Shelf Abuse

Storytelling, comic books and self-publishing

Welcome to Shelf Abuse Books

Regardless of how you got here, welcome to Shelf Abuse Books (formally Bothersome Books), the small self-publishing imprint for the works of Essex-based writer, artist and graphic/web designer Carl Doherty.

 

My darkly comic fantasy epic Welcome to The Fold is out now, as is science fiction short To See Beyond the Skyglass. I’m currently busy working on my second novel, vegan(Vn) and an ambitious comic anthology project titled Sarfend. Both will hopefully be available in some form by the end of this year… though I say such things every damn year. Follow me to find out if this time I’ll actually deliver on my promises!

– Carl

ABOUT
Carl Doherty

Welcome to The Fold

Harvard Standt’s creator did not spend much time on him…

Blending elements of fantasy, comedy, magical realism, superhero tropes, experimental literature and British science fiction, Welcome to the Fold is a tale of one man’s love for a good story, a satire on the oversaturation of modern publishing, and an epic adventure about fictions within fictions and worlds within worlds.

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Welcome to The Fold

To See Beyond the Skyglass

Patrick was five years old when he first visited the Skyglass, a small concrete lagoon on a neglected beach, and witnessed the living shapes and colours that danced atop its murky surface. As an adult, he thinks of nothing but the images he saw reflected in the water, and the grim predicament they forecast for not only his future, but his entire world.

A homage to the early works of Ray Bradbury, To See Beyond the Skyglass is a 6,000-word short story that examines our fears of an inexorable future and the immutable ghosts of our past.

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FREE ON KOBO

Alongside my own meagre efforts, I’ve also edited and designed the first three books by my partner in life, crime and literary adventures, EJ Babb.

All three are better than anything I’ve ever written, so you might as well go check them out instead, at EJ’s site dystopic.co.uk.

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EJ BABB AMAZON BIO

vegan(Vn)

For Leonard Quirt, veganism represented a life of black and white morality, free from cognitive dissonance and banal platitudes. It also offered a chance to woo a girl far removed from his world, and a discipline that skews into something altogether more sinister when she leaves his life for good.

When Leonard decides to take action on a series of online videos depicting animal abuse, his act of violence is but the first step in a descent into madness that will see him vilified, championed and immortalised. Leonard’s mind is prime real estate for a cult, and as he becomes a volatile voice for the world’s victims, will his ethics cost him his own humanity?

vegan(Vn) is a darkly funny psychological thriller for the social media generation, an animal rights activists’ Fight Club that delves deep into the concept of monochrome thinking, a book that questions the boundaries of principles in an age of contradiction.

COMING SOON

Publishing News

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If you really enjoyed any of the books or articles on here and would like to read future Shelf Abuse titles ASAP, please consider doing at least one of the following:

  • Tell your friends about the book. Tell your family. Tell your dog. Tell the pretty girl/guy at the supermarket checkout. Just spread the word, indiscriminately.
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  • Purchase future Shelf Abuse works and, likewise, spread the word.