Cafe Independence

by Sean-Paul Thomas

One day in the life of a crazy little Edinburgh cafe and its weird, wonderful and wacky customers and staff during the day of the Scottish referendum.

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2014

About the author

Scottish Author/Screenwriter.

Best Selling Kindle Author of 'The Old Man and The Princess'

A new book just out - Audrey -

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...


Sean is an author from Scotland. He is the best-selling Kindle Author of 'The Old Man and The Princess' which was recently optioned to be a major motion picture.

Sean spent most of his childhood and teenage years on the move with his Scottish and Irish army Parents growing up in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales, and England, as an army brat.

With a keen interest in both reading and writing, he was diagnosed with travel and writing bugs very early in life. Now, writing, travelling, reading, cinema, meditation, yoga and Scottish football (Supporting the mighty Hibernian for his sins) are his main passions in life.

So far Sean has 16 self-published works of fiction including his best selling kindle ebook 'My Sister and I' and 'The Old Man and The Princess'

Ask me any questions and be kept up to date about new books, and forthcoming releases by joining my Facebook and Instagram page below.


Screenwriting Accolades to date -

Winner of the Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship 2020 for his horror/thriller screenplay - Ugly Beautiful.

A finalist at the 2018 Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting competition for his road trip/fantasy/thriller screenplay 'The Old Man and The Princess.'

A finalist at Cinequest 2022 for my historical fantasy screenplay - The Pict.

A Finalist at the 2021 Bluecat Screenwriting competition for his horror/thriller screenplay - My Sister and I.

One of ten writers selected for the 2020 Nostos Screenwriting Retreat Scholarship in October for his latest Sci-Fi/Mystery screenplay - Sagarmatha

A finalist at the Filmatic Thriller Awards 2020 for his Action/Thriller screenplay - Cold Heart.

A finalist at the Filmatic TV Pilot Awards 2019 for his Action/Thriller screenplay - Cold Heart.


So far Sean has 16 self-published works of fiction including his best-selling Kindle ebooks 'My Sister and I' and 'The Old Man and The Princess'

Ask me any questions and be kept up to date about new books, and forthcoming releases by joining my Facebook and Instagram page below.

https://www.instagram.com/seanpaultho...

Reviews

[Neil Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a few pages to get into, but well worth it for the funny, snappy and razor sharp dialogue and wit throughout. The various characters (and there are a lot) are all strangely wonderful, likeable, bizarre and unique in their own little quirky ways. Even if some of their opinions on life (and Scottish Independence are a bit strong and somewhat over the top)

The whole book is set in one afternoon/evening inside a Scottish Cafe during the day of the referendum. Weird and wonderful customers come and go. The staff pretty much stay the same, even though they too have their fair share iof dilemmas and drama. The book is tongue and cheek informative without being too biased regarding the Scottish breakaway. It's Romantic. It's quirky. It's cheeky. It's sickly disgusting. (Mostly any scenes involving head Chef Brian) The language can be a bit of twisty tongue turner too if you're not that familiar with Scotland or the likes of Irvine Welsh/Alan Bissett. And there are plenty of gross out shocks, what the hell? and LOL moments scattered throughout, which keep you chuckling away. Although definitely not for the faint of heart.

Could defiantly see this as a quirky cult independent movie one day. It was very visual. My only wish was that the book was perhaps another 50 pages longer just to see what other shenanigan the group of main characters created for themselves the following day.

All in all a quick and very enjoyable read.

[Bookfrogglin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally I think that this feels a bit more like a play than a book,in my head it works better. I wanted to like it...but it reminded me of that masterchef contestant that sticks too many ingredients on a plate and then goes batshit cazy and adds strawberry sauce to the brussel sprouts. I loved the dialogue and some characters are well observed and drawn, the writer clearly has something interesting to say, it just needs paring back, and bit less strawberry sauce

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before getting to my actual review I should probably reveal that the author of this book actually directly contacted me via Goodreads saying I might like his work given my favourable reviews of Irvine Welsh's novels. I should also add that this was my first experience with self-published literature.

For this reason I am prepared to be lenient with my marking, but as I'm sure Sean-Paul himself will be reading this I feel obliged to state that you are in DESPERATE need of a proof-reader. The amount of poor grammar and spelling mistakes would be enough to give a 'regular' book a 1 or 2 star rating from me (when you have a major character called 'Brian' that you inadvertantly refer to as 'Brain', you know things are getting dire in the professionalism stakes). However, given it's self-published I'm prepared to overlook it. Other than these outright errors the writing itself is OK, a bit clunky at times with repetitive words and phrases (why is the characters' first recourse always to grin wildly?).

These practical points aside, the book does have an excellent premise and strong characters. Indeed it is a bit disappointing that this is not built upon: it ended a bit abruptly for me and the macabre twist towards the end came as a bit of surprise. Overall I was left feeling that the book was halfway between a short-story and a proper novel - there is plenty of scope to at least double the length.

So all in all, not quite there but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Stu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read in which the central ideas of Scottish independence are put forward through the many characters in a fun and intriguing way.