Poet

Author

Screenwriter

I’m David Coyle, a writer from Welllington, New Zealand. I write things from the edge of the world.


Two new books out this year from Calaveras Press

Indiaman

Buy paperback

The transit of Venus, in which Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, occurs in couplets eight years apart. These couplets don’t return for another century. If you miss them, you miss them forever.

In 1760, astronomer Matthew Sangster leaves his family in Dublin to observe the transit of Venus from India. Despite vowing to return within three years, Matthew’s journey is perilous. Delayed by events at sea, the deserts of Arabia, and the Seven Years’ War, he misses the first transit. To salvage his career, he decides to wait in India until Venus returns.

Matthew spends the next eight years attempting to survive in a world beyond his understanding. As empires collide around him, the heavens move slowly above. All the while, he struggles with doubt, temptation, and a vengeful warlord intent on killing him. With Venus drawing closer, Matthew’s options are to succeed in his task, or return to his family with nothing.

Iconoclasm

Buy paperback

It’s snowing in Wellington. It shouldn’t snow in Wellington. Thomas can’t bring himself to go home after work. It’s not clear why.

Thomas wanders the city, looking for meaning, but can’t find it anywhere. Meeting people from his past brings him face-to-face with the present.

This short novella questions whether the structures of the world are capable of reckoning with the crises we face.

iconoclasm  / aɪˈ kɒn.ə ˌklæz.əm /

noun

(from Greek: εἰκών, eikṓn, ‘figure’ + κλάω, kláō, ‘to break’)

1.   the social belief in the importance of destruction

2.   the action of destroying that which is cherished