Hellboy is go!
My head's buzzing at the moment and I don't know whether I'm coming or going. The day after tomorrow I head down to London, prior to flying out to Toronto on Thursday lunchtime for the World Horror Convention 2007. I can't wait, but I'm currently at that stage where I'm thinking constantly of all the stuff I've still got to do and organise before I go.
I'm flying out with Tim Lebbon and Steve Volk, and once we arrive at our hotel, which should be late afternoon local time on Thursday, we'll be swelling the ranks of what this year promises to be an extremely impressive British contingent. Off the top of my head, the UK attendees include Steve Jones & Mandy Slater, Pete & Nicky Crowther, Mike & Paula Smith, Ramsey & Jenny Campbell, Les & Val Edwards, Brian Lumley, Pete Atkins, Sarah Pinborough, Conrad Williams, Christopher Teague, Garys Fry & McMahon, Tony Richards, Dot Lumley, L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims. If there are other Brits in attendance that I've forgotten about, I apologise profusely. Blame my frazzled brain.
I've got a pretty busy schedule while I'm there. I'm moderating two panels, doing a reading, and will be attending both the PS Publishing launch party for various titles, including the new bumper edition of PostScripts (#10), in which I've got a story, Nothing Prepares You, and the World Horror Awards Banquet, where I (or rather Cinema Macabre) am/is up for a Stoker Award in the Best Non-Fiction category.
Aside from all that, though, I'm just looking forward to catching up with many old and dear friends, as well as hopefully making a few new ones. One friend I'm particularly looking forward to seeing is Chris Golden, who I met briefly at the World Horror Convention in New York in 2005, and then got to know properly at the World Fantasy Convention in Wisconsin a few months later. Chris is a great guy - warm-hearted, generous and with a fantastic sense of humour - and it's thanks to him that I today received the news that I've been commissioned by Dark Horse in the US to write a Hellboy novel. It was Chris who instigated this, and it's been Chris who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes for several months now, trying to make it happen.
And now it has. I received the official green light today. So once I've finished playing with my Doctor Who toys, I'll be delving into the Hellboy toybox for a while. Does life get much more fun than this?
There's no deadline or publication date for Hellboy yet, but I can tell you that the novel will be called The All-Seeing Eye, or more precisely Hellboy: The All-Seeing Eye.
In the meantime, I'm still having a fantastic time working on my Doctor Who novel, Forever Autumn. I've been working at the rate of approximately 10,000 words a week, so after three weeks I'm about two-thirds of the way through. Obviously with Toronto coming up I'm not going to get much done on the book for the next week or so, but I anticipate finishing it around mid to late April, in readiness for the September 6th publication date. I've had so much fun doing it - and have made a couple of great new friends along the way in my fellow September Who authors, Paul Magrs & Mark Michalowski - that I only hope they like it enough to let me do another one.
And while we're on the subject, I must set the video for Doctor Who this Saturday, so that I can sit down and watch episode 1 of the new series with Nel and the kids when I get back. Each new Doctor Who episode is a real event in our house, as I know it is in many houses throughout the country.
Just one other quick snippet of news before I go: remember I mentioned in a previous column that I'd written a story called The All-Nighter? Well, I'm now delighted to report that I've sold the story to Garys Fry & McMahon for their forthcoming movie-themed anthology Paging Mr Hitchcock. PMH will be a kind of companion volume to their previous excellent anthology Poe's Progeny. Published by Gray Friar Press, it's due for publication (I think) towards the end of this year or early next.
And that's it. My brain really is frazzled now, so if any of the above seems incoherent or inordinately rambly then I apologise.
Right, next stop, Toronto. Speak to you when I get back!
I'm flying out with Tim Lebbon and Steve Volk, and once we arrive at our hotel, which should be late afternoon local time on Thursday, we'll be swelling the ranks of what this year promises to be an extremely impressive British contingent. Off the top of my head, the UK attendees include Steve Jones & Mandy Slater, Pete & Nicky Crowther, Mike & Paula Smith, Ramsey & Jenny Campbell, Les & Val Edwards, Brian Lumley, Pete Atkins, Sarah Pinborough, Conrad Williams, Christopher Teague, Garys Fry & McMahon, Tony Richards, Dot Lumley, L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims. If there are other Brits in attendance that I've forgotten about, I apologise profusely. Blame my frazzled brain.
I've got a pretty busy schedule while I'm there. I'm moderating two panels, doing a reading, and will be attending both the PS Publishing launch party for various titles, including the new bumper edition of PostScripts (#10), in which I've got a story, Nothing Prepares You, and the World Horror Awards Banquet, where I (or rather Cinema Macabre) am/is up for a Stoker Award in the Best Non-Fiction category.
Aside from all that, though, I'm just looking forward to catching up with many old and dear friends, as well as hopefully making a few new ones. One friend I'm particularly looking forward to seeing is Chris Golden, who I met briefly at the World Horror Convention in New York in 2005, and then got to know properly at the World Fantasy Convention in Wisconsin a few months later. Chris is a great guy - warm-hearted, generous and with a fantastic sense of humour - and it's thanks to him that I today received the news that I've been commissioned by Dark Horse in the US to write a Hellboy novel. It was Chris who instigated this, and it's been Chris who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes for several months now, trying to make it happen.
And now it has. I received the official green light today. So once I've finished playing with my Doctor Who toys, I'll be delving into the Hellboy toybox for a while. Does life get much more fun than this?
There's no deadline or publication date for Hellboy yet, but I can tell you that the novel will be called The All-Seeing Eye, or more precisely Hellboy: The All-Seeing Eye.
In the meantime, I'm still having a fantastic time working on my Doctor Who novel, Forever Autumn. I've been working at the rate of approximately 10,000 words a week, so after three weeks I'm about two-thirds of the way through. Obviously with Toronto coming up I'm not going to get much done on the book for the next week or so, but I anticipate finishing it around mid to late April, in readiness for the September 6th publication date. I've had so much fun doing it - and have made a couple of great new friends along the way in my fellow September Who authors, Paul Magrs & Mark Michalowski - that I only hope they like it enough to let me do another one.
And while we're on the subject, I must set the video for Doctor Who this Saturday, so that I can sit down and watch episode 1 of the new series with Nel and the kids when I get back. Each new Doctor Who episode is a real event in our house, as I know it is in many houses throughout the country.
Just one other quick snippet of news before I go: remember I mentioned in a previous column that I'd written a story called The All-Nighter? Well, I'm now delighted to report that I've sold the story to Garys Fry & McMahon for their forthcoming movie-themed anthology Paging Mr Hitchcock. PMH will be a kind of companion volume to their previous excellent anthology Poe's Progeny. Published by Gray Friar Press, it's due for publication (I think) towards the end of this year or early next.
And that's it. My brain really is frazzled now, so if any of the above seems incoherent or inordinately rambly then I apologise.
Right, next stop, Toronto. Speak to you when I get back!