Spinning plates

Today is the first day back at my desk after a fantastic weekend at a writer’s retreat in Cheshire. Eight of us took over a wonderful farmhouse (complete with spooky cellar) and beavered away on various projects. Mark Wright and I were working on The Forgotten, the Blake’s Seven novel we’re writing for Big Finish, and elsewhere in the house you’d find Paul Magrs, George Mann, Nick Kyme, Andy Smillie, Stuart Douglas and Scott Mann. The days were spent tap, tap, tapping on keyboards while the nights were filled with old TV shows and films. George came with projector and screen tucked under his arm which made our midnight movie marathons all the more memorable. There’s something special about watching classics like The Last Man on Earth and Night of the Demon on a big screen.

The weekend has been a real shot in the arm, dispelling any lingering January blues. Great company and (hopefully) good words written. Exactly what I needed – which is good as the next few weeks are going to be busy. I’ve just been making a list of what I need to plough through:

• Finish the first draft of The Forgotten with Mark.
• Complete a kid’s annual I’m writing for Penguin Books.
• Write a feature for CPRE’s Voice magazine about the state of the UK’s hedgerows.
• Plan out two new novels, both solo projects this time. The provisional titles for both are: The Healing Box (a fantasy novel with a twist) and The Infernal Anchor (an Edwardian supernatural thriller).
• Write 10 one-page comic strips for Nitro.
• Write an Iris Wildthyme audio drama.
• Adapt William Hope Hodgson’s The Horse of the Invisible for stage.
• Write my steampunk version of Snow White for Resurrection Engines: 16 Tales of Extraordinary Scientific Romance (coming out from Snow Books this June, edited by Scott Harrison).

Phew! And if that wasn’t enough, at some point over the next two weeks I’m expecting to be called in to edit Nitro for a fortnight while the editor is on paternity leave. Plates are going to be spun!

Image courtesy of Jameson42 on flickr.