Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    These Are the Dog Days
    These Are the Dog Days
    These Are the Dog Days
    Ebook49 pages52 minutes

    These Are the Dog Days

    By Chris Norgate

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Good day dear reader.
    If you delve further into these pages then I warn you now you'll really wish you'd read something else. Somethings, once read, cannot be unread.
    Still reading? Well, if you weren't you wouldn't be the inquisitive soul I took you for. So, as we both know that more will be read I guess I'd better be straight with you. All things recorded within these pages are real. They may not fully tie up with any news coverage or accepted history but they are what I saw and what I heard and in my heart, I know my words to be true.
    There are Others that walk among us in what we like to believe in our ignorance as our world. It is their world and has been for longer than we stopped swinging in trees. They do not all hide, you probably know some of them, have been taught by some of them or have sat next to them on the train. They most definitely pass you by as you walk without you realising they are so close they could reach out and touch you. I on the other hand do know they're there. I hear their presence, I hear their strength and their emotion flowing out of them as if the very air knows they are different. The aura-sonus, the sound of the heavens... or maybe not.
    My name is Valentine Orphanet, I’m 19 and this is my diary. When you've finished with it please return to Mr Xanthic's antique and book shop. If you can.
    Safe night.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChris Norgate
    Release dateFeb 8, 2018
    ISBN9781370048304
    These Are the Dog Days
    Author

    Chris Norgate

    Chris Norgate lives in Hampshire in England with his wife, children and small furry rodent like things and spends most his time playing with them or mucking them out - you decide which.Why write a book? After years of struggling with the written word dating back many years to being labelled at school (by a teacher who was too scared to call him thick) Chris has tried to find ways to not read or write. After having to write more reports for work and driving the automatic spell checker into meltdown, he sat down to make a list of the top ten misspelled words he makes......this soon turned into well over 100. So with a blogging site set up to try and get a short paragraph or two to constantly write words until spelt correct he started the diary; it was originally about his life and was as boring as a firework party under the sea, so he added things to make it more interesting. When comments on the blog started coming in that the girl character was very interesting - which surprised him as he was writing about himself, Chris changed 'her' into Valentine as it was the 13th Feb when he was looking for a name and it seemed a good one to go on with. And there it is, 17 months later a book has been created and now its been unleashed onto the world until Chris is paid an extortionate amount of money to take it away and smash the hard-drive its saved on.If Chris ever finds the courage to write another book he promises to try and put a plot into it.

    Read more from Chris Norgate

    Related to These Are the Dog Days

    Related ebooks

    Humor & Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Price of Moving On

      Aug 10, 2024

      Content Disclosure: Mild Violence, Supernatural Themes The river had a proper name at one point, but that name moved on, perhaps over the Ferry toward the supposedly greener pastures of its opposite banks, just like everyone else in this damned unrea

      18 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Nose For Trouble

      Apr 12, 2022

      A Nose For Trouble
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Haunted

      Sep 27, 2023

      Haunted
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sam Delaney Is At Home

      May 27, 2024

      It would be very easy for me to withdraw completely from the outside world and just become a hermit. I’m halfway there already: I work mostly from a shed in my back garden, dressed all day in elasticated leisure wear. I venture out only to walk the d

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Clandestine

      Jan 10, 2022

      It was 1980 and I was nineteen, barely into what my mother quaintly referred to as the Prime of My Life. From what I’d learned up to that questionable apogee, there will never be enough time before bony-fingered Decrepitude sinks her yellowed nails i

      12 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Year Of The Rat

      Nov 24, 2020

      Year Of The Rat
      11 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      The Way Things TURN OUT

      Jun 3, 2020

      The Way Things TURN OUT
      7 min read

    • Article

      Blood And Water

      Nov 3, 2022

      Blood And Water
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      Pulling Up Azaleas

      Jan 10, 2023

      Throughout their lives, women are showered with bouquets of roses on numerous splendid occasions. But men? They’re only given flowers at their funeral. It’s a harsh world for men, as our lives tend to go unappreciated until death. Such was the case a

      22 min read

    • Article

      The Gnome

      Oct 1, 2019

      The Gnome
      5 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      My lost WEEKEND

      Jan 15, 2020

      “A hush has descended over Dear Towers. The sounds of a man attempting to play Snooker Loopy by Chas & Dave on the piano are entirely absent. Neither is there anybody practising – if that’s the right word – My Old Man Said Follow the Van on the ukule

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Do-Over Romance

      Aug 5, 2024

      A Do-Over Romance
      7 min read

    • Article

      My Twin

      Jul 12, 2024

      My Twin
      28 min read

    • Article

      The Change

      Aug 8, 2019

      The Change
      10 min read

    • Article

      Season Of Goodwill? (You Might Need It)

      Nov 8, 2023

      CHRISTMAS is on the way and those of us with parrots have a lot extra to decide in the way of activities, extra food, presents, guests and so on. My first two parrots, the African greys Artha and Casper, taught me far more than I taught them. Althoug

      4 min read

    • Article

      The ARRANGEMENT

      Aug 26, 2020

      The ARRANGEMENT
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Problem with My Dachshund

      Dec 11, 2019

      The Problem with My Dachshund
      10 min read

    • Article

      What Is a Dog?

