Sniggerless Boundulations

"a triumph"

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Contains the stories:

The Tunnel (173 words)

Deep Water (127 words)

Shark Fin Soup (507 words)

The Dermoid Cyst (384 words)

Mrs Jackson (644 words)

It Had To Be Done (206 words)

Granted (1034 words)

The Package (482 words)

Strings & Ribbons (131 words)

Mini Play (485 words)

Tiptoe Through The Tulips (523 words)

Poppycock (327 words)

Telfer Speck (1499 words)

Earth Mites (409 words)

Garsdale (539 words)

Audiobook sample, excerpt from Garsdale (press play)

-2:16

"The writing is crisp, clean, sharp and vivid ; it sucks you into this boundless world of layers ..."

Debut collection of short stories by indie Australian author Morgan Bell. A cross-section between dreams and reality. An examination of the horrors of life, with plenty of peering, in the form of vignettes, micro fiction, flash fiction, and short stories.

Themes include fear, time, aging, anxiety, and jealousy.

This collection of fifteen stories contains bizarre medical conditions, industrious creatures, conniving cops, killers, dead bodies, a rescue mission, homoeroticism, nonchalant students, a secret garden, and the road to hell.

Paperback, 68 Pages; Kindle Edition length, 48 Pages (estimated)

" ... there is the authorial refusal to gratify the reader's expectations, a constant urge to transcend banality at the same time as studying it and the pathos of comedy and poignancy finding expression in identical and excruciating moments. Unaffected, without warning, Bell's narratives produce a discomforting aesthetic, taking hold of the awkward and suspending that tender unease for as long as the prose can cope ... "

(R. B. Fortune-Wood)

"This collection leaves one salivating for more. Some character sketches, some longer pieces, all varied and arresting. Meticulous writing turns the reader’s thoughts down paths they would never have known existed."

(Vesna McMaster)

" ... if you are looking for emotive, almost psychological studies of the human character, a visceral perception of interaction, a written photograph of the psyche then you will like this collection as much as I did ..."

(Paul Martin - Self Publishers Showcase)

"Bell uses a distinctive narrative tone, strong dialogue and vivid imagery to paint each story with a fine tipped brush. Doing so brings the stories to life in interesting ways that have to be experienced to truly understand their complexities.Overall, this was quite an engaging bite-sized treat and was well worth the read."

(R. Coker)

"Rarely is an author able to so clearly capture and convey emotions and small slices of life in so few words, with the economy of a poet."

(Erica Lovett)

"focusing on the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, juxtaposing material prosperity and abundance on one side, with poverty and insecurity on the other"

"I began to notice a deliberate distribution of stories from the author to convey certain emotions and thoughts in an effective way. There are many layers to Sniggerless Boundulations, and it takes a critical eye to take them in properly."

(Amazon Top Reviewer)

"I even re-read a few times just to pick apart the subliminal message."

(Ann Smith)

"Similar in tone to Franny and Zooey, and other Salinger works. Very classic sensibility, with lots of quotable lines."

(Maxine Renn)

"The stories lay bear thought provoking situations, unfortunate human choices and myriad unseemly human behaviors. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely recommended for the reader that is ready to explore the rocky path and look deep into the secular modern heart, Sniggerless Boundulations gives pause and impresses."

(Danielle Camorlinga)

"The book ends with two short stories that wouldn't look out of place in a Stephen King collection"

(Michael - Goodreads)

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"a literary box of rainbow flavoured popping candy"

"Are you looking for something a little twisted and sinister? This was a fun-fast read. Fifteen short stories make up the contents that weave a crooked path. It left me feeling disturbed and unbalanced. Morgan Bell has a deeply imaginative mind, and her stories, while brief, certainly make a lasting impression."

(Tom Slick)

USA Radio Rock 92.6 The Blitz

(The Morning Brew)

-1:26

review by tom slick 92.6fm (usa)

Hell is the next suburb over

(21 January 2014)

Review by R.B. Fortune-Wood

5.0 out of 5 stars

By way of preface for the impressionistic vignettes to follow, Morgan Bell starts her collection of short stories and microfictions with `The Tunnel'--a condensed domestic drama in one scene. Rooted in an Australian postmodernity of iPhones, xenophobias, hopes and political clichés, the reader is treated to an odd assortment of quibbles resolved by pop TV references; eavesdropping on hypercondriacs; a yuppie kid's trove of unwanted shoes; neighbourly voyeurism; the truisms of hand-me-down cop wisdom, &c. all suggesting that 'Sniggerless Boundulations' is an expansive genre as much as a simple title. Like a hybrid of unfiltered reality, humanist morality play and whimsical Bizzaro.

There is great variety of content and form, encompassing the macabre twist of `It Had To Be Done', surreal comeuppance of `Tiptoe Through the Tulips' and nihilism of `Earth Mites' rendered as a joke at Gaia's expense. However, tying it together, there is the authorial refusal to gratify the reader's expectations, a constant urge to transcend banality at the same time as studying it and the pathos of comedy and poignancy finding expression in identical and excruciating moments. Unaffected, without warning, Bell's narratives produce a discomforting aesthetic, taking hold of the awkward and suspending that tender unease for as long as the prose can cope, `It was not heaven, nor was it hell.'

Short stories in a range of genres, all with emotional impact

(April 6, 2014)

Review by E. Lucas

(AMAZON TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

“Sniggerless Boundulations” is a collection of very short stories (also called flash fiction, which seems to be rising in popularity); each of the entries has some sort of emotional punch—whether the story itself makes you cringe, laugh, sorrow, or merely wonder, they’re all entertaining and evocative.

The first story, “The Tunnel,” is a loaded exchange between a man and a woman in a car, driving through a tunnel—in a handful of words, the author manages to create a relationship defined by a desire to evade conflict on the woman’s end, and a relationship tinged with annoyance on the man’s. The author continues this trend of unsettling you with a sentence in stories like “It Had to Be Done,” in which a woman turns on her immigrant lover to solve a problem, and in “The Dermoid Cyst,” in which an irritated fiancé has the (hilarious) last word on his future wife’s medical condition.

The stories also tend to deal with the worst of human nature—selfishness, loneliness, the need to be the center of attention—in succinct ways that show those traits for what they are: terrible and laughable. The most disturbing story for me was “Mrs. Jackson,” in which a teacher frantically tries to protect her classroom from shooters—her inept fear and the students’ calm acceptance of what was about to happen is a startling commentary on desensitization and violence.

Rarely is an author able to so clearly capture and convey emotions and small slices of life in so few words, with the economy of a poet. The range of themes is wide—from marriage to murder to office politics to grief—and each story is unique and memorable. Recommended to readers who enjoy the short story genre as well as those who aren’t always enthralled by it—“Sniggerless Boundulations” is something different and special.

Sniggerless Boundulations

A short-story collection from indie Australian author Morgan Bell

Subscribe To My Website

Where is the world are you from?

A short-story collection
from indie Australian author
Morgan Bell