Travels Over, Work Required

I'm back in India after a week in London. I had a great time, walking around Hyde Park in glorious end of summer sun:

Seeing the Dave McKean exhibition at the Pumphouse Gallery, entitled Hypercomics. The full set of photos can be seen here:

I met my new niece, Orla, who didn't talk much, unlike this man, who did.

And then we went to a wedding in sunny Eastbourne:

And now I'm back at work.

I'm going off line for a few days as I've got to review the line edited version of 'Juvie' and put together a full synopsis for 'Stigma' as my agent is at the Frankfurt book fair next week. That means lots of work and concentration which is going to be interesting since I'm ever so slightly jet lagged and plan to move into a new apartment this weekend. 

This blog should also be appearing somewhere 'new' soon. I'll let you know details as soon as I hear more.

Right, now - work.

Cover Design

The draft version of the cover for 'The Missing' has arrived. No one has said I can't so I'm sure it's okay to share it with you:

I like what they have done. The colours, deep red and yellow, represent the fact that the story is set in the middle of a heat wave. The urban setting is obvious and even though the warehouse does look a little American, it also looks like the big old warehouses in Nottingham's Lace Market area (the location of the book). The font for the title I think really works and the black band helps my name stand out. I also like the fact it's a wrap around cover.

There are to be a few changes, a tag line is to be added to the top of the front cover which I think will read "They are the missing, lost souls, the disappeared," and the blurb on the back is to be tidied up. My name will also be up-cased as this seems to the be main format on most novels today.

I'll post the finished cover when it arrive but in the meantime let me know what you think.

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Midnight Days is a series of Neil Gaiman's early works for Vertigo collected together. It shows how he matured as an author and comic book writer. The Hellblazer short 'Hold Me', is brilliant, a slow burning, grimy story set in an acid lit London tower block. It's stark and simple and wonderfully drawn by Dave McKean.

Other stories are less easy to enjoy mainly because they are read out of context. The first two are both based on the 'Swamp Thing' mythos and require you to have some understanding of what has happened to the character previously, whilst the Sandman story is a little long winded but has a great pay off.

An enjoyable collection if only to show how Neil Gaiman has gained in competence and style.

Read this week:

Midnight Days by Neil Gaiman.

Before I go...

Today’s my last day in front of the Mac for some time as I’m visiting Morocco - Marrakech to be more precise. I plan to spend the time playing with the new Nikon and attempting to get that perfect shot that encapsulates the heat of the street, the shadows and mystery of the souk, the light playing off the Atlas Mountains and the history that beats within the walls of that mysterious city. If that doesn’t work then I’ll just have to eat tagine and drink mint tea until I’m fully rested.

I’m taking a bit of reading material with me including Huston’s ‘Already Dead’, Carey’s ‘Thicker Than Water’ and ‘A Madness of Angels’ by Kate Griffin. That should keep me busy.

The Royal Mail stamps containing art by Dave McKean and words by Neil Gaiman have arrived. I’m not much of a philatelist, but these are lovely little things and worth £4.35 of any-ones money

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Century: 1910 is the next outing for The League of Extraordinary Gentleman by Mr. Moore and Mr. O’Neill and I’m glad to say a big improvement on ‘Black Dossier’, which I found just a little too self indulgent.

The book begins with Nemo’s daughter, setting her up as a replacement for the ageing mysterious submariner pirate. Running away from her destiny she ends up in the East End of London where the unaging Mina and Allan have been joined by Orlando, Raffles and Carnacki.

As usual part of the enjoyment is spent identifying all the allusions to history and characters real or imagined. The story seems more straight forward than the last outing and the art work is as usual excellent.

The Scar by China Mieville is probably one of the best works of fantasy I have ever read. The book follows a woman in exile from her city of birth, via a slave ship to a new urban sprawl, the pirate city of Armada. Made up from boats the entire vast city floats around the ocean collecting enforced citizens and growing in size and power. The rulers of the city, a mysterious couple called ‘the Lovers’ decide to increase the power of the fledgling state with or without the help of its people, by steering the city to a place that might not even exist.

The book deals with alienation, freedom, servitude, responsibility, civic power, and trust, just to mention a few things. Written in the steampunk subgenre the book stands heads and shoulders above many due to its breadth of ideas and its intelligence. It’s a demanding book that deserves your attention, a book that shows that fantasy need not be considered ‘a foolish thing’, but when written correctly can display more about the human psyche than even the best works of literary fiction.

