Oof. Sorry for the terrible pun, but the opportunity was just too good to resist. You see, while my US readers are off enjoying what I hope is a very fine holiday weekend :), over here in the UK the book trade is currently celebrating a rather wonderful new initiative…

This week(1st-8th July) is Independent Booksellers Week, part of the Love Your Local Bookshop campaign. Here’s how you can help. Step one: click here to be taken to a special search engine where you can find the nearest small, cool, unusual, original, awesome bookshop in your area. Step two: think about maybe paying them a visit!

By the way, here’s a quiet word from /my/ local independent bookshop…!

Yep, it’s the Big Green Bookshop, and they’re absolutely brilliant. Click on the link to find out more about them. 🙂

Meanwhile, here are some follow-up questions from my visit to Elthorne Park high school on Wednesday.

First up is Daisy from the Tim Guestbook, who says,

“Hi you came to my school today and you were talking to us in the library. I was really inspired and bought Tim, Defender of the Earth. You also then told us it might be turned into a FILM. If it is this might be a strange question but could i be in it cause i love acting and its my dream and you said to us follow our dreams so that’s what i’m doing. I’d love to hear more. Daisy.”

Thanks, Daisy!

OK. It’s true that (whisper it-!) my agent is currently negotiating a film deal for Tim with a major Hollywood film studio. I wasn’t going to say anything here on the site, because we haven’t signed contracts yet – so in fact that’s almost all I’m going to say on the subject for the time being! But while I’m delighted and honoured to hear that my talk inspired you, I’m afraid I’ve got to give you (and anyone else who asks me this) what might seem at first glance to be a bit of a discouraging answer.

If this deal does finally come together [we’re getting close!] …and if the film gets to the point where its makers start casting actors [which, incidentally, is a much bigger ‘if’: Neil Gaiman, who’s had quite a few film deals now, says “I’ve learned never quite to believe that one of my stories is going to be turned into a film until I’m actually buying the popcorn”!] …then even though I’m the author of the book I will have no control over who is in the movie.

I’m actually ok with that, by the way. Those kinds of decisions, I think, are generally much better left up to the people who are making the film. But to be blunt, I’m the wrong person to ask this question. Sorry!

If (if, if) a Tim movie does get to the casting stage, and if (if, if) the producers decide to give a general casting call for auditions, I will of course do my best to announce it here on the blog. That, however, is all I can tell you for now. But Daisy, I wish you the very best of luck.

Next up, through my new Facebook page, take a bow Oliver, who asks: “When you read passages of your books does it feel weird to read something that you have produced and made for yourself? Thanks for your time. Yours,
Oliver”

Hi Oliver. Thanks for getting in touch.

Reading your own stuff out to people is one of those things that definitely seems like it would be weird before you do it, but once you’ve done it a few times it actually gets less weird quite quickly. I remember watching authors and thinking, ‘Wow, what would that be like?’ Now I’ve been doing events for a couple of years I’m pretty much used to it.

It helps that I did a lot of reading aloud at school, performing in plays and whatnot: through doing that I learned to be a confident speaker, which has turned out to be very, very useful! Another thing that helps make it feel less weird is that I sometimes read my stuff out to myself while I’m writing or editing it. That, incidentally, is an excellent way of checking that one’s sentences are as clear and concise as they can be (eg, running out of breath? time to cut that sentence in half! ;p) And of course, before performing anything I’ve written, I try to make sure I’ve had plenty of practice.

But yes, the first time I try out new material on an audience… that is kind of freaky and nervous-making, I have to admit!

OK, that’s all for now folks. I’ve got to get back in my bathysphere for Phase Three. Today’s research topics have included virus reproductive cycles, spores, germination, and a biological basis for immortality. A very fine weekend to you, too! 😉

PS: Here are some astonishingly beautiful photos of migrating Golden Rays.

Hey there.

I’m currently back in full Deep Dive Mode for some serious heavy work on Phase Three. But before I go all intermittent on you while I’m away in my brain (writing my new book, in other words!) today I surfaced briefly for what was my last school visit of this academic year.

It was to Elthorne Park high school in Ealing, and it was an absolute pleasure.

