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2018 Best New Talent - Short and Sweet Festival Sydney
2014 Pushcart Prize nominee. (more)

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Jai has great emotional insight, even at 16. Sometimes it's a curse. Especially when she's mixed up in this chaos. This time it will involve a death.

 

Hi,

I'm so excited to give you a real look inside this amazing true story. We can all relate to the ups and downs of being a teenager but throw all of this into the mix and you've got real trouble. 



True Love Kills

 

A girl begins a journal to battle her depression but instead, documents a murder.

Inspired by a true Sydney story


It all goes down inside.

 



Sydney, 2008.


Jai lives alone with her mother and is prompted to begin a diary to deal with her gloomy, obsessive thoughts. Her world is shaken further when beautiful and headstrong Laura breaks into her circle of friends. Laura meets Xavier, a wild boy with dark hair and brooding complexion. The result is more explosive than anyone could have imagined.

 

Why do people have to hurt others? What makes people do the things they do? You may think you have your friends figured out, but do we ever really know anyone? Do we ever really know ourselves?

 



Jai knows things.


             A foreboding feeling follows Jai to school. She meets up with Cin, one of her best friends but when they go into their class, there’s no sign of the teacher. Her small group of friends are there. Five of them, diverse in personality and culture but all entertaining in their own right. Miss Freeman enters with a new student, Laura. She is strikingly beautiful but there is something about her that Jai can sense. Laura is bitter, or angry, Jai can’t quite determine. Not yet. Why has she changed schools?

             Laura is put in with her group. They must show her the ropes. Before long, headstrong Laura is proving that she doesn’t follow the rules. Trouble has followed her but it’s everyone else’s fault. Soon, Laura is practically the head of the group, much to Jai’s consternation. Jai does not trust her and Laura seems to know it. Why can’t the others see it?

              It’s the beginning of a set of complex, often amusing, sometimes combative, interpersonal relatiosnhips between all six girls, always shifting.

            After school, at the train station, other teenagers from the nearby boy’s school banter with them as always. Laura turns more than a few heads, one in particular. Xavier. The boy with the dark eyes and brooding complexion. Their eyes meet. He targets her. It’s like a flame meeting a petrol tank. There is an instant attraction, but their union will bring nothing good for anyone around them. Their relationship starts with chaos at the mall. Making out in the library. Petty theft at a local shop follows, getting drunk and eventually mild drugs. Laura’s home life seems reasonably stable but she gets away with blue murder. Is that why she is the way she is? Are there not enough boundaries or is it the lack of attention? What about Xavier’s home life? Are people born bad or are they created? We soon get the insights.


Where it happens.

           Meanwhile Cin must deal with her mother’s illness and sexual pressures from her boyfriend. Antinio brags about her new love life but no one has met this mysterious person. Also, Jai has been receiving some unwanted attention online from someone she doesn’t even know. Or does she? Social media in 2008 is proving to be a challenge, something the adults know little about.

           Xavier’s temper is proving to be a real problem and frightening for those around him. Jai does not like him and for good reason. He’s soon involved in a fight at his school which results in a student being badly hurt. Trouble follows this kid like the wind.


            Laura doesn’t care. She’s only in the moment. All there is, is her love for Xavier and to hell with anyone who gets in her way, including her family, including her new friends. She’s soon rubbing some of them up the wrong way. Cin is no pushover. She doesn’t like her friends being disrespected like that. There’s a real battle now for leadership of the group. Neither will back down. It will culminate in a physical clash.






           Meanwhile Laura’s widening circle includes people outside of school, some much older. One is an eighteen-year-old named Johnny. It’s obvious he likes her but despite his age, he’s out of her league. Besides, she’s with Xavier but there’s no harm in flirting, right?

          With each passing page, there’s a tightening of the tension, with each dilemma coming to a head. In the middle is Jai, documenting each and every situation, wishing she was outside of it but unable to avoid being a part of it. Being a teenager is tough but it shouldn’t be this hard.

            For one individual, it will cost them their life.

 

‘Puberty Blues for the Digital Age.’

 Coming soon. 







All books now on Sale, just in time for Christmas!

Signed/Inscribed any way you wish!

Makes for the perfect gift! 



Order on my Books site or click the book covers below.


Debut Novel - Bold Literary fiction



Debut novella

    

Second Novel. Highly controversial. Obviously 😉


 

Two novellas in one book





    
Stories and Poems on Connection, many based on real people and events.








Debut Story Collection



Debut Poetry Collection






I really hope you can support this book, in any way. Even sharing the word, these posts, anything. Word of mouth is the best form of getting the word out. And I can't afford to pay for promotion. The book alone will set me back. But it's an important book. I think it's my best. It's universal. It was written at my writing peak. I'm so proud of it. Much of it is true so I can't claim ownership for all the content. However, Jai spoke to me. It's like she wrote it and dictated it to me. She's a very strong emotional force but with all the fallibilities of being a young person. I admire her so much.

Peace
Anthony






Love Lost, but what's the Cost?

 

An experiment with a traditional rhyming poem

Mixed with the concept of a lyric based song.







Search Part – Love Lost

 

Take your chances

Out there alone

A world of indifference

Chill you to the bone.

 

Grass appears greener

Where the sun always shines

Wait ‘til the night falls

Where the outlook is not sublime.

 

I’m a trick of the light

A mirage deceiving sight

You could bring me home to roost

If you only you could

Discover the truth

No language, no words

A sign language mismatch

Merely a clash of swords

Leaving you spinning

Out there alone

Loud echoes to your cries

Chill you to the bone.

