Monstrous Missions - The Terrible Lizards are unleashed!

This arrived in the post today.

This is my third Doctor Who publication and my first novel, or chapter book if you prefer, featuring the Eleventh Doctor (as portrayed by Matt Smith), Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill).

It's been some time in the making (for one reason or another) and it's great to see it in print at long last. It wasn't an easy task, writing the book, but I had a great time putting words into the Doctor's mouth and putting the Ponds through the wringer.

Monstrous Missions, which collects my story Terrible Lizards along with Gary Russell's Horror of the Space Snakes, is officially released on Thursday 2 February but you can buy it from Amazon now. Here's the blurb from the back of the book.

In TERRIBLE LIZARDS, the Doctor and his companions join a group of explorers on a Victorian tramp steamer in the Florida Everglades. The explorers are searching for the Fountain of Youth, but neither they nor the treasure they seek are quite what they seem!

And in HORROR OF THE SPACE SNAKES, people are mysteriously disappearing on Moonbase Laika. They return with strange bite marks and no idea where they have been. Can the Doctor get to the bottom of what's going on?

Monstrous Missions is one of six such 2-in-1 titles, the others are:

Book 1 - Heart of Stone/Death Riders

Book 2 - The Good, the Bad and the Alien/System Wipe

Book 3 - Alien Adventures

Book 4 - Sightseeing in Space

Book 6 - Step Back in Time

The new TJARDIIS from IKEA

Black Library Live and Official Doctor Who book signing at the Doctor Who Experience

Two events to check out tomorrow (although probably not both because they're a couple of hundred miles apart).

The first in Black Library Live! which is taking place at Games Workshop's Nottingham HQ. It's an event that celebrates and showcases Black Library's books, audio productions and authors. Available to buy pre-release on the day will be Fall of Damnos, Victories of the Space Marines, Knights of Bretonnia, Age of Darkness, Caledor, Blood Reaver and Garro: Legion of One.

Attendees will also be able to pick up a copy of the limited Black Library Live! 2011 chapbook at the sales stand (as long as stocks last). The event runs from 10.00am until 7.00pm(!), with seminars, signings, and probably some gaming somewhere along the line too. You can find out more about it here.

Secondly is the Official Doctor Who book signing taking place at the Doctor Who Experience at Olympia Two in London tomorrow, between 11.00am and 1.00pm. Justin Richards, Oli Smith and other Doctor Who experts will be there, ready to be grilled on all things intergalactic. My Doctor Who book Terrible Lizards won't be out for a while (more on that later) but I may drop by just the same, so don't forget to bring along your copies of The Horror of Howling Hill and The Official Doctor Who Annual 2010 just in case.

The signings will be held in the café area at the Doctor Who Experience. The signing is a separate event so to enter the Doctor Who Experience you will need to buy tickets, which you can do here.

Doctor Who: Terrible Lizards

I've had two Deadline Days in as many weeks (which was weird) but I've kept the second project pretty hush-hush - that is until now, as my editor has said I'm now free to tell the world about Doctor Who: Terrible Lizards!

A few years ago now I was delighted to receive a commission for my first Doctor Who book, a gamebook featuring the Tenth Doctor (as portrayed by David Tennant) entitled The Horror of Howling Hill. Well, three years on I was given the opportunity to write for the Eleventh Doctor (Matt's Smith's incarnation). But this time, it wasn't a gamebook, rather a chapter book - in other words a short novel for younger readers.

The brief for this new range of books asked that the subject matter be particularly appealing to boys. As I sat down with my jotter I started off by asking myself the question, 'What won't they be able to do on telly, due to budgetary restraints?' I came up with, filming in the Caribbean on an actual sailing ship, and dinosaurs - lots of dinosaurs. (The image of a million TARDISes also popped into my head but I couldn't work out how to fit that one into the story, so I'm putting that idea on the back-burner for now.)

So I sat down and wrote my pitch. It featured pirates, specifically Blackbeard, and a search for the Fountain of Youth in the Florida Everglades. Two topics appealing to boys. Pirates of the Caribbean meets Jurassic Park. How could it fail?

Imagine my surprise when my editor got back to me to say that they loved the idea but the pirates clashed too much with something they were doing for Series 6. Since then, of course, I've seen the pictures of the filming of a pirate epic in St Austell. Fortunately dinosaurs still seemed to be fair game.

Anyway, a nip here, a tuck there, a change of period and a few other details, and Time and Tide became Terrible Lizards. I sent off the finished manuscript last week and now anxiously await my editor's comments.

Do you like this?

And this?

And these?

And him?

And her?

And, of course, him?

Then you'll love the forthcoming Terrible Lizards!

Doctor Who: Terrible Lizards will be published this September, back-to-back with The Web in Space. And I, for one, can't wait!

The Cat in the Fez anyone?

Buy it here.

Bogus, Dude. Daleks!

Definition of a Wholigan

Are you a Wholigan? Follow this link to find out if you are.

I didn't think I was, but then again, maybe I am.

Doctor Who meets Star Wars

Gingerbread TARDIS

Does exactly what it says on the tin...

Christmas shopping ideas

If you're still finalising Christmas presents, remember it's not too late to buy your loved ones (or yourself!) something from my book store.

If it's steampunk action and adventure that they're into, try my Pax Britannia books.

