Darren Francis store - Here you can buy DF's books.

Darren Francis podcast - Here you can download DF's podcast.

Darren Francis myspace - If you've got a myspace too, send us a friend request. DF occasionally showcases new writing / drafts in the blog there, too, so be sure to bookmark; they don't always stay on there for long.

Darren Francis myspace audio page - Here you can hear audio clips of DF reading his work, and listen to DF's more recent podcasts.

DF's Deviant Art page - Wherein you'll find DF's drawings and photography and the like.

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Douglas Adams - It has to be said that there are few contemporary writers that DF has much respect for. Douglas Adams rocked, though. The Hitch Hiker stuff was wondrous (albeit the film was iffy). Last Chance To See was heart-rending.  Not so keen on Dirk Gently. Regardless, we miss him.

The Angels Of Light - Michael Gira's post-Swans band. Though, for DF, they don't always scale the dizzy heights that Swans (see below) met without effort or question, the Angels still stroke in all the right places that should be stroked, and there's a decent chance that - as you read these words - they're soundtracking one DF machination or another. It's music for love, as opposed to music to submit to, though it's that as well. Get used to it, get on with it, and love it.

Francis Bacon - Time will render Bacon the greatest artist of the 20th century, as it will render T S Eliot the greatest poet of the 20th century.

J G Ballard - One of DF's favourite authors. DF's favourite Ballard book? Probably 'The Unlimited Dream Company'.

Because God Told Me To Do It - Music blog. In their words, "A grab-bag of provisional meditative orientalia, Fetish Electronica, and Nordic European style folk melodies."

Nicole Bioitos - Artist.  DF likes her stuff, its surreal to-the-pointness.

Catalyzer Journal - Cool online journal, frequently updated, and not afraid to have a ruck.  They've published some DF.

Clean Living In Difficult Circumstances - Occult and musical blog run by a very good friend of DF's.

Leonard Cohen - DF loves Leonard Cohen's music. Contrary to what you may presume - from your impression of Cohen or your impression of DF - DF finds Cohen's work enlightening and envigorating and not depressing in the slightest. If you find Cohen depressing, it likely says more about you. DF's current favourite Cohen song (it varies week to week) is probably Here It Is, though A Thousand Kisses Deep and Take This Longing are heavyweight contenders. These songs say, in a handful of tidy verses, all that's to be said about love and life and death. T S Eliot would be proud, and - if we may be presumptuous - would be a Cohen fan if he were alive now. Oh, you find Eliot depressing too? How quaint of you. Get out of here. Click out of this page right now.

Coil - Sonic aeonauts.  Born again pagans.  Know why the birdcage sings.  One of DF's favourite bands ever. They've soundtracked more DF writing sessions than you've had hot dinners.

Dennis Cooper - One of DF's favourite writers, and one of the most important writers of recent years (whatever that means). Frisk and Guide, in particular, were incredible books. Cooper has mellowed somewhat, of late - like a fine wine, perhaps - though we're sure he'll murder his muse again.

The Daily Mash - One of DF's favourite websites.

Christian Demare - Photographer.

Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension - Feed your head.

Derelict London - London's forgotten and hidden places (including a now-demolished hospital in which DF and some friends summoned horrific gods for fun and profit, c.2001-03...)

Fissure Magazine - Literary renegades. Have published DF's stuff. We like these guys. Their myspace page can be found here.

Allen Ginsberg - The Universe, and all therein that matters, yelling in your ear.

Kristin Hersch - Astonishing, live or on record. Do both. DF also finds KH's voice rather sexy, wonders how much that has to do with too many years of shagging psychotic indie girls. Aside, KH's music is wondrous.

Bill Hicks - Supplicate to Goat Boy. Be his feedbag. Bill, we miss you.

Homepage Of The Dead - Site dedicated to George A Romero's zombie flicks. DF's a sucker for zombies, which might also explain his Resident Evil infatuation.

ken*again - Quarterly online literary journal. Prose, poetry, artwork. They've published a DF story.

Simon Lewis - Writer and friend of DF's.

Liminal Nation - In their words, "a discussion forum created to promote a visible and intelligent discourse around the theory and practice of magic, spirituality and experimental religion."

Marc & The Mambas - Torment & Toreros was one of DF's favourite albums as a teenager. Cut to it, cried to it, shagged to it, loved life to it, wrote stupidly bad poetry to it. A world to live in then, which seems long ago now - a once was - but no doubt played a formative part in making DF the contrary and fucked up adult he now is. It's funny, listening to it now and how First Time or In My Room can put DF instantly back to where he was then but now he has a mortgage and a wife and a roughly sorted life despite his most destructive of intentions. It still sounds like one of the most immediate albums ever. Torment me indeed....

The Memory Hole -  None of this ever happened. Go back to sleep. Democracy is coming, to a multiplex near you.

Chris Morris - A great resource for all things Morris. For a while he seemed to us the most essential comedian since Bill Hicks, though we fear he may have swallowed by his own deriere of late. We hope this isn't true; our current climate needs the likes of him.

Placebo - DF's favourite teenage angst band.

Rob Plath - Scarily good poet, much-admired by DF.

Pulp - Online short story magazine, which also features a listings page for the London lit scene (and a DF story).

Psychedelic Furs - DF loves their first two albums and their last two albums, considers the intervening period - President Gas aside - to be overproduced Yank-happy nonsense watered down for the MTV crowd.

RSI - Occupational hazzard of writers and of others prone to excessive typing, guitar playing and console gaming, amongst other things. Combine them all in one person, and what do you get?

The Sisters Of Mercy - Planetary rock n roll groove machine. God and all his angels dance in technicolour. You know you want to. Just don't mention the G word. A band and their audience are not the same thing.

Slimelight - Speaking of which... Archetypal goth club. DF went there shed-loads in the early 90s. He's been there a few times since, for 'research purposes'. It's scarce changed, aside from the music. A bit like the goth scene in its entirety. Is it a club, or is it a museum? To paraphrase Nick Cave, come the apocalypse only two species will survive to crawl the earth; cockroaches, and goths.

Patti Smith - Hail goddess Patti, coming on like Kali mainlining Blake. See her live, next chance you get; she's fantastic, best show DF has seen in years.

Austin Osman Spare - Everything fornicates all of the time.

Starving Arts - "The starving, vomiting edge of modern literature." - A DF story lurks here.

Swans - This band most likely had a far greater influence and impact on DF's work than any writer we could care to mention.

System Of A Down - Undoubtedly the best and most eloquent band that DF has heard in what seems too long. Rage. Articulate your rage. Let your rage be fuelled by intelligence and let it sing. DF approves of all of these things.

Virgin Prunes - Together with Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Joy Division, Coil, Psychic TV, Marc & The Mambas (see link above) and The Sisters Of Mercy, the Prunes soundtracked DF's mid-teens. This probably explains a lot, especially to those who know how much of a moody and bloody and pretentious git DF was back then. Cutting because it made sense. Writing awful poetry. Utterly miserable and having no friends.  Reminds us of a question frequently asked in those 'question sessions' presented to alleged celebrities in alleged magzines; if you met yourself as a teenager, would you like yourself? We fail to see how anybody could answer this question objectively. DF doesn't doubt that he considers himself something of a twat until at least age twenty, and a bit clueless for a good few years after that. This doesn't mean that DF thinks he became coolest thing in late twenties. It doesn't work like that. He long ceased to care. One's twatishness, or uncoolness, is relative. Not giving a toss is the most enlightened option.