 

You came to find me

I’d given up and gone

‘You don’t know what you’ve got’

You had called as a con.

 

Now it’s you who suffers most

A penniless wanderer

Forever counting the cost.

 

I seek a mere smile

Out there alone

But the years have passed

And worn me to the bone

Worn me out

Unsown.

 

 

 

(Post Valentines Day - 2016)

I wanted to try and write a traditional rhyming poem

Coupled with the concept of a lyric based song

Mixed with my own style of poem.

An experiment, if you will.

Did it work?

 













Some are so judgmental


Oh yeah, smart ass? Well, how about this!


AI for this post


It's very easy, particularly in the online world, to dismiss others. To make sweeping statements. Ignore the grey areas. The complexities that come with every situation. Blow one's trumpet and promote simple ideologies. 

All summed up in this short video (made in '22) from one of my poems, written way back in 2014, yet more relevant now. 


Judgement Day by Karen Barton





Watch HERE on Youtube 







More Videos


A.J. L. Books





True Love Kills - What did they do? Plus awesome Gift Ideas!

A teenage girl keeps a journal to battle her depression 

but instead, documents a murder.




All books now on Sale, just in time for Christmas!

Signed/Inscribed any way you wish!

Makes for the perfect gift! 



Order on my Books site or click the book covers below.


Debut Novel - Bold Literary fiction



Debut novella

    

Second Novel. Highly controversial. Obviously 😉


 

Two novellas in one book



    
    
Stories and Poems on Connection, many based on real people and events.




Poetry collection on love, loss and relationships




Debut Story Collection



Debut Poetry Collection






Peace
Anthony






The Long Jetty - A beautiful little story about life long love

 

The Long Jetty

That older generation stayed together. Not anymore. 

Did they take their secrets to their grave?





This was one of the first stories that was ever accepted for publication. It was a good one, a magazine called Verandah, Issue 25. Can't recall the exact year of publication but the story was written in 2009. 


The story ended up in my first Story Collection, Pseudo Stars in 2017. 


          'I shuffle along the horizontal planks of the Jetty. One, two, one, two, like a rusty train. I don’t remember the gaps between the planks being so large. I know it’s based on my perception, which has changed. I feel it this year. Nobody wants to admit that they’re old.'


 

First published in Verandah



Watch on YouTube HERE


How do you feel about long-term relationships?
About getting older?





Like many, (Oct. '25) I'm being turned off AI, but I made this video earlier in the year. Much has changed in that time. I did try to source original footage/photographs but the story was just too long and I couldn't find enough. As you will see, I used a mix of real and AI.




One of the real ones, utilised in the video



In future I will steer clear as much as possible from AI. I will certainly always be transperant upfront, unlike some con artists.

What is real, is that every word was written by hand, like all my work. 



https://anthonyjlangford.wixsite.com/writer/books




Included in my debut story collection



Staring out into yesterday






I woke to a Woke Nightmare


Bigotry is the new Inclusion




Far from new. It's simply dressed in new clothing. Hypocrisy is as old as behaviour itself. 



I Woke Nightmare



I woke to a Woke Nightmare

And I was running through the street

With mini flaming comets and comments zinging past my head

Accusations and demonisations

And I thought, how can this be happening?

I know I’m white and male and straight

But I’ve done so many decent things

I’m a decent person.


And then I realised that so many of my 'dreaded ilk'

Were similarly of my disposition

And always were

And then it clicked that the opposing demographics also

Were of the same ilk,

And that 95% of them were also decent people

And that the 5% of arseholes

That we all suffer through

Were of all colours and genders and everything else

Despite the opposite of which I’d heard so much.


And then I realised that the truth didn’t match

The singular cries of hysteria

And It clicked.


That’s all it was

Hysteria

Based on a sexism and racism I didn’t believe even existed

Until Now.

 

I woke

But the Wokeness continued

Until the finger pointers got their way

As that’s all they wanted

In the first place.

 

A power hungry creed

Using suffering

As currency.

 


April 2021 



Apparently 'isms' have divisional values. It's okay for one. Not okay for another.

Call me old fashioned, or new fashioned. I'm against bigotry, in any form. Simple.



The word hypocrisy entered the English language approximately 1200 with the meaning "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness". Today, "hypocrisy" often refers to advocating behaviors that one does not practice.



Anthony J. Langford Books | Australian writer


This is Post Number #793

Roughly one a week since early 2010.

Please consider for Christmas, makes for a perfect gift! All books on sale!



A Full Length Play
Now free to Download! 

Owned



One always has the power.
Don’t believe you’re free.


You've had enough to dream. Get a cab. A Video

 


Artist - Simon Berger - Shattered glass (real glass art).



Dreams don't always equate to reality


That's the theme, explored in this little poem in video form. 

Please watch, read below and provide your insights. Share too if you like. It helps me out.



Watch on YouTube HERE

or





My writing (and directing) career never took off the way I'd hoped. (Dreamt of for decades, since childhood).

The below quote is something I need to remember. I gave it all (I was capable of). In retrospect, I probably didn't have the confidence that others have and didn't push it as hard as some would. I emailed, submitted, rang etc but bravado can get you in the door, even with little to no talent. Seen it many times.




Still, I had some successes. Many stories and poems were published and some books too, though the novels I had to do myself. (A lot remains unpublished and perhaps, never will be).    The point is, I have a body of work to say, I was here.




Anthony J. Langford Books | Australian writer



Very productive period - approx. 2010

A Full Length Play
Now free to Download!

One always has the power.
Don’t believe you’re free.





I hope you're doing well. 

Peace.

Anthony