If they love gamebooks and fantasy adventures, try my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

If it's Doctor Who or Star Wars, try these, and remember that you can have a Clone Wars story, written by me, personalised.

If it's non-fiction they enjoy, try Match Wits with the Kids, or one of my Miscellanies.

And if its the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war, or the grim darkness of a quasi-Medieval world that gets them buzzing, then try one of my Black Library novels.

Coming soon...

Relativity

I love this...

To see how it was made, click here.

Here's the original inspiration by (one of my favourite artists) M C Escher...

And here's Doctor Who's take on the idea - and not executed half as well as the Lego model, I might add...

Doctor Who rocks Glastonbury

How cool is this?



WARNING! Contains strobe lighting and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

Moffat on Moffat

I love hearing writers talk about their craft and one of the most articulate (and most frequently on the telly talking about his stuff at the moment) is Steven Moffat. If you're like me then I think you'll enjoy this offering, filmed by Moffat's son.

UK Games Expo 2010

I had a very enjoyable weekend up in Birmingham at the 2010 UK Games Expo. This was my first visit, and I was taken aback by the size and accomplishment of the event. As well as the expected traders, demo games and tournaments, there were no less than three Daleks, three different Doctors, stormtroopers and Darth Vadar, as well as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone!

In fact, Fighting Fantasy had a notable presence at the event. Not only was there an FF stand, hosted by Wizard Books, and the aforementioned Jackson and Livingstone, there were also fans, old and new, by the score, and me. And best of all, the cover of the programme was Emerson Tung's glorious painting of the Eye of the Storm from Stormslayer! That gave me a real buzz, I can tell you.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the talk on Saturday give by Steve and Ian about the history of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy. It was very amusing and not only because of all the photos from the 70s. I even got an honourable mention and a round of applause - which was nice.

Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone and their stalker (at least that's how it appeared in some of the other photos).

The crowds waiting to meet Steve and Ian (the queue went out the door!) whilst Gav Thorpe and Alessio Cavatore sign too.

FF editor Nick Sidwell proudly displaying his wares.

His wares - the brand-spanking-new FF gamebooks!

I also caught up with Ralph Horsley (who I collaborated with a couple of times back in the day), chatted jungle maintenance and work avoidance tactics with Gav Thorpe, and met Alessio Cavatore who was there promoting his new board game Shuuro (which I heard a punter describe as 'Chesshammer').

Ralph Horsley surrounded by his phenomenal body of (vibrantly colourful) work.

Alessio demonstrates Shuuro.

So all that remains now is for me to thank all those who organised the weekend (Tony and his team), everyone who dropped by and said "Hi!" and let me deface their new books, and Nick Sidwell, the FF editor, who manned the stand all weekend, doing sterling work, and who scored me a pass for the event.

V is for Vapid

What is it about the letter 'V'? Or, more specifically, what is it about Doctor Who and the letter 'V'?

I am talking, of course, about the new series and the - shall we say - bad apples in the barrel. Victory of the Daleks - didn't live up to the potential. Vampires in Venice - tedious, inconsistent, re-treading the same old vampiric trash. Vincent and the Doctor - schmaltzy.

Thank goodness next week's episode is called The Lodger - although, judging by the trailer, it could go the way of Fear Her, and (to top it all) it's got James Corden in it.

But the weaker episodes only go to highlight what a fantastic show Doctor Who Confidential is, since in these instances the programme is still enjoyable, fascinating and educational, even though the programme it's based on isn't the best in the first place. So here's to Confidential!

Doctor Who by lightning

I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but it looks very cool nonetheless...

Who is Oli Smith?

Until the autumn of last year, I had never heard of Oli Smith. Then, the next thing I know, he's writing an 11th Doctor DYD. And then it turns out he's also writing an original 11th Doctor and Amy novel. And then he's written the audio story that was given away free with the Telegraph (which was a significantly better story that Matt Smith's reading of it - especially his 'impression' of Amy Pond).

But where did this Oli Smith come from? According to his website, he is 'a freelance writer living in London. He has written various comics and short stories as well as a few non-fiction works, mostly for Doctor Who.' But that doesn't really tell me anything either. I mean, how did he come from nowhere to write not only a DYD but also a novel, making him one of a very select band of writers? (I enquired about writing a Doctor Who novel once and didn't even get an acknowledgement that my letter had even been received!)

Then it turns out that this Oli Smith has also written for the Doctor Who Storybook 2010 and Doctor Who Adventures magazine. And he's been interviewed on the official Doctor Who website!

But WHO is Oli Smith?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

So I finally got to watch the brand new Doctor Who last night. And my verdict on The Eleventh Hour (which was, I felt, very much a statement of intent for the new series)...?

Funnier, darker, sexier (the Doctor's new companion's a kiss-a-gram!?!), less of RTD's obsession with... well, you know what... and all in all a lot of fun. But what's with the new theme tune?



I thought it was virtually unrecognisable as Ron Granier's classic. And I'm not too sure about the central column's glass conjugal toy-style appearance. But I'm hooked and I can't wait for the next one.

Loved the line, 'Basically, run.' Highly reminiscent of Moffat's Doctor in Forest of the Dead. 'You're in a library - look me up!'

You might also be interested to know that there are four new Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny adventures coming out soon. None of them by me but if you'd like to know more, follow this link.

The Eleventh Doctor in action

My prediction is that the young lady in this clip turns out to be Amy Pond, the Doctor's new companion.

Not long to wait now...