DO, meet your heroes

The adage “Never meet your heroes, for if you do, it will always disappoint” has been ingrained into us over many years. Yet, I find myself in strong…

DO, meet your heroes

Talking UNWELCOME with On The Slab

Had a great time chatting about UNWELCOME with Greg Flanagan for the On The Slab show. We discuss viewer reactions to the film, working with the actors to develop their characters, why we definitely need more banshee movies and much more…

Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire on Authorized

It’s always a treat to go on the Authorized Podcast, but this was a different and extra special episode for two reasons: instead of film novelisation, we were discussing a choose-your-own-adventure book called Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire, and secondly because my son George joined for this episode. To discover why you’ll just have to tune in (not that people actually ‘tune in’ to podcasts, but you get what I mean) and you will also be rewarded with some excellent insight to the Club Penguin phenomenon…

The Holly King is out TODAY

As if I haven’t been banging on enough about this, but… THE HOLLY KING is out today!

Here’s a whole bunch of links on the Witches of Woodville website. Click on the order button and you should see a whole plethora of retailers pop up. Depending on your browser and device you might need to scroll down a wee bit.

Of course if you want a signed paperback you can get that from me here.

And in the last few minutes it’s been launched on Kindle in the USA and Canada.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s read it and shared my social media posts or left a review or rating. These things really do make a difference.

Right… better get back to writing book five!

Harriet Muncaster on the Bestseller Experiment: Creating Worlds

I saw a blog by a writer recently declaring that we should all aim for perfection. Their point being that once the book is out there, then you don’t have an opportunity to change it (which isn’t strictly true) and that we should all aim to make any book we write the best it possibly can be.

I agree that I want anything I write to be the best that I can do, but perfection…? Not sure it exists. And it can be the enemy of creativity, especially when you’re starting out. The idea of creating something as polished and perfect as your favourite author’s latest tome is intimidating at best, crippling at worst. Over time I’ve discovered that creating is a process of failing a little less each time. With each draft, each book, each script I’ve learned something that helped make the next one a little better. But it’s never perfect.

There’s a moment in this week’s interview with the brilliant Harriet Muncaster where she says she held off from starting a project because she wanted it to be perfect. Which meant for a long time she didn’t do anything at all. Then she eventually realised that, ‘If you don’t start something, then it never really develops.’ So if you’ve been putting off that novel, script, artwork, whatever, because you were worried that it wouldn’t be perfect then today’s the day to start it. It won’t be perfect. Nothing ever is. But as you work on it you will discover that it just might be better than you ever imagined.

Also in this week’s episode me and Mr D discuss being child-like and end up being very childish. And in the extended version I finally talk about my role in the Nautilus TV series and what’s happened at Disney+. You can listen to that by becoming a Chart Topper supporter here.

I’ll be at the Maidstone Literary Festival

Congrats! You’ve finished your novel. But what happens now? Get an agent? A publisher? What other options are available to authors today? I’ll be at the Maidstone Literary Festival to tell you everything you need to know about publishers, agents, advances, royalties, self-publishing and more. Click here for tickets.

SATURDAY 7th OCTOBER, 10-11AM

Kent History & Library Centre, James Whatman Way, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1LQ

I Have A Kofi, Buy Me A Cuppa

I finally have a Kofi page! ‘What’s a Kofi page?’ you may ask. It’s a place where delightful people like your good self can donate small amounts of money to poor, wretched writers like me. ‘Hang on,’ you continue, folding your arms and narrowing your eyes, ‘you’ve written films and had books published by big publishers… Shouldn’t you be loaded?’

Yes. Yes, I should… But I was paid for Unwelcome three years ago (almost to the day!) and that was the equivalent of two years’ salary of my old job. And because Warner Bros much such a limp effort of promoting it that it will never earn its budget back and I’ll never get the fifty grand of my fee that I deferred just before filming (won’t make that mistake again).

Nautilus, the Disney+ TV show that was my idea has been filmed and is in post-production, but has just been dropped by Disney so I won’t be seeing any money from that soon.

And yes, I have been published by the likes of Simon & Schuster, but it wasn’t a huge advance and I’m on a joint accounting contract which means I don’t start earning royalties until the first three books have earned out (to learn more about how all this nonsense works, click here).

And also yes, I have been self-publishing a few of my books, but that’s also an expensive business and turning into a bit of a money pit…

So if you like my stuff and you’ve bought all the books and seen the films, then do please consider dropping three quid in the Kofi tip jar. I reckon if 231 of you do it, I might just be able to pay my overdraft off. I’ll be popping all my blog posts and other exclusive bits and bobs over on Kofi, too, so it won’t just be me panhandling. Pop over have a look…

True Grit with Sarah Moorhead on the Bestseller Experiment

It was a delight to welcome back Sarah Moorhead to the Bestseller Experiment podcast this week. There’s a moment early on when she talks about creating great characters and how the ‘grit in the oyster makes the pearl’. I think the same can be said about Sarah who found herself in the perfect storm of her debut being launched in lockdown at the same time as she was dropped by her agent and publisher. There are few authors who could bounce back from that, and Sarah has done it brilliantly with her new novel The Treatment. Get inspired and have a listen/watch below and if you want more like that, there’s an extended version for podcast supporters where Sarah answers listener questions on resilience, self-belief, plotting, structure, why learning to write is like learning to drive and much more! You can get access to that and hundreds of hours of extra material by becoming a Chart Topper supporter of the podcast here.

Four Films That Mean A Lot

I had a great time speaking to Chris Deacy on the KMTV Kent Film Club show about the four films that mean the most to (that week at least… ask me again now and it might be four different films!)

Can you guess what they are? There’s a slight spoiler in the blog’s pic…