It been a busy old week, that’s seen me largely hammering the keyboard morning, noon and night, which means I’ve not updated the blog all week. So, forgive me for the length of this post. Strap yourself in – here we go!
That London!
I did manage to escape the study, to pop up to London on Thursday to have meetings about my involvement at the Doctor Who Festival, upcoming Star Wars books, plus making secret squirrel plans with my agent, Jane, for 2016.
I also had time to nip along to the launch of Future’s new Crime Scene magazine at Waterstones Trafalgar Square. Crime authors Linwood Barclay and Val McDermid talked about their books and crime writing in general, and it was good to catch up with mag editor Rosie Fletcher and editor-in-chief, David Bradley. I grabbed a copy of the mag and can recommend it to any fan of crime TV and books.
There was a great moment where Val McDermid was asked why crime is such a popular genre and she replied: ‘We all have someone we’d like to kill’ with a wicked sparkle in her eye.
Linwood also said something that has come back to me a few times since the event: ‘You write a book and you make mistakes, so you make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes for your next book and make different ones instead.’ That’s definitely true. You just keep learning with every new story you write.
Outlining
Talking of writing, I pop up along with Paul Cornell on Gareth L. Powell’s recent How To Write A Novel Outline blog post sharing our methods. It’s a fascinating post if you’ve ever wondered how authors plan their novels.
Gnasher and Gnipper & Minnie
This week’s Beano sees the beginning of my run on Gnasher & Gnipper, with the menacing mutts spotting the sausage of their dreams. It’s great to be working with artist Barrie Appleby once again on the art.
Meanwhile, with words by me and art by Nigel Parkinson, Minnie the Minx goes takes paintballing to the extreme.
The latest issue is out right now!
Penguins of Madagascar
Finally, last Wednesday saw the trade paperback of the first series of Titan Comic’s Penguins of Madagascar, including Operation: Heist by me and Lucas Ferreyra, a 20-page story of art theft, hypnotism and mayhem.
The Great Drain Robbery is out now!
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