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Showing posts from 2013

The Things

The other night I treated myself to a Blu-Ray double bill of "John Carpenter's The Thing" (1982) and "The Thing" (2011), though, of course, the correct order to see them in, given that the latter is the prequel, is the other way round. A lot has been said against the 2011 film, that it is a pale imitation of John Carpenter's classic horror, but I think it is a great piece of work, and it stands well against the older film, and it is a real joy to see them back to back, to learn what happened to the fated Norwegians before that helicopter came buzzing over the Antarctic ice shelf chasing that dog. And the two films, despite being made nearly 30 years apart, gel beautifully together. What is especially fun is seeing how well Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr has recreated the living scenes from the ghosts or aftermaths of the scenes in the 1982 film, in his 2011 prequel. It's great to see the continuity of the helicopter, the dog, but also the ice-b

The Crowdfunding Thing

Crowdfunding is not something I'd given any thought to when it came to putting a piece of fiction out to the world. I'd always gone down the Lulu and Amazon KDP route, which for me seems to be working very well and gains more traction with every passing month. So when a work colleague, Ian Stove, mentioned to me today that he was using Kickstarter to put the finishing touches on his children's book it certainly made me think more seriously about it. I've backed Ian's book and you can do it too by going here , and I'll be keen to hear from Ian how he gets on with his project, and I hope it gains the funding level it needs to go forward. The book certainly looks like a lot of fun, and although it initially looks like it might be an older read than my four year old will be able to understand (though I may be wrong about that), I'm sure I will enjoy reading it nonetheless. It's always great to read stuff by people you know. Ian also has a book on Kindle,

Free till Sunday - A Comet of Ideas...

My brand spanking new short story collection A Comet of Ideas Looking for a Planet is free on Kindle until Sunday 14th July. This collection covers fifteen years of writing, of stories that weren't part of the Axiom Few canon, or novels, obviously. In a later post I will write more about the stories behind the stories, but for now I hope you enjoy reading it. Click here to get the book

Schaefer's Integrity - free till Sunday 7th July

I hope you enjoy it. Get it between now and Sunday and it will cost you nothing. You can get it from here.

Service Desk in Black

In 1987, at the age of fourteen, I was involved in a youth film-making project in London. We made a short film called "Why?" which clocked in at about 8 minutes, and featured, among others, a very young Charlie Condou (who currently plays Marcus Dent in Coronation Street). The video went on to win the BBC's Showreel 87 Film Awards,  Judged by Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, The World Is Not Enough, Blink), Chris Menges (The Reader, The Mission, The Killing Fields) and Bob Godfrey (creator of Henry's Cat) with “Why?”, a film about school bullying, shot on video and televised in the Christmas of that year.  As the cameraman on that film I was especially honoured to be told by Michael Apted that he was impressed with the camerawork. I had always wanted to be a film maker and even did five days running at Scott Free, Ridley and Tony Scott's production company in Beak Street, Soho in 1993. It was then however, that the reality check hit me and I decided that t

Two free books from me this weekend

Just a very quick post to let you know that my books Schaefer's Integrity and The Train Set will both be free on Kindle from this Friday and all weekend. These books are definitely worth a lot more than the paper they are not printed on. Here's my author page on Amazon, where you'll be able to get them from Friday to Sunday for nothing.