Richard Wright

A commemorative anthology collecting the best stories from the previous twenty-eight volumes of the Short Trips anthology series, featuring original tales from the first eight incarnations of the Doctor. Features ‘Lonely’ by Richard Wright (Big Finish Productions 2009).

Unfortunately, Short Trips: Re:Collections is now out of print from the publisher.  Copies may still appear with other retailers, but they won’t be updated here – good luck finding one!

It’s May. That means you can grab the hardback anthology Short Trips: Transmissions for half the cover price, £7.50, direct from the publisher. It contains my story ‘Lonely’, and is just about to go out of print – the sale runs for exactly as long as stocks last. Don’t hang about, if you want one.

It won’t be the very last appearance of the story, as it’s been selected to appear in the ‘Best Of’ final volume of the Short Trips range later this month, cover price £20. After that though… well, because I don’t own the rights to Doctor Who, I won’t be able to publish the story anywhere else. Read it in one of these books, or be left forever wondering what I did to the Eighth Doctor in a chatroom…

Go on. You know you want to.

Official announcements have now been made by the right and proper people, so I can finally pass you the details of the ‘mystery’ anthology I’ll be in at the end of May. To the dismay of many, Big Finish productions are about to cease publishing their Short Trips series of short story anthologies featuring the Doctor (from Doctor Who – do keep up). To celebrate the range, they’re putting out one final, mammoth hardback volume in May, featuring one story from each of the previous twenty-eight volumes (published regularly since 2002). These stories are intended to represent the best of each book, as selected by the editors of each.

‘Lonely’, my contribution to the 2008 anthology Doctor Who: Short Trips – Transmissions, has been picked out by editor Richard Salter to represent his book, which is very flattering indeed, particularly given the stories and authors he had at his disposal.

I’m a little sad to see the range end, as it was the last bastion of official Doctor Who fiction in written form that was not marketed squarely at kids (writers had to bear in mind that a lot of kids might be reading, but had flexibility within that remit to tell some sophisticated, mature fiction if they chose to), but delighted to be featured in this celebration of what the books achieved.

If you’re a fan of the Doctor, but have never sampled the Short Trips range, then grab this monster collection, as it promises the best there was. It’s out at the end of May, priced £19.99, and you can pre-order it here.

There’s also some good news for those of you who might be less interested in Doctor Who per se, but do want to get a copy of ‘Lonely’ while you can (or indeed, those feeling the credit crunch a little). From the 1st of May, the remaining copies of the previous anthologies that Big Finish have in stock will go on sale for £7.50 – about half the original price. That means you’ll be able to get the original Doctor Who: Short Trips – Transmissions for a steal, while stocks last. It’s a really, really good book. Really. I’m prepared to bet that the editor, Richard Salter, agonised long and hard about which story he wanted to put forward for Recollections, because there are some very juicy tales in there (indeed, when he told me he was putting ‘Lonely’ forward, I had to fight the urge to decline in embarrassment, and recommend one of the others instead).

Whichever you choose, if you’re at all interested in reading ‘Lonely’ you need to get one or the other while you can. As I don’t own the rights to Doctor Who(you can tell by my lack of conspicuous wealth), I can’t do anything else with this story. Ever. Even if I’m ever fortunate enough to have my short fiction professionally collected by a publisher, ‘Lonely’ won’t be there. It’s a shame. I’m proud of the story, a creepy tale set entirely within an internet (really!) chatroom, and it would otherwise sit proudly between those hypothetical future pages. As that can’t happen, this is your one shot.

Go to it!

Never heard of him. Brilliant.

You have no idea what it does to a man’s psyche, seeing his obituary posted all over the web.  I had to check my own pulse (and panicked when I couldn’t find it).

Anyway, a reader (hi Don!) inadvertently reminds me that I have been neglectful of the old website recently, and though I didn’t think so much time has passed, it was indeed more than a month ago that I last posted anything here.  Sorry about that.  I’ll do better from now on.

Today though, I shall make mention of a couple of reviews for Short Trips: Transmissions. Both are rather good, and say nice things about ‘Lonely’ (an indeed, the other stories – the book is going down very well with those who give it a try). The first is online, so you can read it for free over at Sci-Fi Online, and see whether or not ‘Lonely’ is both creepy, and gripping (erm… it is…).

The second is in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine, issue 400 no less, and is similarly favourable, if a little harder to find soundbites in.  It does point out that anthologies are by their nature hit and miss, and that this one hits more often than it misses, so that’s okay.  As an aside to that, you have no idea how weird it is being reviewed in a magazine you used to read when you were a kid.  Very strange, in a good way.

Anyway, go and buy a copy.  Don did, from Amazon, and it turned up the next day. He enjoyed it, quite a lot, and I think you will too.