Alan McManus

Publisher info

Alan McManus M.Theol. (hons), M.Phil, PGDE, M.Litt., Ph.D. is a freelance academic, novelist, playwright and dramaturg with a life-coaching practice based in Glasgow, Scotland. 'Only Say The Word: Affirming Gay and Lesbian Love', (Christian Alternative, 2013) is first in a series of books based on his doctoral work, 'Alchemy at the Chalkface: Pirsig, Pedagogy and the Metaphysics of Quality' and is followed by 'Life Choice: the Ethics and Ideologies of Abortion'. He has also published articles on political philosophy and WW1 remembrance in the online journal, 'Citizenship, Social and Economics Education'. His performed and published theatrical work includes a seven-minute radio play set in a rest home, 'Mrs Atkins remembers', which explores dementia as subversive remembrance and is also on You-Tube, as well as a play in homage to Dostoyevsky’s Alyona, 'Redemption', in English and Scots versions. His latest non-fiction work is 'Angels with Hairy Faces: Spiritual reflections on dogs'.
Writing as Alan Ahrens-McManus, he has published five books of the Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, a series of inclusive novels set in Glasgow, starting with 'Tricks of the Mind' which is followed by 'The Lovers', 'Shades of the Sun', 'Qismet' and 'Tìr nam Bàn'.

Smashwords Interview

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
The greatest joy has got to be when my readers form their own relationships with my characters. Whether they like or dislike them doesn't matter to me but what does it that they can relate to them as real personalities.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
Smashwords has very high standards in terms of the quality of the manuscript and cover to be uploaded so the specific and always encouraging feedback has been really helpful to me in the steep learning curve that is self-publication. Often, after uploading to Smashwords, I go back to my other self-publishing platforms and change details on the manuscript to improve its quality. It's also been great to be able to reach other readers who shop at Barnes and Noble, download Apple or use Nook, etc.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Alan McManus online

Where to buy in print

The Marrying Maiden
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 7. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 43,490. Language: British English. Published: June 27, 2023 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » Historical, Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay
A summer holiday with friends and family in an old cottage in Pencarden village, in the grounds of the Police College where Bruno is teaching the vibes. A faded photo of a Victorian lady in muslin, with a Chinese parasol, draws his attention. As his students react in unexpected ways, the past seeps into the present, as does she. The I-Ching and Imogen force Bruno to face truth he has long avoided.
Transits of Terror
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 6. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 68,750. Language: British English. Published: December 1, 2018 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » Paranormal » General
Has Bruno’s gay lover been deceiving him for years? Rising anxiety means he’s missing time and waking up in strange places. Bruno diverts his mind with the astrological transits that augur good fortune for a child but are a ticking time bomb for a local landmark. As the clock counts down to terror, unable to trust his instincts, how can Bruno save dignitaries, at the wrong place at the wrong time?
Trans/Substantiation: The Metaphysics of Transgender
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 39,090. Language: British English. Published: June 18, 2017 by Alan McManus. Categories: Nonfiction » Philosophy » Metaphysics, Nonfiction » Social Science » Gender studies
As Catholics are not committed to any particular philosophical expression of change and presence in the Eucharist, and Protestants resist that of transubstantiation, this book offers a new ecumenical interpretation – one that may also be helpful in the furious current debate over the assertion and denial of the reality of transgender. This interpretation concerns ontology, ‘the nature of nature’.
Angels with Hairy Faces: Spiritual Reflections on Dogs
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 8,500. Language: British English. Published: December 12, 2016 by Alan McManus. Categories: Nonfiction » Science & Nature » Animals, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Inspirational
Spiritual reflections on dogs can teach us lessons that just might save our lives. Thank God for dogs who remind us to be happy in the moment, who get us out and about, who remind us that it’s not ‘all about me’, who teach us about injury and pardon, who lead us into friendship, who are kind, compassionate and do not judge us for our social situation. Thank God for these angels with hairy faces.
Tir nam Ban
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 5. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 67,860. Language: British English. Published: December 11, 2016 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Supernatural
What could possibly go wrong when Bruno and friends take a school trip to a Scottish Hebridean paradise? A mysterious prophecy just seems part of the charm of Tìr nam Bàn and with the beauty of the island (and of his athletic boyfriend) Bruno doesn't see the significance of the lights to the north-east of the island. But there is evil in paradise and stopping slavery means paying a terrible price.
Qismet
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 4. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 67,840. Language: English. Published: February 14, 2016 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Supernatural
Clara’s inheritance makes Bruno’s wish to open a small school suddenly possible. But the scandal of her great-aunt's lesbian relationship isn’t the only secret from the past. As things go bump in the night and day, the line between quick and dead is crossed. Bruno becomes an unwitting pawn of a force he cannot control, believing that a better world is possible – at the cost of this one.
Body-Logic: The Little Book That Makes A BIG Difference!
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 6,250. Language: English. Published: July 4, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Nutrition, Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Eating Disorders
(4.00 from 1 review)
Well-meaning people dole out diet advice daily but, as an observant newcomer to nutrition, while writing my doctoral thesis I saw things differently. I’d like to share with you my vision of how to make the change from the depressing experience of poor health, low energy, unhealthy complexion and clothes that don’t fit to the exhilarating experience of looking good and feeling fine: Body-logic!
Dreaming Anarchy: a Shut-Eye View of a Utopia
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 36,820. Language: British English. Published: June 16, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Nonfiction » Social Science » Anthropology / Cultural, Nonfiction » Social Science » Methodology
"Dreaming Anarchy" records my fieldwork and theoretical reflection in the autumn of 2001 on a back-to-nature community occupying a Pyrenean village in Spanish Territory. My methodology while in the community was to record and analyse my own dreams, a fitting form with which to study a utopia, interpreting them as sticky webs of meaning using Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams" as a toolbox.
Shades of the Sun
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 3. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 81,580. Language: British English. Published: February 13, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Psychological thriller
All’s fun (but very weird) at a mystery winter weekend at Corpington Manor until Bruno, Justin and Imogen lose a night and Clara, back home, diagnoses PTSD. The Scooby-Doo type adventure stops being comic when stress and a sinister hiker traumatise them till a Midsummer healing retreat leads Bruno to a bloodstained body on a Glasgow street, to let go of his past and try to live with the mystery.
Life Choice: The Ethics and Ideologies of Abortion
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 31,420. Language: British English. Published: February 5, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Nonfiction » Philosophy » Ethics & moral philosophy, Nonfiction » Social Science » Abortion & Birth Control
In an ideological conflict of immortal souls versus politicised bodies, "Life Choice" pleads for free expression of the contradictions of the human heart, challenges men to dismantle the machinery of misogyny and encourages women to find common ground in the material and moral support of women who want to continue with a pregnancy but experience great economic or social pressure not to give birth.
The Lovers
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 2. Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 47,970. Language: British English. Published: January 24, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Romance » Suspense
Neither an unusually hot Scottish summer nor Justin’s habitual strip-teasing can take Bruno's mind off the slow ebbtide of his dad's dementia. Justin’s suggestion of going to a Psychic Fayre leads to Bruno overhearing a tarot card reading for Bernadette, not just the lonely and intelligent nurse that she seems, as the cards on the table lead them into deadly confrontation with crony capitalism.
Tricks of the Mind
Series: The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, Book 1. Price: Free! Words: 44,790. Language: British English. Published: January 23, 2015 by Alan McManus. Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Inspirational
In the Westend of Glasgow, during the tension preceding the second Gulf War, Bruno walks in on Justin exercising and gives in to his pleading to massage taut muscles. As Justin groans in pleasure, Bruno reads him a strange astrological dream which begins to echo eerily in various narratives of family and friends as the dream turns to nightmare and Bruno is forced to confront monsters from the Id.

