Incunabulum

by Carol McKay

The internet’s dead. The phone’s dead. Alice wakes from flu to find the world dead. Or is it?
Choosing a few special photos, she sets off in search of other survivors. Vulnerable Sara, whom she takes under her wing then lets down. The Gaffer, who fills her with disgust. Eric, affable, respectable, trustworthy. Junkie the slut. And Peej, the gaunt underclass anti-hero.
When tension ignites between Alice’s new community and the marauding ‘Bikers’, her refuge is destroyed and Peej is injured. To lie low, they go underground. Literally. But other things need resolving. There’s Alice’s drink habit. The mystery of the tiny face in her photograph. The disrobing of the real villain who damaged Sara.
And there’s one final battle if they want to survive.

Incunabulum – epic storytelling about aftermath, social and personal rebirth and a woman’s role in it.

356 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2020

About the author

Out now, my crime novel White Spirit. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it introduces DI Allan MacIntyre, a good-looking 37-year-old who has to investigate the murder of a teenage boy at the same time as a series of minor explosions. 'a thrilling story... White Spirit excels in plot. The pacing is perfect.' (Arkbound)

Want a feelgood read about life after a pandemic? Incunabulum is for you. I promise you - the characters face their share of scary fights and ordeals, but this is a positive book, fast paced and with a happy ending, and isn't that exactly what we want right now? Incunabulum is epic storytelling about new life. Try it! And let me know what you think of it.

Leela Soma interviewed me about it for her blog, and you can read it here - https://leelasoma.wordpress.com/2020/...

My fiction is informed by people and places. Many of my stories stem from experiences within my hometown but I often find myself inspired by places I've visited. Sometimes my work is classified as urban realism; sometimes it asks the reader to grapple with the misfit in us all.

My short stories have been finding publication for twenty years since I took a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow. I'm very happy to have some of the early ones made available together in an e-book called 'Ordinary Domestic' published in March 2012 by The PotHole Press.

Also available on Amazon, in e-book format and good old fashioned ink and paper, is 'As I lay me down to sleep' which is the first volume of Eileen Munro's autobiography. I co-wrote this book with Eileen after meeting her when she was a student on one of the Open University creative writing modules which I taught between 2004 to 2018.

In 2010, I was diagnosed with a health condition called Addison's disease. It's an auto-immune condition in which the body attacks and destroys the outer layers of the adrenal glands. It's a fairly rare condition, so I got in touch with fifteen other Addison's people to produce an inspirational book on the subject. We've all written about our experience of what it's like to live with this life-changing condition, and this is now available on Kindle in the e-book called 'Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease'.

Also available for Kindle - my e-book of Creative Writing Prompts to Feed the Imagination. I wrote this to answer the question I get asked most often, i.e. 'Where do you find ideas? I'd love to write but can't think of anything to write about.' This little guide gives lots of stimulating ideas for fiction, poetry and memoir writing and it also includes some straightforward advice on plotting and point of view.

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like post-apocalyptic tales this is a cracker. It’s about a world in the immediate aftermath of a pandemic. Jumping on the bandwagon? You might think so, but in fact this novel was written before the events of the last year and has proven to be remarkably prophetic. The action is kept close to a small band of survivors and stays local to Scotland which is one of its strengths as it doesn’t go all Hollywood on us. It has lots of drama but none of the melodrama that can so often spoil books in this genre. The author pulls the reader in by focusing on a few characters who are drawn as real individuals, not stereotypes. It’s a bleak story with no punches pulled as the small band of survivors battle against events and against each other. The prose is elegant and thoughtful and a delight to read. Although the setting is Scotland, the author gives the reader plenty of universal themes to think about as well as delivering an excellent read.

[Jacqueline Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic story and as lengthy as it is, the variety of obstacles and conflicts keep the reader wanting to find out what happens next. The pace is kept moving along and doesn’t drag.
Lots of excellent metaphors and imaginative descriptive writing to convey the atmosphere of such an apocalyptic event. These also conveyed well things not told or said and the emotion of traumatic internal events or external physical scenes of conflict and the locations in which they take place.

Alice is an unusual and complex protagonist with her back-story revealed little by little in her responses and reactions to events along the way. Her voice is strong and effective while keeping the informal but anxiously chatty tone and it carries the narrator role well. I liked the wry humour in Alice’s retelling of events. A great choice of first significant relationship in Alice and Sara’s meeting. It brings out the worst and then the best in Alice’s character. Great character development.

There’s also a good build-up of the relationship (real and imagined) between Alice and Peej with clever misdirection and tension about the eventual outcome.

All the main characters are or become well developed especially Sara, Peej, Eric (suitably creepy) and Lee-Ann. The more secondary characters have enough individuality to be recognised in their own roles and the interactions, tensions and conflicts between the groups are very well described; and/or very subtly conveyed.
Great read.

[Alison Fiona Mckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. The characters are vivid and three dimensional. There are no super heroes or perfect people, just ordinary folk trying to survive. I liked it a lot! Interesting discussion on "woman-ness". The story forces you to reflect on your own reactions to what happens.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!!

I do not read sci-fi, but I couldn't put this book down. Truthfully I bought it because a facebook friend was the author. It takes place during a pandemic and follows a small group of survivors. Get it....read it.... you'll love it!

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the atmosphere - cold enough to have me reach for a scarf, a sense of dislocation, and dirt beneath my fingernails - that impacted most strongly for me. Along with a cast of characters so much, and so often at odds with each other that it didn't feel like fiction.

John Wyndham's 'Chrysalids' had a huge impact on me, as did Robert Heinlein's 'Farnham's Freehold'. both of which I read back in the 1980s; I suspect this will join their ranks, despite the need for an occasional rant at Alice's subordination to 'the men' and wondering at their inexplicable reluctance to venture further afield. [It was paperback I read]

[Moira McPartlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the life of a group of survivors of a pandemic. The characters are all pretty diverse and the society they form shows a real struggle for survival. The one puzzle of the book is why they chose to remain in Hamilton.