Richard Wright

It’s always a good day when contributor copies arrive, and these beauties are particularly satisfying. I mean, for heaven’s sake, that’s the TARDIS on the cover. The bloody TARDIS! It sits in a sea of lovely pink! This is a good thing. Boys like Doctor Who, and so will buy the book. Girls like pink, and so will buy the book. All is good.

It strikes me though, that many of you might be here because you enjoy my horror fiction, and might be struggling for a reason to splash out on a Doctor Who book in these tough financial times. Here are some suggestions.

1. Hey, it’s still me writing, and even though the book’s content has to stay PG-friendly to match the TV show, I think ‘Lonely’ remains a creepy little story that can sit proudly alongside the rest of my fiction. Doctor Who is a show that embraces all sorts of genres, but for me it’s always worked best when there’s horror in the background. I’d even go as far as to say that watching the show as a kid was my introduction to fear in entertainment. ‘Lonely’, hopefully, reflects that aspect of the show.
2. If you collect my writing, it’s worth noting that this is the first time my fiction has ever been seen in hardcover. In the coming year, I hope it will be joined by at least one more, but for now it’s my hardback debut.
3. If, like me, you’re a long time viewer of the show, this book should be a no-brainer. New stories featuring the Doctors you grew up with? I mean, c’mon…
4. If you only know the show’s current incarnation, and have only met the ninth and tenth regenerations of the Doctor, as played by Eccleston and Tennant, then a book like this is a one-stop introduction to what has gone before. It’s the ultimate sampler, seventeen snapshots of the men the Doctor has been. ‘Lonely’, for example, features the eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann, the incarnation who would one day regenerate into Christopher Eccleston, and it’s speculated that this incarnation fought in the Time War referenced in the series, losing his life in doing so. If you know the current show, and saw season three’s ‘Human Nature’, you’ve even seen a sketch of the character, as drawn by Dr John Smith in his A Journal of Impossible Things. You really should meet him in person.
5. In it’s own right, this is a good book, featuring some great writers playing with some fantastic ideas. ‘Lonely’, as I’ve mentioned before, is a story that could only exist in written form. It’s absolutely impossible to film (erm, probably).

So what do you think? Want to give it a try?

Big Finish

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

News just in – it appears that Short Trips: Transmissions, the Doctor Who short story anthology from Big Finish Productions containing my story ‘Lonely’, is currently shipping. So far, there’s been confirmation that Big Finish subscribers to the anthologies have received copies by mail, and I’ve been pointed to a couple of message board posts that give both the book and ‘Lonely’ a nice thumbs up.

Which is a tremendous relief. I know the book as a whole is good, with plenty of variety and some nice innovation thanks to Richard Salter’s editorial eye, but the fact the ‘Lonely’ has been read and enjoyed by fans of the show feels fantastic. Of course, I’ve been a fan of the show for years, but that’s a world apart from writing a piece of commercial fiction from the other side of the fence. Of course, there’s plenty of time yet for the majority of readers to loathe and despise the tale, but somebody who spent their cash on the book got a kick out of my story, and that’s good enough for me. I hope I’ve served the character well, and who knows, if people buy and enjoy it, I might get the chance to do the same again.

So, the anxiety reduces. Lordy, writing stories can be a torment of nerves sometimes.

Anyway, go and buy a copy from Big Finish or Amazon.co.uk, or look out for this on the shelves.

In other news, we passed the test, and the potential wedding venue has been provisionally booked, but more on that later…

So, last night the fourth series of the revived Doctor Who came to a ballistic, bombastic end. Semi-regenerations, human Doctors, and a brilliantly cackling Davros. Particular kudos to David Tennant and Bernard Cribbins, who squeezed some real emotion into an otherwise crammed episode. And boy, was it crammed. There were some deeply silly moments (at one point, I expected Wilf to turn up with a doomsday weapon, because everybody else had), and some truly inspired ones (Davros confronting the Doctor with the Time Lord’s true nature – a pacifist who won’t touch a gun, but who at the same time moulds the people who love him into weapons).

And now, the long wait. A Christmas special, another couple next year, and then a new series in 2010.

A long, long wait. But it doesn’t have to be an empty one.

Short Trips: Transmissions. Nothing passes the time like a short story, does it? While the future creeps closer, dip into the unseen past…

Apparently, my lady love will only consent to an Indiana Jones themed wedding if she’s allowed to dress as an Nazi SS officer (they had the sexiest uniforms, apparently). While no wedding is entirely complete without a public lynching of the bride, I feel that ours, perhaps, should depart with tradition here. Back to the drawing board.

A new review and an interview, just in…

Issue 31 of the print magazine Dark Realms carries a review of Beneath the Surface which says several nice things, included among them “Beneath the Surface is a first-rate horror anthology that delivers a thoroughly enjoyable collection of fiendishly fun tales.” Don’t take their word for it though. Find out for yourself by grabbing a copy here.

Over at Unreality SF you can check out an interview with Richard Salter, who talks in detail about Short Trips: Transmissions, the Doctor Who anthology I’ll have a story in next month (indeed, he gives you a flavour of that story, among others…). It’s interesting reading, and should fuel your curiosity. With the 2008 series of Doctor Who fast approaching what looks to be a ballistic conclusion, which will no doubt involve a cliffhanger for Tennant’s Doctor number 10 that won’t be resolved until the Xmas special, you’re going to be in the perfect mood to time travel the other way, and distract yourself with previously unseen adventures from his past lives. You can, of course, pre-order the book right now if you choose.

Blogging takes me in waves, it seems. Sometimes I do lots, and sometimes I do little. C’est la vie. There won’t be much happening around here for the rest of this month, as I’ll be on the move lots, but I’ll catch you all up around the start of June with what’s been going on. Meantime, there have been a few developments on projects behind the scenes, most of which is not yet ready for announcing (although among them, one particular project is steamrollering ahead with impressive zest). A couple of other things of note though.

Beneath the Surface

Still no official reviews for this rather splendid recent anthology from Shroud Publishing, which features my story ‘Secrets (Never Told), though customer reviews at Amazon.com have been pretty good. Have you bought it? What do you think?

Short Trips: Transmissions

I heard the other day that the final edits of the stories in the books, including my own ‘Lonely’, have been approved by the BBC, so the book is good to go in July. A huge sigh of relief (the BBC own the character in absolute terms, and would have no hesitation in asking for stories to be removed if they clashed with the ethos or history of the character and the series), and a little thrill inside, as there is nothing to do now but wait for the book, my first hardback as well as, dammit, a Doctor Who book, heads to the printer. Why not pre-order the book from Big Finish, and be among the first to read it?