Mark Stay Writes

The End of Magic website has had a makeover

The End of Magic website has been given a spring clean and looks magnificent with the new artwork by Alejandro Colucci. Have a gander by visiting TheEndOfMagic.com

I’ll be at the London MCM Comic Con, 24-26th May

I’ll be at the MCM Comic Con in London all weekend, flogging and signing my wares! As well as the Witches of Woodville books, I’ll also have paperbacks of The End of Magic with the new artwork by Alejandro Colucci, and maybe a few surprises!

See you there. CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS.

Ten Years On: Robot Overlords and Recording the Score

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

There were many magical moments during the making of Robot Overlords, but the recording of the score at AIR studios is one that still lingers ten years on. For a start… AIR studios! George Martin’s palace of sound. Hallowed ground and a genuine thrill just to be there. And the day there came hot on the heels of another screening at Pinewood the night before. There was a moment when Jon (Wright, director) and Matt (Platts-Mills, editor) were strolling through Pinewood, and it was quiet and dark and it felt like we owned the place, and I had one of those little out-of-body moments where it felt like I was in a dream. The screening had been to see the latest edit, with the pick-ups from the previous Pinewood shoot and some almost-finished VFX etc. It’s hard to describe just how floaty I felt in that short walk. All I can say to anyone lucky enough to have a moment like this is to just soak it in. Take a mental Polaroid and treasure it forever.

Anyway, back to AIR studios…

Wednesday 16th April – AIR Studios

An incredible day, watching and listening to the recording of the score for Robots at AIR Studios in Hampstead. Situated in Lyndhurst Hall, an old mission house designed by Alfred Waterhouse (who also designed the Natural History Museum), the studios aren’t as big or as famous as Abbey Road perhaps, but the sound in that hall is incredible.

When I arrived at 9.30 most of the musicians were assembling and getting ready. I found Paddy in the studio cafe and we made our way to the sound-proofed control room room. Christian Henson (composer) and his team were raring to go. He gave a short introduction, explaining that we only had the budget for one day of recording, and there was lots to do, and then they were off.

That was when my jaw dropped.

The score is amazing.

I’d had a taste of it last night at the Pinewood screening, but it was Christian’s demo, recorded with synths and samples. It was great and it gave the film a whole new feel. But nothing beats the English Session Orchestra going at full pelt.

As they rattled through cue after cue, we watched the scenes on the monitors, each one of them elevated to another level by the soaring music.

Jon arrived about 10.30ish and him, me, Paddy and Piers sat looking on with silly grins on our faces.

We discovered that the musicians hadn’t had any rehearsals. They were all sight-reading the music and often nailing it on the first take, all playing in time to a click track synchronised with a timecode on the screen. It certainly put my amateur fumblings on the guitar into perspective.

The main orchestra played from 10 till 1, then after lunch it was reduced to a smaller group of strings who played overdubs that made the orchestra sound even bigger than it was. The afternoon ended with a quartet playing a Haydn piece that will be heard on Monique’s gramophone player during a scene set in her room.

Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better, the choir arrived. Just eighteen voices (including, we were told, the deepest bass in Britain), but in that hall they sounded legion. One of my favourite parts of the score is a ‘Day in the life’ style crescendo of strings and horns (Christian’s tribute to AIR studios’ founder and Beatles producer George Martin). But then they added eerie, Kubrickian-2001 voices to it and it was transformed into something spine-tingling. By now Tim Haslam, Chris Clark and Steve Milne had joined us and we were all agog.

The day ended just before 10pm. A crammed session, but the score is not yet complete: guitars and flutes will be recorded at Christian’s studio tomorrow. Sadly, I can’t make it, but I can’t wait to hear the results.

You can listen to the Robot Overlords score on Spotify and Apple Music…

See you at Cymera Festival in June with Charles Stross

I was very excited to be asked to attend Cymera this year, and over the moon when they asked me to chat with the legendary Charles Stross! The great thing about Cymera is if you can’t make it in person (it’s in Edinburgh!), then they also live stream the events. More details below, and you can grab your tickets here.

Eldritch Gods and Other Uninvited Guests with Mark Stay and Charles Stross

Saturday, June 1, 2024, 10:15 AM 11:15 AM

The Pleasance, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£8 concession – In Person – or £5.50 Live Stream – (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

The End of Dragons copy edit…

This week, I start one last line edit before sending The End of Dragons to my copy editor. She will go through the manuscript forensically, checking not just punctuation, grammar and style, but also continuity errors and plot holes. Trust me, when I say it’s a fun part of the process. No, really! In the meantime, here’s what the lettering will look like (cover to follow… soon-ish)…

Play Dirty on the Authorized Podcast

I’ve been lucky enough to be a guest on the Authorized Podcast a few times now, but this novelisation of the 1969 WWII movie Play Dirty has been the most fascinating. The film stars Michael Caine*, was directed by Andre de Toth, with a screenplay co-written by Melvyn Bragg. The novelisation is by the mysterious Zeno, and we do some digging to discover who he really was. I have to explain Melvyn Bragg to Americans, and we spend about ten minutes getting confused about the difference between a ‘presenter’ and a ‘host’. And it’s all fun! Enjoy…

*It’s his 91st birthday, today, 14th March. Happy birthday, Sir Michael!

