To start with the good bit – my collection of poetry and prose, No Cure for Shell Shock, is available as a free download if you just click below.

No Cure for Shell Shock (PDF)

No Cure for Shell Shock is intended as the antithesis to the war story. Each part of this collection of poetry and short pieces was designed to search for those lost, silent moments which shape the human experience of conflict but which are left unmarked and uncommented on in the aftermath. Anti-war by intent the focus throughout is on the human, attempting to find the self that endures beyond comprehension and judgement.

I’ve decided to make it free, for now, because I honestly just wanted to give something away. It’s easy to get lost in the grind of writing when it’s so often overshadowed by the hyper-mercenary ‘creative industry’. You start to myopically focus all your attentions on becoming part of it, or generating enough cash to validate your work. Truth is though writing is writing, it might be tossed about and effected by the society it takes place in, but the joy of it is in the work itself, not in how it’s framed. Being able to just share something, share a set of thoughts and ideas I felt were important as I wrote them, is a nice break from that mentality and a minor rebellion against it. Plus you get a free book, so it’s nice all round.

To contradict that spirit a bit though – I’m not averse to money and I’m sure as hell not rich. So if you fancy chipping in to support my meagre lifestyle then you can also buy NCfSS as a paperback here. Or you can grab any of my other work of course. Plus you can donate with the button below, if you’re feeling overly rich and generous.

You can also support me without spending a penny by recommending or reviewing my work on your platform of choice, it’s always appreciated.

For now though- enjoy.

– Dylan

Side note: I’ve made it available as a .pdf to start with as most devices can read them without problems. Plus, given that it’s a mix of poetry and prose, it’s hard to convert it into an epub (or similar) format without messing with the structure. If you don’t care about that and just want the words then I recommend Calibre for all your file conversion needs. Also, if you’re reading it on a phone or mobile device, Aldiko is a good ereader app – like Calibre it’s free.