, Victoria University of Wellington, VUW, Writer Session, Writer-In-Residence, Writers, Writers on Mondays, Writers on Mondays: July-September 2016, Writing ·

Archive

May 8, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

Haruki Murakami: The Strange Library

The Strange Library Haruki Murakami Knopf Originally published in Japan in 2008 here we have the first English translation of Murakami’s novella. The Strange Library has been translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen and is supported by wonderful illustrations and design of Chip Kidd, but the real magic is in this creepy, intriguing tale – […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Book, Book Review, Chip Kidd, English, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, Japan, Japanese, Kafka, Neil Gaiman, Novella, Ted Goossen, The Strange Library, Translation, Writing ·

Archive

September 17, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Authors I Admire: #8 Tom Robbins

“’Magnificent!’ exclaimed John Paul Ziller, pronouncing the word like he was a Kansas City intellectual describing the Louvre to his sister-in-law who’d called to tell him to bring his vacation slides over some other night because she’d burned the spaghetti sauce and the baby had colic”. You can’t always be sure if Tom Robbins is […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Another Roadside Attraction, Author, Authors I Admire, Authors I Admire # 8, Authors I Admire: # 8 Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Fiction, Humour, Kinky Friedman, Kurt Vonnegut, Non-FIction, Phantom Billstickers, PJ O'Rourke, Richard Brautigan, Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins, Woody Allen, Writing ·
← Older posts

Popular

  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham
  • Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Dirt Does Dylan
  • The Way It Is With Prince
  • Sweetman Podcast: Episode 73 – Janna Lapidus Leblanc
  • R.I.P. Vangelis
  • Apparently The 30 Best Horror Films Of All Time
  • Time Casts Its Spell: When Silver Springs Became The Secret Weapon It Had Always Threatened To Be

Archives

Tags

Album Review Auckland Blog Book Book Review Chat Compilation DJ DVD DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Poetry Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spines Spotify Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl Want more? Check out my Substack You can also support Off The Tracks via PressPatron Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2022 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press