Jacqueline O’Mahony – Sheer Determination: My Last Interview on the Bestseller Experiment

This is it! The last author interview I did for The Bestseller Experiment podcast has been released and it’s with the brilliant Jacqueline O’Mahony and we discuss stuff like coming up with the title before the book, writing about ‘intangible things’, writing about tragedies like the Great Famine, winning awards at a young age, and the excellent advice, “Keep writing and something will come.” Enjoy!

The End of Magic — New Cover Design by Alejandro Colucci

As revealed on tonight’s live show, here’s the new cover design for THE END OF MAGIC by the breathtakingly talented Alejandro Colucci…

And here it is without all those words getting in the way of the beautiful art…

For the moment, the cover is on the Kindle edition only, but there will be a paperback coming soon. Stay tuned for that soon. In the meantime, you can enjoy more of Alejandro’s work here.

A Cover Reveal on Monday’s Livestream

Join me on Monday 11th March, 8pm GMT for a livestream with updates on…

The edit of THE END OF DRAGONS (the sequel to THE END OF MAGIC)
The latest draft of THE CORN BRIDE (the 5th book in The Witches of Woodville series)
And a COVER REVEAL of the stunning new artwork for THE END OF MAGIC by renowned artist Alejandro Colucci (you really don’t want to miss this!).

I’ll also be joined by the splendid bestselling author Caimh McDonnell. We’ll be discussing the editing process and why it doesn’t always have to be traumatic.

Facebook folk: Apologies for the issues with Facebook stream last time around. Mr Zuckerberg’s gremlins don’t make livestreaming as simple as it could be and there’s a good chance it could all go horribly wrong again. If it does, there will be a link to Youtube in the description and comments on the Facebook page.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE LIVESTREAM ON YOUTUBE

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE LIVESTREAM ON FACEBOOK (HOPEFULLY)

Ten Years On: Robot Overlords and Pinewood Pick-Ups

After the test screening and the comments about the title Our Robot Overlords, there was a frenzied email debate among the producers about what to call the film. Some of the suggestions were (and these were all real suggestions!)…

Cyber-Lords, Robo Warrior, iDrone, and, my favourite, Alien Scrapers (really!?)

We finally went for…

… drum roll…

… can you bear the tension…?

… ROBOT OVERLORDS.

Phew. That was close.

So after many test screenings, we identified the points in the film that needed pick-ups. Not re-shoots, but little scenes that help glue the film together. Some were very small – a finger tracing a line on a map – others were a little more involved, such as bluescreen shots for the finale, and new scenes to help clarify the story. We had always expected to shoot these and there was enough in the budget for one day at Pinewood.

I also saw this as an opportunity to ask the actors to read an extract from the book on film. The plan was to record them saying individual lines as they moved around the studio. I had originally envisioned maybe doing this with my cheap old camcorder, or even my phone, but an old schoolfriend – Jeremy Mason – who now makes documentaries and has done more reality TV than any one person should endure, came to the rescue and offered to film everything! The clip is below…

Sunday 2nd March – Pinewood

Really tired, but if I don’t write this now…

Friday night was a rehearsal and reunion with Callan, James and Ella (Milo had only one line and it seemed unfair to drag him across town to rehearse that). Jon and I had written two scenes for the following days’ pick-ups and we had a couple of hours booked in the Millennium Hotel in Sloane Street.

Any fears we had that we couldn’t recapture the gang’s camaraderie instantly evaporated. They clicked back together like they’d never been away.

On Saturday morning I picked up Gillian Redfearn (the book’s editor), and Jennifer McMenemy (Gollancz marketing manager) from Slough Station and we made our way to Pinewood Studios, up Goldfinger Avenue and into stages N&P. Shooting was already underway: the finger on the map.

Not long after, Jeremy and his sound guy Matt Johns turned-up with some serious-looking kit… and to think I was going to do this with my poxy little camera.

I had explained the book reading idea to the kids last night, and that I didn’t want to get under their feet, and that I knew it was a long day etc. Well, once again, I needn’t have worried. We had everything we needed by 2pm. They threw themselves into it and we shot all over Pinewood. Just fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for more. A particular highlight was Milo learning a gory bit for the dinner table, and all the others walking away in disgust.

In the afternoon, Jenn interrogated me for author interviews, and thank God she was there to coach me, otherwise the message from me would have been ‘All teachers are weirdos like Smythe,’ and ‘This book will give you nightmares’.

Jeremy and Matt were just brilliant. Quick to react to an actor’s sudden availability, they were professional, discreet, fleet of foot, and the few clips I saw at the end of the day looked extraordinary.

And then Louise Mason turned up and did the impossible: took some photos of me where I don’t look like a gurning idiot!

Jon and his crew worked tirelessly through the schedule. The scene we wrote at the wall overlooking the school (shot against bluescreen) worked really well.

Then we all decamped to the container park on the edge of the studio. It was dark now. Clear skies and bitterly cold. We arrived just after 8pm and we had to release Ella and Milo at 9.15 (there are strict rules about how long child actors can work for). The crew sprung into action. A crane rose in the distance with a powerful light beaming down on us, a smoke machine added atmosphere and fresh sandwiches, cookies and tea helped keep us warm(ish).

The kids must have been chilled to the bone in their costumes, but there wasn’t a word of complaint, just singing and fart jokes (we could hear all this via our headphones picking up their radio mics).

We got what we needed in time and everyone hurried back to the relative warmth of their cars. I gave Jon a lift to Gerrard’s Cross train station. He was tired but happy with the day’s work. Mission accomplished.