I arrived in a tearing hurry, having foolishly believed that taking the journey-time promised by the London Underground website and doubling it might somehow allow me to get to the school punctually, like a professional. Silly me. Thanks – apparently – to ‘trespassers on the track’ (is there a story in there??) by the time I got through the door of the Elthorne learning resource centre my first audience was already sitting waiting. For one’s first visit to a school that’s just never a good look — very embarrassing, AAAAGH! But I jumped straight in, and things took off at top speed.

Here’s a shot of me putting my heart into my work…

Here’s me pointing at something, apparently with such great emphasis that the molecules of my arm began to lose alignment…

And here (below) is what I think is one of the silliest photos for a while – and that’s even by these pages’ fairly stringent standards of silliness. Take a look:

Explanation: at lunchtime a photographer from a local paper showed up, to take some pics of my visit. This was great, of course: all extra publicity is very welcome to the Sinister Masterplan! But what he wanted was for me and the students to pose – as if I was reading and the students were supposedly hanging on my every word. A sort of Listen With Mother effect, if you will.

While we all did our best – and much respect to everyone in the above pic for being so game! – it was just impossible to take this seriously. If you look at the pic again you can see the oh-so-fascinated expressions already beginning to fail. And in the end…

…we just cracked up completely. ;p

My thanks to Mrs Donnithorne for kindly inviting me. And a GLEEFUL thank you to everyone I spoke to today.

After another intensive excursion to the Stygian depths of PHASE THREE, today I emerged from my bathysphere at last and, blinking, took myself off (yes! out of the house!) to The Cartoon Museum.

The museum itself was thoroughly awesome – this was the first time I’ve been, and it’s full of all sorts of comics-related treasures. But my official mission was to catch a rare exhibition they’ve currently got on there by one of my absolute favourite classic British cartoonists, namely Graham Laidler, better known as Pont. Here’s one of his cartoons that particularly caught my eye…!

Pont’s speciality was observation, small details. Check out the expression on the face of the kid listening – the faint smile on his lips and the fact that he’s obviously utterly into the story. After spending the past month or so worrying about whether my new book would be too horrifying (not for the readers, you understand, but for their ‘gatekeepers’ – parents, teachers, reviewers and whatnot!) the sight of that expression made me feel a lot better. Bwah-ha. BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA! ;p

To anyone who’s written in to the Guestbooks this past couple of weeks, my humble apologies. My sites’ host company says a bug has developed that, until they get it fixed, will mean that anything you post might take some extra time to appear right now, and some posts may even get lost completely. How eerily predictable that this should happen /just/ when the WebSphinx and I had settled on offering the Guestbooks as the main way for people to get in touch if they want, eh? As Jack from Black Tat would say, “Typical.” 😉

Blimey. What with the rest of the New York trip and one thing and another, this last week has been a bit manic. But I’m here, I’ve survived [vodka pizza is DELICIOUS, btw! ;)] and all is good.

I’ve got some more events and appearances lined up over the next few months – watch this space! But I’ll let you know now, my intention is essentially to spend the UK’s summer (or, heh, whatever summer we get!) with my nose pressed firmly to the grindstone.

Yes folks, it’s time to put the serious hours in on PHASE THREE of my sinister masterplan to conquer the universe, by which of course I mean my NEXT BOOK! I’m very excited, and I hope when the time comes that you will be too. I may even drop some hints about it in forthcoming posts. But since it’s currently TOP SECRET, and this blog, er, still needs writing(!) here are a couple of other bits and pieces to keep you ticking over instead… ;p

First up, here are a couple of pics I’ve been meaning to post for a while. The plan is for them to end up on the Tim site’s Unlucky London Landmarks page, where I’ve already got some other photos I’ve taken of the real places mentioned in the course of the book. The proviso with this location, however, is that it’s one of the few that doesn’t get DESTROYED! I’m talking, of course, about the British Museum.

Here’s a shot of the front entrance, looking impressive as ever…

And here (below) – albeit rendered into patented ‘WonkyVision(tm)’ by a certain ham-fisted author-photographer! – is the museum’s Great Court.

The relevant passage of the book occurs on page 11, and goes like this:

‘On a summer’s day it would have looked spectacular, with streaming shafts of sunshine making the marble floor gleam and the whole room seem to dance with light. But this was not a summer’s day. The gloom from the leaden London sky above made the Great Court feel a bit like an oversized fish tank – and one that hadn’t been cleaned properly at that.’

