About MYSELF
Colin Mayo is 58 years old and works full time in education. He is educated to degree level. Creative writing has been a key interest of his since he was a teenager and he has written a number of unpublished novels, articles, short stories, plays and poems. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Jane. They enjoy the theatre, cinema and dining out (when circumstances allow!). He also enjoys horse racing and reading.
Also By Colin A. Mayo
Deadman's Roulette, a crime thriller set in Manchester, first published in 2002, had been re-published via KDP and is now available on Amazon.
THE DEFENDANT
“Have you ever met Anne-Marie MacDonald?”
The police officer was standing in the front room of my ground floor flat; I’d not pulled the curtains across to blank out the cold, dark winter night and outside I was aware of cars passing by, their tyres splashing on the wet road and their hazy headlights refracting off the moisture. I was momentarily blinded as James’ fast-moving red Mazda MX-5 screeched to a halt on the wet gravelled parking area at the front of our large, shared house; it bathed the front room in a white halo of brilliant halogen.
“No,” I said – and that was my first mistake.
Accused of murder, Richard Turner finds himself pitted against the relentless tide of the criminal justice system. Desperate to prove his innocence he’s dragged deeper and deeper into a world from which there appears to be no escape.
“This is a book that should be read.”
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith
Author of The Dirty Dozen.
SHOCKED TO FAME
Who is the mysterious Creeper who is terrorising the good womenfolk of Knobswroth? Will Bedfordshire police ever get their man? Is Lisa-Louise Littleworth having multiple affairs behind husband, Rick’s back? And why does Rick spend so much time in their garage and come home late from evenings out?
Could P.C Max Head, with his First-Class Honours degree in English with a minor in Georgian ceramics, fulfil his dream of becoming the Wolf of Threadneedle Street or even Prime Minister!
All these questions and more – may or may not be answered – in Shocked to Fame – the only thing that’s certain is that, when Private Investigator, Amy Dick, starts looking into Lisa-Louise Littleworth’s alleged affairs, she opens up a right Royal can of germs!
Critics View “Thank you for the opportunity to read your play, which is a well-constructed and hilarious black comedy. You have successfully created a narrative that is engaging and entertaining throughout. Characters are well-developed and believable. They have well-conceived objectives that conflict cohesively and produce good drama, whilst your dialogue has an easy, natural rhythm to it.”
deadman's roulette
“The body swung. A thick rope was cast over a rafter. A chair lay on its side in a pool of dirty engine oil. The body swung. The garage smelt of petrol and staleness and death.
A trail of paraffin had seeped from the garage, polluting the crystal-like frost out on the drive. It had been this fluid that had aroused Luke’s curiosity when he had received no response to his knocks and calls.
A blurred movement, seen through the garage window, had alarmed him – he had forced the door.
Unsettled by a light breeze, the body swung. The jaw had fallen open and the eyes glared with a skull popping insanity. Those eyes, those wide-open eyes, stared out into the white, bright outdoors, to where Luke now stood. They seemed to penetrate him, to get beneath his skin and bone and into his mind. They appeared to read his colliding, confused thoughts – filled as they were with profanity and panic.”
HEN's TEETH
Colin is 56 and has been writing poetry, prose and plays since his teens. He has now decided to put some of his work into the enclosed collection which covers such diverse subjects as bereavement, illness, horse racing and unrequited love!
This is a highly accessible book which lacks the affectation and pretention which sometimes afflicts the world of poetry.
CLIENT’S REVIEW
ARTICLES
- 13 articles published by Best of British magazine – nostalgia magazine.
- Article on The Jam to be published soon.
SHORT STORIES
- 3 short stories published by Forum magazine – erotica.
- 2 short stories publication Just Seventeen and that’s life!
- A short story, Lockdown Tuesday, published by Bandit e-magazine in January. https://banditfiction.com
NOVELS
- In 2002, Deadman’s Roulette (Planetree Press) was published. It is a contemporary crime thriller set in Manchester; it has now been re-published via KDP and is available on Amazon as both a Kindle and print version.
- Colin’s first book of poetry – Hen’s Teeth – is also available on Amazon – all proceeds to Cancer Research (UK)
- A second book, entitled, ‘Extraction’ will be published later this year, again, all proceeds to Cancer Research.