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So with all short stories in before my deadline, ‘Pick 57’ gestating nicely, I bid you adieu and leave you with a couple of Dave McKean shorts in my absence.

Read this week:

Century: 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill

The Scar by China Mieville

Quick Links

Just a few quick links of net stuff. 

First, Dave Mckean is interviewed at Seven Impossible Things. See why he is a favourite of mine as they have included several good examples of his work.

Next, pop over to Steampunk Myths and Legends to see the result of their competition.

Finally check out this short documentary about graffiti artist Peter Gibson.

That's it. As you were.

The convention

I’m back from my jaunt having spent time down in Nottingham at the BFS’s FantasyCon and a few days away recharging the batteries and working on the outline for a short comic.

This was the first FantasyCon I have ever been to and it was…interesting. It was not quite what I had in mind when I thought about going earlier in the year, certainly less instructive and slightly more amateurish than I was expecting, plus the venue needs a rethink (and if at all possible, pulling down). Dave McKean was guest of honour (and highlight) and along with Vincent Chong provided some interesting insights into art, comics and getting published. He also signed a copy of his book of sketches for me including a drawing of an elf/goblin/alien creature. Simon Guerrier, frequent blogger and Dr Who author was eloquent but I failed to introduce myself, whilst Simon R. Green seemed to be nuttier than a fruitcake.

I’ve spent the rest of the week in the small town of Kirkcudbright on the west coast of Scotland. The weather was wonderful, the company good and the wine plentiful. When I could I wrote in the silence of a cottage only interrupted by the rooks that would gather in the tall trees to caw at one another. I also did plenty of reading.

Pork Pie Hat is a small book I must have picked up in a second hand shop and had on my shelf for some time. It is very well written with Straub picking up the nuances of a Jazz musician at the end of his life reminiscing about what happened to him as a child that seriously effected who he was to become. It’s a haunting story very well rendered.

Carey’s second novel in the Felix Castor series adds to the ‘other’ London he has created. It still has echoes of Constantine but it feels as if Castor is becoming his own man. The city is real and grimy and the story line full of interesting plots twists. Old characters return keeping the series whole whilst the book finishes with enough change in Castor’s circumstances to make the next book eagerly anticipated.

I remember the Triffids TV show which was produced in 1981. I’m not sure if I saw a repeat or not as I would only have been six on its first airing and I’m sure I would not have been allowed to stay up that late, or else gone to bed with nightmares. Before I read the book all I could recall were several jumper wearing hippies living on a farm being surrounded by the Triffids. This I thought was foolish and not very scary as the plants could only shuffle on small legs and must have been as limited as the original Daleks as any grown individual could have easily out run them. Of course I had forgotten that many of the survivors had already been blinded by falling green meteorites and that society had broken down to such a degree that the world had been returned to pre-industrial society.
The book is timely and seems not to have dated too much considering it was published in 1951. It pick up on other well known sci-fi stories (notably H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds) but makes something particularly British in its depiction of the end of the world.

I’m working on a script at the moment as well as answering questions from my publishers. With the re-write of ‘The DarkFather’ starting as well I imagine I should be busy for the next couple of months.

Read this week:
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
Pork Pie Hat by Peter Straub

Kiwi Article

I found a link today for a recent article I wrote for those nice people at Travel Weekly. It's a small piece on New Zealand and brings back warm fuzzy memories of mine and Madam Vin adventures in that part of the world.

If any of my Southern hemisphere friends are reading please drop me a comment.

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Had a nice parcel in the post yesterday from that excellent purveyor of fine fiction - Subterranean Press. It's a copy of Alan Campbell's 'Lye Street', and a beautiful signed edition with a simple Dave Mckean cover. I'll add it to my large pile of to read books.

God's Waiting Room

So much to do and so little time. I just don't know how you're meant to fit everything into one life as I currently feel as if I'm living at least two.

Went to see PC Benny passing out (not literally) down in sunny, candyfloss imbued Paignton. He looked very smart or done up in his uniform and had even shaved for once. I had visions of being a PC down in Devon as being something of a laid back affair, akin to driving around small country lanes and tracking down the odd cream tea crime. How mistaken I was, at it seems Paignton is a hot bed of tattooed thugs wearing stretch lycra, fuelled by cheap lager and all day breakfasts...and that's just the women.

