Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee is the name that Hollywood movie directors use when they wish to distance themselves from one of their movies.

From the Preface to The Impression of Time Passing:

I began writing The Impression of Time Passing in 2002, and I left it almost, but not quite, completed in 2003. It stayed there kicking around in the ether for the next five years. The reason? Heck, it was just way too nuts – too out there – even by my regu-lar standards.
So, there it lay for five years, abandoned and gathering dust. One day in 2008, a guy called Alan Smithee (I mean, who else) came along and read it, and liked it, and decided that he wanted to finish it. More to the point, it didn’t really fit with anything else in my portfolio and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. So we struck a deal, Alan and me: we decided that he would finish the story and have it published under his own name.
Now if that all sounds nice and easy does it, let Alan assure you: it isn’t. Getting a publishing house to keep a secret is like asking a bunch of guys who deal in distributing stories to the wider world to avoid doing so. Perhaps the word like is redun-dant in that last sentence. However, both Alan and I felt that we should put this story out there, if only as a short run. After a bot-tle and a half of JD one evening, we came up with an elegant scheme. It came to pass that I approached a small press pub-lisher over the internet and asked if I could put out a short run of Alan’s novel under his label on a no input required, no questions asked and no information given out to curious members of the public basis.
Incredibly the editor-in-chief of the publishing house agreed to take the book unseen and put it with his stock, as long as he had nothing to do with it other than to hold it in stock and dis-play it as available for purchase. So, here is a novel by an un-known author, with no helpful little snippets of reviews. The rest, as they say, is up to you.

A.S., England 2008

Titles by Alan Smithee

THE IMPRESSION OF TIME PASSING

Someone, or something, haunts the internal monologues of a group of young friends. Is it, as it claims to be, an evil spirit? Perhaps it is a shared psychotic episode; a group delusion and nothing more? Either way, its persistence and ability to spread is both puzzling and disturbing . . .

"'Peep Show' without the social skills"..."The Impression of Time Passing harmonizes then shreds the human multiplex"..."A vivid, horrifying and psychological insight which leads you to consider your own conscience" amazon.co.uk reviews

A chilling and disturbing journey which will leave you ill at ease in company. And more so when alone...

Price £5.99

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