Back To School
I can't believe the summer's gone already. It doesn't seem 2 minutes since I was writing my last n&v column, and saying that my daughter had just left primary school. Now the kids have been back at school for a couple of weeks. I'm sure when I was their age, the summers were much longer. Man, those hazy, lazy days back in the 70s seemed to stretch on forever...
I am so snowed under with work at the moment. But it's frustrating work, itty-bitty stuff. Since getting back from our family hols - 2 blissful weeks in Turkey, which now seems like months ago - I've been inundated with page proofs (for the new Humdrumming edition of Stitch, which is due to be launched at FantasyCon this weekend, and for The Deluge, out from Leisure in December), and I've been writing introductions, and editing old stuff, and researching stuff for a book which another publisher wants a synopsis for, and...yada, yada, yada.
It seems ages since I actually did any proper writing, and i'm dying to get back to it...in fact I desperately need to get back to it. I'm about half-way through my Hellboy book, The All-Seeing Eye, and have been half-way through it for around 6 weeks now. That book is deadlined for December, as is my 50,000 word novella for Earthling, which I haven't even started yet (gulp). Then I've got another book deadlined for March (which I'm not allowed to talk about yet). With all that to be getting on with, I suppose I shouldn't really be spending time on this blog at the moment. But like I say, it's been bloody ages since I updated it, so I thought...sod it. Take some time out. Get it done.
Despite being snowed under with work, September is turning into an exciting month. My Doctor Who book, Forever Autumn, came out on the 6th, and together with my fellow Who authors, Paul Magrs and Mark Michalowski, I'm currently 'on tour' - or at least promoting the books at various events up and down the country. On Saturday September 8th, the three of us did two signings, one at 10th Planet in Barking and one at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. The 10th Planet one was particularly successful. We had a steady stream of people wanting books signed for the entire 2 hours we were in there. In the evening we met up with a veritable who's who of Who folk and went for a joyously rumbustious meal in a particularly fine Greek restaurant hand-picked by Mike Tucker. Afterwards Paul and I were having a nightcap in the lounge bar of our - admittedly pretty posh - hotel when, to our astonishment, a huge black rat scuttled across the carpet. Ain't London wonderful!
This Saturday just gone (15th) we had another successful Q&A/signing at Borders in Leeds, and on Thursday (20th) we're doing a reading/Q&A/signing at Borders in Manchester Fort. The following Friday (28th) we're doing a panel entitled 'Writing Doctor Who' at the Children's Literature Festival in Bath, and then the following day we'll be off to Borders in Cardiff to round off a busy month's carousing.
As if all that wasn't enough, it's the British Fantasy Convention in Nottingham this weekend. I adore FantasyCon. I've been going for twenty years now, and I never fail to have a fantastic time with many of my favourite people in the world. This year's event looks like being a particularly busy one for me. I'm moderating two panels, one on Friday, one on Saturday, I'm presenting a British Fantasy Award at the banquet on Sunday, and I'm even up for an award myself (Best Non-fiction for Cinema Macabre). Plus no less than three books are being launched this weekend in which I have at least some involvement. One is, of course, the afore-mentioned Stitch, my second novel, originally published in 1991, which is being reissued as a beautiful hardback by Humdrumming. Another is The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, for which I've written the introduction, and which, funnily enough, is also published by...well, I'll leave you to guess. And finally Best New Horror 18, edited by Steve Jones, which contains my story What Nature Abhors (and which isn't published by Humdrumming) will be launched on Saturday lunchtime with a signing of all attending contributors.
If I can get my act together, I'll put piccies of the covers of all these books up on the website soon and maybe even some of the Doctor Who signings...so stayed tuned.
Okay, well, I suppose I'd better go and write some books. Hope to see some of you at one or more of the above events.
Cheers for now. Mark x
I am so snowed under with work at the moment. But it's frustrating work, itty-bitty stuff. Since getting back from our family hols - 2 blissful weeks in Turkey, which now seems like months ago - I've been inundated with page proofs (for the new Humdrumming edition of Stitch, which is due to be launched at FantasyCon this weekend, and for The Deluge, out from Leisure in December), and I've been writing introductions, and editing old stuff, and researching stuff for a book which another publisher wants a synopsis for, and...yada, yada, yada.
It seems ages since I actually did any proper writing, and i'm dying to get back to it...in fact I desperately need to get back to it. I'm about half-way through my Hellboy book, The All-Seeing Eye, and have been half-way through it for around 6 weeks now. That book is deadlined for December, as is my 50,000 word novella for Earthling, which I haven't even started yet (gulp). Then I've got another book deadlined for March (which I'm not allowed to talk about yet). With all that to be getting on with, I suppose I shouldn't really be spending time on this blog at the moment. But like I say, it's been bloody ages since I updated it, so I thought...sod it. Take some time out. Get it done.
Despite being snowed under with work, September is turning into an exciting month. My Doctor Who book, Forever Autumn, came out on the 6th, and together with my fellow Who authors, Paul Magrs and Mark Michalowski, I'm currently 'on tour' - or at least promoting the books at various events up and down the country. On Saturday September 8th, the three of us did two signings, one at 10th Planet in Barking and one at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. The 10th Planet one was particularly successful. We had a steady stream of people wanting books signed for the entire 2 hours we were in there. In the evening we met up with a veritable who's who of Who folk and went for a joyously rumbustious meal in a particularly fine Greek restaurant hand-picked by Mike Tucker. Afterwards Paul and I were having a nightcap in the lounge bar of our - admittedly pretty posh - hotel when, to our astonishment, a huge black rat scuttled across the carpet. Ain't London wonderful!
This Saturday just gone (15th) we had another successful Q&A/signing at Borders in Leeds, and on Thursday (20th) we're doing a reading/Q&A/signing at Borders in Manchester Fort. The following Friday (28th) we're doing a panel entitled 'Writing Doctor Who' at the Children's Literature Festival in Bath, and then the following day we'll be off to Borders in Cardiff to round off a busy month's carousing.
As if all that wasn't enough, it's the British Fantasy Convention in Nottingham this weekend. I adore FantasyCon. I've been going for twenty years now, and I never fail to have a fantastic time with many of my favourite people in the world. This year's event looks like being a particularly busy one for me. I'm moderating two panels, one on Friday, one on Saturday, I'm presenting a British Fantasy Award at the banquet on Sunday, and I'm even up for an award myself (Best Non-fiction for Cinema Macabre). Plus no less than three books are being launched this weekend in which I have at least some involvement. One is, of course, the afore-mentioned Stitch, my second novel, originally published in 1991, which is being reissued as a beautiful hardback by Humdrumming. Another is The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, for which I've written the introduction, and which, funnily enough, is also published by...well, I'll leave you to guess. And finally Best New Horror 18, edited by Steve Jones, which contains my story What Nature Abhors (and which isn't published by Humdrumming) will be launched on Saturday lunchtime with a signing of all attending contributors.
If I can get my act together, I'll put piccies of the covers of all these books up on the website soon and maybe even some of the Doctor Who signings...so stayed tuned.
Okay, well, I suppose I'd better go and write some books. Hope to see some of you at one or more of the above events.
Cheers for now. Mark x
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