Due to some last minute hitch we ended up staying in a B&B...or what we thought was a B&B. It seemed that instead we had stumbled upon God's waiting room and it was full too capacity of old dears sipping tea and exchanging pleasantries such as how much dribble had leaked out of them during the night. It seems that God himself is a rough diamond from the East end of London with penchant for poodles. The world's religions are probably not to keen on promoting this new bit of information and will have to rewrite a lot of hymns to include rhyming slang.

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'The White Road' is a pivotal book in the saga of Charlie 'Bird' Parker allowing him to put many of his ghosts behind him while setting him up as a better formed character for the coming stories. The book itself is personally the weakest in story but acts more as a repositioning of all the characters for what comes later and allows the character of Louise and Angel to be become less stereotyped.

Everytime I read about Louis I think of the actor Ving Rhames. If they ever film any of these books surely he's a contender for the role.

'Signal to Noise' is an early Gaiman / McKean work which rather than them dealing with the more fantastical elements they dwell on the ideas of death and creation. At times it does have a slight 'straight out of art college' feel to the story, student angst etc but its still a beautifully presented piece of work that feels like a historical piece now that the millenium is behind us.

Read this week:
Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
The White Road by John Connolly

A Book Review or Two.

I've been reading Author Hill's new book this week. I'm always concerned when I read something written by someone I know, for fear I'll find it lacklustre, or boring or (even worst) badly written and that the next time I see them they'll ask me to comment on it. I'm not very good at lying beside I always want my own creations to be critiqued with honesty. If it's bad tell me its bad…I know I can't please everyone and tend to write for my own pleasure more anyway.

That said 'Blade of Fire' (the second book in 'The Icemark Chronicles') is a better book than the first and pretty much thumps along at a thrilling pace. The story takes place many years later with Thirrin and Oskan all grown up and ruling their northern kingdom while having had a brood of children. The youngest of these is
Charlemagne, the runt of the litter, crippled by polio when he was a babe. Though the parent's obvious favourite, Charlemagne (or Sharley as he is none to family and friends) feels unable to perform as a true macho Prince of the Icemark. This is a nice touch and differentiates the character from the first hero Thirrin.

Enter Scipio Bellorum, the imperial commander of the Empire, still smarting from the loss of the war in the first book returns with his sadistic sons in tow and a larger mechanically enhanced army ready to wipe the Icemark off the map.

Sharley is given the role of taking the countries refugees out of the Icemark, across the sea to the deserts of the south. Smarting and hurt that he is being made to leave when even his gothic sister Medea is allowed to stay he is none the less intrigued by his father's prophesy that he will return to the north, "a blade of fire in your hand."

After this the book splits in two. We get the views of Sharley and his adventures as he travels to lands familiar to the YA reader and yet somewhat alien and fantasised. A city based on renaissance Venice, a desert kingdom reminiscent of Saudi, and a land populated by Zulu type warriors. This bringing together of different peoples with Sharley's own Nordic people plus the creatures of the Icemark, their differing cultures, ideas, mythology and religion contrasts against the stark atheistic, colonial society of Bellorum. In one society all work together through understanding in the other ideas are imposed. It is perhaps in this area, more than any other that its intended young adult market is noticeable.

God and Goddesses also play a large part in the book, but though minor deities are evident, the true Gods, though alluded to, never make an appearance. May be all these differing Gods are one and same, if they are they remain firmly apposed to interference.

One section that did surprise was the ending - (***SPOILER ALERT*** if you intend to read the book turn away now…go on shut your eyes…stop peeking!). The story is one of war, and the author does not pull any punches, it's bloody vicious and dirty. The final defeat of Bellorum is quick and decisive and his execution swift but without little meaning, brutal when seen through post Saddam execution eyes.

It's also Author Hill's birthday tomorrow and I look forward to catching up with him soon here or in Leicester.

I also quick read through 'The Homecoming' by Ray Bardbury. This is a short but gothic Halloween story, with a cast of vampiric and mummified aunts and uncles decending on the home of another young and crippled boy, though this child is merely psychologically crippled by the fact he does not have any of the weird traits when compared to the rest of his family.

The story is old (originally published in Mademoiselle in 1946), but this new version has been illustrated by Dave McKean. If you have not seen his work, go and look it up now…right now. It's wonderfully scratchy and atmospheric and dark and innocent and sunset struck…all at once and at the same time. Beautiful.

Read this week:
Blade of Fire by Stuart Hill
The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury and illustrated by Dave McKean.