Well, the sun was shining so I didn’t time this quite right for you I guess. But the eerie Matrix-style green cast this pic seems to have developed might help give you some idea of the scene, at least! ;p

In other news, ANOTHER edition of TIM has just been launched! It’s the US unabridged audio version, read by Bryan Kennedy, and it’s available to download, right now, via Audible. If you go to this page, you should be able to listen to a sample.

I haven’t had a chance to check this version out properly for myself yet, but it does nicely illustrate one of the lovely things about audiobooks (and, indeed, books generally!) which is that every reader’s interpretation is different. When you’ve checked out the US version, click here (and scroll down to the bottom) to hear the difference. Mr Kennedy, unlike Nigel Greaves, has chosen not to give Dr McKinsey a Scots accent, for a start! He’s gone instead for something much flatter and rather sinister. The interpretations are different, but they’re both very cool. I’m a lucky guy and no mistake. 🙂

Finally, I’ve got to apologize for something. Due to a technical glitch, for most of this last month new posts to the Tim and Black Tat Guestbooks were not appearing as quickly as they should – GAH! This was especially annoying – for me and the WebSphinx as well as presumably for the people who posted, btw – because the posts themselves have been particularly fabulous lately: do click on the links to check ’em out. Meanwhile, if you’re reading this Cris from Anaheim, Phoebe from St Mary’s, Taryn from New Jersey, Libby from Dublin, Andrew from Missouri, Victoria from TO, Mexchina from Boston, Sophie from Leigh, Sienna from Toronto, Twinkleberry from Bristol and Hannah from Stratford… then humble apologies from me and the WebSphinx, and a MASSIVE thank you for sharing your awesomeness with us. Having people write in to the sites is one of the very best things about this website caper, and you have put some delightedly huge and cheesy grins on my face. Hee hee hee!

…Or at least, the schools I visited there certainly welcomed me! 😉

I’m writing this post in a tearing hurry, as I’m about to rush out the door for another event, but before I do here are a couple of pics to give you an idea of how things went yesterday.

After a lovely leisurely breakfast (sausages and mushrooms HURRAH!) it was my great pleasure to speak to some 120 of the students of Marlborough College.

This was a terrific session, with some excellent questions from pupils and staff alike. To my absolute delight, one Marlborough teacher decided on the spot to make The Black Tattoo into a class reader – ie all his students are going to read it, en masse, at once, as a class. AWESOME! If any of those students – and anyone else reading this, for that matter! – happens to have any follow-up questions for me about the book, then do please feel free to write them on one of my websites’ Guestbooks. If the questions are ones I haven’t addressed before (do check the Q&A pages under ‘Who Is…’ first!) then I’ll do my best to answer them, just as soon as I get the chance.

After a quick but delicious lunch (got to say, I’ve fed pretty well these last couple of days, HUR HUR HUR!) I was driven away (at lightning speed!) across the Downs, to my next engagement. First up was a brief chat to twenty extremely enthusiastic Year 6 students from St Margaret’s, Calne. My initial worries that maybe my stories might be a little too scary for such a young audience were quickly proved groundless: when I announced that my next book – the one I’m working on now – is going to be a bit ‘like ALIEN meets NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD – for kids!‘ the whole group actually cheered! HEE HEE HEE! 🙂

The third event of the day was a double length session with 47 Year 7 students from nearby St Mary’s School for Girls, Calne. Here’s a pic of me waving my arms about as usual, apparently completely oblivious of the Imperial Star Destroyer that happened to be flying past overhead…

…OK, I’m kidding! ;p This talk took place in the unusual (for me!) but undoubtedly spectacular surroundings of the St Mary’s school chapel. The session lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Even I, frankly, have trouble sitting still for that long(!) but the students’ attention was absolutely impeccable throughout, their questions were tremendous, and the time just zipped past. YAY!

My huge and grateful thanks to ninja librarians Lindsey Pilkington (of Marlborough) and Charlotte Smith (of St Marys’), for inviting me along to these three terrific events and looking after me so kindly. My Wiltshire Whirlwind Tour has been an absolute delight, and I look forward to coming back one day very soon.

Right: must dash, got another school to visit. On with the sinister masterplan! Bwha-ha! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA! 🙂