I’m humbled to announce today the publication of my first book of short stories The Empty Glass. There are 23 in the collection centred around a young publican Toby Mulheron. Some of the short stories have previously appeared in small alternative press publications such as The Asylum Floor, Rust Belt Review and Alien Buddha Zine. The short story ‘Black Betty’ will also appear in the anthology Final Last Call (Lummox Press, 2020), a tribute to Bukowski’s writing in the centennial year of his birth: https://www.lummoxpress.com/lc/final-last-call/
EDDIE
The automatic doors of the club open and Eddie enters nervously. He is about 75 years old and is smartly dressed. Pressed dark blue suit and tie. He orders a schooner. He sits on it for a while and then he chugs it down in a series of measured gulps. He places the glass neatly on the bar and leaves.
Ten minutes later, the automatic doors of the club open and Eddie strolls in again and he waves to me in the distance behind the counter.
The process of entering, sculling his beer, departing and re-entering, is repeated at least a dozen times during the day.
“Eddie, what’s up?” I ask, “You can’t seem to sit still today. Why do you keep entering and leaving the club?”
Eddie looks up, dead serious, “If I let you in on this, can you keep it a secret between you and me?”
“Of course, Eddie. You know you can trust me.”
“Well, it’s simple, Toby,” he begins cautiously, “I visited my doctor the other day for my annual check-up. He told me that for health reasons if I go to the club he recommends that I only have one drink per visit. I’m just following his medical advice.”
“Good one, Eddie. Who’s counting? Another one?”
“My word.”
Blurbs:
Reading George Anderson’s The Empty Glass feels like sitting on a stool at your favorite dive bar, enjoying a pint and watching the madness unfold around you. You know the characters that inhabit this book, you’ve bought them a drink, smelled their beer breath, and shared good times together.
Like a shot of your favorite gut-rot these stories are no bullshit, fast and to the point. The more you ingest the smoother they get. Pull up a seat, have a drink and stay a while, you’ll be glad you did.
Scott Wozniak
Poet/chaos enthusiast
THE EMPTY GLASS is a work of art: crude, poetic, poignant, and funny. Anderson writes clear prose in an unpretentious style and with as much verve as any writer, dead or alive. His stories are not only highly entertaining but provide an education in Aussie-slang as well. He is a working bloke-- bar manager and piss puller, and no spruiker either, but the full quid, mate.
Wayne F. Burke
Hands down, The Empty Glass by George Anderson is one of the best short story collections I have ever read! Anderson is a language wizard whose words catch you relentlessly. In other words, this is genius craft. Just like a captivating movie, you'll read the short stories so fast you're gonna have to reread them over and over again. Now, most people portrayed in this book are raw dirty scumbags but in his own very unique way Anderson still manages to pour a sympathetic shimmer over them. I fucking love it! Go buy yourself a copy NOW!!
Janne Karlsson
Swedish artist/ writer
Anderson's stories are heartbreakers... alive with humour, mayhem, madness and the wild uncontainable mystery of life.
John Yamrus
The short stories in this eye-opening, eye-watering, eye-blackening collection are well oiled with alcohol, violence, lust and the brutality of visiting, working and surviving of working or managing such establishments as bars, hotels and adult clubs: many of the stories have sub-plots and at times are tender, reflective and provoking, Anderson has a truly wonderful sense of humour and uses it to very good effect: The harshness and starkness of some of the stories are quite disturbing, harrowing but always compelling to read. The prose is cool, clear, precise and deliberate and creates lost and flawed characters that an empathy, sympathy or sadness stirs within the reader, although none of the characters display any sense of self pity and self-gloom: ‘The Black Forearm’ is not what you expect, stories like ‘Eddie’ the excellent ‘Bean Bag’ , the brilliant ‘Black Betty’,‘The Germ’, ‘After the Fight’, ‘Goonside Inn’ are works that delight and dismay, that are dirty and damned but never disappoint. ‘The Empty Glass’ is a strong and solid entertaining collection written by a strong, solid skilful writer, who clearly loves his craft, a writer who will no doubt, with this collection, quench your literary thirst for honest, quality, no bullshit prose.