Series

The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries
The Bruno Mysteries are aimed at intelligent readers of mystery novels who like characters who they can identify with rather than slick Bond-types. Particular aspects of this series are the move away from the ‘gritty Glasgow’ genre, which has become predictable, and the faithful reflection of the strategic use of dialect in different social situations – which many readers (Scots or not) will recognise. "The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development started in "Tricks of the Mind" and continued in "The Lovers", "Shades of the Sun", "Qismet" and "Tìr nam Bàn".
The Lovers
Price: $1.99 USD.
Shades of the Sun
Price: $3.99 USD.
Qismet
Price: $3.99 USD.
Tir nam Ban
Price: $3.99 USD.
Transits of Terror
Price: $3.99 USD.

Alan McManus' tag cloud

abortion    adoption    anarchist    anarchy    angels    astrology    basque country    bible    body    bohemia    compassion    conflict    cottage    crony capitalism    deaf    decans    deep hanging out    diet    dogs    dreams    easter    ecumenism    energy    ethics    ethnography    eucharist    exercise    fairies    feminism    fitness    food    forgiveness    freud    gay    gay romance    gender    glasgow    god    great britain    harmony    health    hebrides    historical    hiv    hospitals    hypnotism    i ching    island    lesbian    lgbt    mage    mediterranean    metaphysics    mystery    mystical    new age    nursing    nutrition    obesity    occult    occupy    oneirocritical    pets    philosophy    physique    pirsig    police    prayer    prochoice    prolife    psychic    psychological    ptsd    pyrenees    recovered memory    revenge    romance    school    scoobydoo    scotland    shamanic    small school    spirituality    stuarts    supernatural    suspense    tarot    terror    theology    trafficking    transgender    transits    transubstantiation    vibes    virtue    ww1   

Smashwords book reviews by Alan McManus

  • Das Leben von Basilikum - La vida de Albahaca. Kostenfreies zweisprachiges Kinderbuch in Deutsch und Spanisch. on Aug. 22, 2020

    Das Leben von Basilikum/ La Vida de Alhabaca ist der erster deutscher Büch das ich gelesen habe. Meine Deutsch ist nicht so gut aber ich der spanische Texte kanne lesen und so ich der deutsche Texte kanne verstande. Este es el primer libro que ya leyó en alemán. No hablo alemán muy bién pero puedo entenderlo con un ojo al texto español. Der Bilden mit Farben sehr comische sind und ich weiss das alle Kinder wurden diese lebenlichte Geschite magen töll. Los dibujos coloridos son cómicos y estoy seguro que a cada niño le gustaría este alegre librico. (I'm Scottish)