User:James De-Vaux Balbirnie/sandbox

James De-Vaux Balbirnie

Novels By James De-Vaux Balbirnie
While still seeking professional representation to help him market and distribute his current and future works James De-Vaux Balbirnie has self-published four novels.

Indelible Scars (2006)
Indelible Scars is an amusing and sometimes shocking portrayal of the author's early twenties, during which he was suffering with severe depression. His insights into his own erratic and bizarre behaviour show the sense of humour which develops as a coping mechanism in many depressive individuals to make them intensely funny authors as well as comedians and his portrayal of the 'normal' world around him as something truly terrifying and often infuriating will hit many a nerve.

For A Few Scars More (A True Story Based on Fiction) (2006)
For A Few Scars More is, surprisingly, not a sequel. While scars seem to be on this author's mind in the naming of these first two novels this is a completely separate novel in its own right. This novel follows a road-trip in Mexico. The novel purposefully omits the agonist's (whose name is never divulged so is only ever referred to as 'Senor') past and starts as he lands at Mexico City Airport, soon after which he meets a young woman named Dionne. Their road-trip takes them from Mexico City to Acapulco, and while there is a great deal of descriptive substance about the landscape of their journey, the author makes it clear that his focus is on the emotional journey of the couple as they try to find freedom from the worlds they are running from. True to form the novel has dark twists and some truly shocking moments, but there is an overwhelming tenderness in the author's storytelling.

But Who Is Boris Steinbaker? (2009)
But Who Is Boris Steinbaker? has been described by the author of a book of two minds, and for good reason. It is an epic novel, the first half of which follows the exploits of a young man (Who is rather upset about being named Dick Head) suffering from a disconnect to reality bordering on autism and his friend, Matchsticks. The author has written the novel in his usual inimitable style of mixing dark humorous fiction with incidents which hint to the reader that the author is, perhaps, at times speaking from experience. The second half of the book delves into a darker world altogether, that of reality. Matchsticks sets out on a long holiday with his new girlfriend, leaving Dick to stew in loneliness, that is until he starts to investigate the world of twenty-first century dating. The true tragedy in this novel is that he finds what he is looking for. The second half of this novel reads as a treatise of how spiteful and truly wretched one human being can be to those around them. There is a definite tone that the author knows all too well the hopelessness of heartbreak.

The End of the Road (2013)
The End of the Road shows that James De-Vaux Balbirnie is not only still on form, but growing as a writer. He starts the novel in a manner distinctly reminiscent of For A Few Scars More, at an airport, then following a man's journey on a road-trip. Described thus you could be forgiven for thinking the author's trying to sell the same book twice, but that isn't the case at all - and to his credit he freely admits to the deja vu in the text, in fact deja vu is one of the themes in this novel. James (the agonist, not to be confused with the author, or is he?) had travelled to Seattle with the plan of visiting a curious shrine to Kurt Cobain (one of the agonist, and likely the author's heroes) and then seeing where the road takes him. Almost immediately he befriends a Turkmen ex-soldier named Ibi, and they 'hit the road' together. While the journey focuses primarily on the relationship between James and Ibi, there is more than enough room aboard James' monstrous RV for Charlie - A British art-buyer James meets at the airport, Monica - Ibi's American girlfriend, a fun-loving model and then Martin (AKA Chef), who is a genius in the field of pharmacology, not to mention his partner in crime, Sadie (The German Shepherd). In keeping with his usual style the author focuses on the relationships of those coming along rather than the journey itself, and also in keeping with his usual style, there are some very dark twists.

Upcoming Novels
It has been suggested by the author that Ibi from The End of the Road will be returning in James' forthcoming novel (currently untitled) which, judging by the subject matter (The intelligence community and terrorism) isn't likely to ease you into the darkness like his previous novels but is going to throw you into the deep end. The release date hasn't been set yet but it's on track for release early 2014.

James also has a considerable back-catalogue of poetry and has published two collections, amounting to approximately 1500 pages of his work. These collections are available from Lulu.com, a print-on-demand publishing service.