      Mar 5, 2018

      What Is a Dog?
      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for These Are the Dog Days

    4/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A fun short story of double and double cross.

      I found this on my friends kobo reader and started on page 3 (I quickly went back to page 1). This isn't a long story, too short even for a novella yet there's something of familiar feel to the characters not often brought through in short stories. But more on that later.

      This is a tale filled with confidence, confidence tricks to be exact and how the characters progress after them. It's not just a con and go, as with many like this, but a family approach that goes deeper.
      At first I thought it was a basic Father figure solves the day affair yet again there's more. It's written from the perspective of Valentine, a witch if you go on information in the title, but I saw little of this here. She has a diary where she records her daily events, so even though this is a story led by others we see it through Valentie's eyes and through her sensibilities. What transpires is a lesson in trust and what you can do if that trust is broken; if you have a friend as confident and capable as Mr Xanthic.

      Who is Mr Xanthic, and where does he get his confidence? That's not explained here. In honesty I've now downloaded one other short story called Play with me and a novel that I believe is the start of it, for Valentine at least. But more on these once I've read them.

      This is a fun and entertaining yaunt that will brighten any meandering afternoon. It's upbeat and reassuring. I liked it.

    Book preview

    These Are the Dog Days - Chris Norgate

    Copyright © 2018 by Chris Norgate

    All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

    may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

    without the express written permission of the author and publisher

    except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

    The right of the author to be identified as the author has been

    asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design

    and Patents Act 1988

    Printed in the United Kingdom

    Mr Xanthic has reminded me to state that all characters within these

    Pages are fictional, even him.

    Diary of Valentine Orphanet – Witch.

    These are the dog days

    Good day dear reader.

    If you delve further into these pages then I warn you now you'll really wish you'd read something else. Somethings, once read, cannot be unread.

    Still reading? Well, if you weren't you wouldn't be the inquisitive soul I took you for. So, as we both know that more will be read I guess I'd better be straight with you. All things recorded within these pages are real. They may not fully tie up with any news coverage or accepted history but they are what I saw and what I heard and in my heart, I know my words to be true.

    There are Others that walk among us in what we like to believe in our ignorance as our world. It is their world and has been for longer than we stopped swinging in trees. They do not all hide, you probably know some of them, have been taught by some of them or have sat next to them on the train. They most definitely pass you by as you walk without you realising they are so close they could reach out and touch you. I on the other hand do know they're there. I hear their presence, I hear their strength and their emotion flowing out of them as if the very air knows they are different. The aura-sonus, the sound of the heavens… or maybe not.

    My name is Valentine Orphanet, I’m 19 and this is my diary. When you've finished with it please return to Mr Xanthic's antique and book shop. If you can.

    Safe night.

    Tuesday 13th February

    08:00

    Whilst packing my case to return to Xanthic’s country estate to continue my studies in my craft, I received a text so cryptic I had no choice but to abandon my plans and return to the small antique and rare book shop in town.

    OMG SHOP STK! COME QWIK

    I knew Xanthic was local, he would have been my first choice to call when trouble walks by, so I felt a mixture of pride and confusion to be contacted instead of him. I quickly changed my long heavy skirt for a pair of jeans, jumped on my old bone cruncher of a bike and sped off through the Wintry afternoon sleet.

    My employer was the owner of the place we called the dust farm but the customers knew as Mr Xanthic’s Antiques and Books. It is a place where anything could be bought or sold if the price was right and most of the trading done there was in information. As Mr Xanthic, to the customers at least, always said, Information is the grease that lubricates the world. Without it you run dry and seize up, you can never have too much and the Tax man can never see its value. My duties often involved gaining as much information as I could from the streets and the small collections of unnatural creatures that forge an existence there. I say unnatural but the longer I work for Xanthic the more I think it is us that do not really belong on this world.

    The ride to the shop was unpleasant due to the persistent rain and abhorrent due to the uncourteous car drivers clogging the saturated roads. When I reached the door I left my bike leaned up against the front. For all the crime in the city no one had ever even touched it let alone ride off with it. I did think it was some arcane protection or ward, rune or glyph of protection written around the site but a small part of me thinks it could be because

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1