One of my favourite authors, Peter O’Donnell, died this month. UK newspaper The Guardian gave him a nice obituary which you can read here. I’d like to mark his passing by recommending to you what are, no kidding, the very best action thrillers I’ve ever read. Ever since my friend Simon introduced me to the [...]
Archive > May 2010
How Precious
Via the seemingly inexhaustible fountain of wonders that is Boing Boing here’s a link to some beautifully illustrated pages from a Russian edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I particularly love this version of Gollum… …But watch out for the spiders of Mirkwood, which/who are pretty damn stunning, too. Sam
The many faces of Raggy Maggie
Those of you who read my first Invisible Fiends book, Mr Mumbles, will possibly have read the sneak preview from book 2 which is tucked away at the back. Book 2 is called Raggy Maggie, and sees Kyle pitted against… um… a five-year-old girl with a dolly. But the girl, Caddie, is no ordinary five-year-old, [...]
JUST YANKEE DOODLE DANDY!
…and other stereotypical American phrases. But HEY! It’s CELEBRATION TIME! Share out the Krispy Creme Donuts, the bottles of Coke, the nice shiny portraits of President Obama. Today I LOVE America! Today (OK tomorrow UK time, but TODAY US time) the lovely shiny hardback American version of Frozen In Time comes out. Oh just LOOK… [...]
The Way of Pain
Pain is, frankly, something that I prefer not to experience for myself, if I can avoid it. But when I’m safely ensconced in a comfy reading spot I seem to have no problem with it being inflicted on other people…! Tom Yamada, central character of new series The 5 Lords of Pain (published by Barrington [...]
NOTHING PREPARES YOU
Well, it took nearly a week, but I’m finally back again – finally ejected from the back end of one of the slowest digestive systems I’ve encountered in 18 months of being Trapped By Monsters. As you’ll have seen from Sam’s emotional post, I was voted – ME! – to be eaten by monsters at [...]
Weird Dream
I woke up a few days ago with this image floating around some of the more surreal corners of my mind. Try as I might the dream that had preceded this visual peek eluded me. Yes, there were sheep, plenty of them. And yes the weather was um, challenging. But as I lay there trying [...]
TBM Lincoln 2010: A Survivor’s Tale…
Ali, Mark, Tommy and I have returned from our show at the Lincoln Book Festival. One of us returned inside a monster. But all of us will bear the psychological scars of what transpired… After an opening section in which the monsters allowed each of us thirty seconds to plead pathetically not to be eaten, [...]
Brief, precious freedom
For the last few days I have been out of the cave, running events at the Turriff Book Festival in Aberdeenshire. I met lots of excited kids, talked nonsense for a total of 7 or 8 hours, and enjoyed the taste of air that wasn’t tinged with the acrid stench of monster dung. Or David’s [...]
Oh, NO!
I was woken this morning by a low chuckle that came from somewhere beyond the rim of my pit. I heard a soft, fluttering sound then something landed on my face. What was it – some kind of parasitic spider-creature, trying to clamp itself to my brain? If only. It was this poster, and the [...]
