Where to Read my Work
The Descent of Chloe Jackson is a work-in-progress, which means you can’t read it yet. You can’t even pre-order it (though I’ll be sure to let you know when you can!).
But you can read various sample chapters and stories. Just a few for now, but I’ll be adding to them as I get further into the book. Some will be available here on the website for everyone to read. Others will be exclusively for members of my Readers’ Club.
Free Stories Here on the Website
1900. A flagstone quarry in the Yorkshire Dales. George Calvert, youngest son of the quarry owner, is hurt, and scared. He probably deserves it
Dublin. 1907. William’s future looks bright, his engagement to Alice a formality, but a potential blackmailer has evidence of an affair that could ruin everything.
Free to Members of my Readers’ Club
It’s 1896. The dawn of the motor age. Sarah Quicke, the wilful daughter of the Rector of All Saints, Harnham, plans her escape from the weary confines of village life.
Bermondsey, South London. 1920. Demobbed from the army, Bert has got himself a cushy job as a railway porter, and his future all mapped out. But a scrap of yellow paper could change that forever.
Reviews
Obviously, I can’t share reviews of The Descent of Chloe Jackson, because it isn’t finished yet, and there are no reviews to share.
But, if you’re interested, I have gathered together some of the nicer things various professional readers have said about the draft so far…
Other Stuff
Not everything I write ends up as a chapter in the novel. And not all of it goes out under the name Paul C. Mercer.
Shout out to the South East London Writers’ Group, and their first anthology, Tomorrow’s Ashes. Ten short stories of apocalypse and rebirth, including one of mine, Ping, written under the name Paul Campbell.
Nearly a kilometre below the surface, in a physics lab built into an old salt mine, Duncan (PhD researcher, and all-round loser) makes the greatest, and quite possibly the last, scientific discovery of the age.
Paul C. Mercer 