John D Robinson
Scott Wozniak
Poet/chaos enthusiast
THE EMPTY GLASS is a work of art: crude, poetic, poignant, and funny. Anderson writes clear prose in an unpretentious style and with as much verve as any writer, dead or alive. His stories are not only highly entertaining but provide an education in Aussie-slang as well. He is a working bloke-- bar manager and piss puller, and no spruiker either, but the full quid, mate.
Wayne F. Burke
Hands down, The Empty Glass by George Anderson is one of the best short story collections I have ever read! Anderson is a language wizard whose words catch you relentlessly. In other words, this is genius craft. Just like a captivating movie, you'll read the short stories so fast you're gonna have to reread them over and over again. Now, most people portrayed in this book are raw dirty scumbags but in his own very unique way Anderson still manages to pour a sympathetic shimmer over them. I fucking love it! Go buy yourself a copy NOW!!
Janne Karlsson
Swedish artist/ writer
Anderson's stories are heartbreakers... alive with humour, mayhem, madness and the wild uncontainable mystery of life.
John Yamrus
The short stories in this eye-opening, eye-watering, eye-blackening collection are well oiled with alcohol, violence, lust and the brutality of visiting, working and surviving of working or managing such establishments as bars, hotels and adult clubs: many of the stories have sub-plots and at times are tender, reflective and provoking, Anderson has a truly wonderful sense of humour and uses it to very good effect: The harshness and starkness of some of the stories are quite disturbing, harrowing but always compelling to read. The prose is cool, clear, precise and deliberate and creates lost and flawed characters that an empathy, sympathy or sadness stirs within the reader, although none of the characters display any sense of self pity and self-gloom: ‘The Black Forearm’ is not what you expect, stories like ‘Eddie’ the excellent ‘Bean Bag’ , the brilliant ‘Black Betty’,‘The Germ’, ‘After the Fight’, ‘Goonside Inn’ are works that delight and dismay, that are dirty and damned but never disappoint. ‘The Empty Glass’ is a strong and solid entertaining collection written by a strong, solid skilful writer, who clearly loves his craft, a writer who will no doubt, with this collection, quench your literary thirst for honest, quality, no bullshit prose.
John D Robinson
Poet and Publisher: Holy&intoxicated Publications
If you peel back the frivolity and mayhem of The Empty Glass you will discover a scathing satire of Australian society, its values and institutions.
If you live in AUSTRALIA buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1704329604/ref=cbw_direct_from_1
If you peel back the frivolity and mayhem of The Empty Glass you will discover a scathing satire of Australian society, its values and institutions.
Aussie drinking culture, its toxic gender relations, its addiction to gambling & sport, its propensity to violence, environmental tokenism, political stupidity, police incompetence- even its dismantling of a vibrant music industry- are all set up as big targets to be blown to pieces by Anderson.
Syd Mead
Brian Rihlmann
The stories in George Anderson's book The Empty Glass are just fantastic. I laughed…a lot. He had me going within the first few pages. Sometimes I cringed. He made me recall my own “glory days” of bartending, as he brought his characters vividly to life on the page, and I thought, “hey, that reminds me of so and so.” Apparently barflies are barflies, whether in America or Australia. On top of it all, I got a crash course in Aussie slang. A raunchy, outrageous and wildly entertaining read.
And on the other side of the bar, the working side there is:
George Douglas Anderson, The Empty Glass, Alien Buddha Press, available through Amazon, 2020, 245 pages, $7.49
Written in a conversational tone, The Empty Glass, has the feeling of authenticity as in: he’s been there, done that, and downed the shot glasses. Bartenders all have their war stories and these are some of Anderson’s. The kind of slugs he describes could be found in a bar anywhere around the world assuring one that Australian madcap craziness only varies in degree and kind from American insanity. I’ve witnessed rugby scrums mid-bar that compares with the insane footballers Anderson describes only his boozed, out of control, bozos dressed as women, something I have missed out on during my career behind the stick. And I’m not sad about that. Anderson had the experience for me. Basically, a fun, easy read, enjoyable on the level of bar room nastiness, rude and crude and decidedly R, maybe even X rated at times.
Misfit Magazine, Issue No.33, Fall 2021.
If you live in AUSTRALIA buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1704329604/ref=cbw_direct_from_1
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