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Short Story Collections Written or Edited
I have two short story collections presently in print, both published by Merilang Press in Wales, and each containing twenty-five of my stories. The first one, The Rainbow Man and Other Stories, was originally published by the small press publisher bluechrome (lower case 'b' intentional) which is no longer trading, but it was kindly re-issued, together with the newer volume The Other End of the Rainbow by Merilang, and both are now available again from Amazon, The Book Depository and all the usual on-line bookstores, or signed copies can be purchased from this website by clicking on the links provided. |
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The Other End of the Rainbow The second Rainbow Man collection containing 25 of my newest stories is now available from all on-line bookstores, or you can order your copy here and I will be happy to sign it for you. If you live in the UK and have a PayPal account please click on the button below and follow the instructions. I am charging £7 only per copy, which includes inland postage. Don't forget to include your postal address in the 'message' section of the PayPal order form.
by Jason Makansi The Short Review " Spaces don’t look so big at night. The scale of the world becomes more comfortable.…"
The Rainbow Man, a mythical story-telling gadfly, at once the court jester, town drunk, and muttering old sage, introduces each story in this artful collection, where a sense of dignity seems to permeate the space around the words, and the circus of colorful characters that speak them. We're introduced to a psychological therapist who decides you, dear reader, are his next "chat up," a strange tenant who just seems to start talking to you about how "normal" he isn't, and a man who talks to you about his comatose wife. No, wait. He's talking to his comatose wife!
Read The Short Review's Author Interview with yours truly
Here is a video clip of a reading that I did from the book at the launch event at The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, London, on 29th November 2008. |
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The Rainbow Man and Other Stories
SECOND EDITION (CONTAINING TWO EXTRA STORIES) PUBLISHED JUNE 2010 BY MERILANG PRESS at £7.99
When you've read the book please e-mail me and let me know what you think of it. |
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Reviews of The Rainbow Man (first edition, 2003)
The stories themselves are a joy. They are very much that very thing, short stories, which now tend to be disappearing in a welter of "Art".
...Gardiner has the talent to depict character successfully in few words and work that character logically in his given setting.
...He creates scenes and characters which work and which make you think.
Review by Chris Williams
You pick up this book with its charming exterior thinking you are going read a collection of equally charming short stories, seasoned perhaps with a little grit to raise it above the tame, but what you actually get are jawdropping vignettes of the sort of lives only a writer of David's calibre could relate with such vivid and at times disturbing realism and all this whilst at the same time managing to avoiding the usual, the jaded and the hackneyed to ensnare your attention. Nothing is as it seems and the more mundane the surface, the more layers there appear to be; we are talking about a true literary onion here, multi-layered and quite able to bring tears to your eyes.
Binnacle Press Book of the Month Review
...without exception all twenty-three of the stories, exploring life both familiar and unfamiliar, leave the reader with something to think about, and linger in the mind long after the final page is turned.
The Irish Emigrant
James Joyce meets Ray Bradbury in David Gardiner’s collection of tales wrapped in the imaginings of children who hear a Cassandra/Wandering Jew-type sage mutter such things as “Ye know the trouble with youse northerners, your memories is too bloody long!”
From the secretly vengeful ex-nun propitiating a religious fraud on a smugly progressive church in “Immaculata” to the lovelorn man and woman in “Blind Date,” each thinking the other is too good for them, Gardiner’s characters face the loneliness of illusion and the loneliness of truth. As the war criminal of “Letting Go” asks, “That’s all you want of me? The truth? A small thing like that?”
READ THE FULL TEXT OF ALL REVIEWS HERE
Gold Dust Magazine Solid Gold anthology Twenty-three of the best short stories to appear in Gold Dust magazine in the first five years of its existence, edited by and with an introduction from your's truly. This is one of the finest short story anthologies available in the UK, and at the ludicrous price of £6.99 plus postage from Lulu.com. Definitely not to be missed by short story lovers of all tastes and ages. Simply the cream of the cream of the last few years' new short fiction.
Personal Bests Journal
This is my latest editorial project, a series of short story anthologies in which writers submit what they regard as their "lifetime best" short stories and receive equal shares of the royalties if their story is accepted for publication. At time of writing there have been three very successful issues in the series. You will find more details, including how to submit a story, HERE.
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