Humanism, atheism and other freedoms

Belief that isn’t based on evidence and rationality is a dangerous thing. And yet a desire for the magical, fantastic or the comforting can lead us into believing some very strange things indeed.

My new novel, Black Project, is all about the strange things people choose to believe. It centres on two characters: Dick Kennedy is the UFO reporter for a supermarket tabloid, the Weekly World Inquisitor. He’s desperate for contact with the numinous, but his intelligence just keeps getting in the way. And Kate Macmillan is an engineer working on super-secret government projects, although she has some rather dark secrets of her own.

They both come face-to-face with something strange and inexplicable. Their responses are guided as much by their desires as their intellect until, eventually, they can’t avoid facing the truth.

In the meantime, the US around them is descending into totalitarianism – masked as homeland defence and customer service – as a fundamentalist President is controlled by sinister forces.

Oh, and by the way, it’s also very funny.

Black Project is available now from WebVivant Press in print, Kindle and Apple iBooks editions. And you can read the first three chapters for free – online or as a PDF download. Find out more »

An anti-terrorism campaign by London’s police forces is exploiting the public’s paranoia in the hope of catching would-be terrorists in the act. It will also have the effect of making life even harder for press photographers. But maybe the erosion of press freedom might be seen as a bonus by the Metropolitan Police.

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