Great news for UK Scream Street fans – the official Scream Street website has undergone something of a face lift!

With spooky new graphics, a new downloads section and more updates planned (Scream Street bookplates, anyone?), there’s a creepy new corner of the web to explore!  Check out the new-look site here: http://www.screamstreet.co.uk

Tommy

This is Alan Moore.

He’s the author of lots of my favourite stories (including Halo Jones, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Top Ten and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to name just a few) and he’s also a bit of a hero to me.

These – as they appear in The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore, by George Khoury – are Alan Moore’s Five Tips for Would-Be Writers:

ALAN MOORE’S FIVE TIPS FOR WOULD-BE WRITERS

1. Don’t.

2. No, really don’t.

3. DEFINITELY don’t – I mean it.

4. Whatever you might be imagining about a life of writing, it’s not like that.

5. OK, if you’re going to anyway, if you’re going to be a writer of any quality, you will have to commit yourself to writing – which is something that, when you’re young and idealistic, sounds incredibly easy to do, but you should commit yourself to writing almost as if you were some ancient Greek or Egyptian committing yourself to a god.

If you do right by the god, then the god may, at some point in the future, reward you. But if you slack off and don’t do right by your talent or your god, then you are heading for a world of immense and unimaginable pain. If you have a gift that you choose to pursue, then you have to pursue it seriously. Don’t be half-assed about it, but realize what that commitment means.

Committing yourself to writing will mean, to a certain extent, your writing will become the most important part of your life – and that’s a big thing to say. It can have a distancing effect upon other relationships. It can be sometimes quite a solitary life. If you’re committed to writing, you’re going to spend most of your life indoors in a silent, empty room, concentrating on a pen and a piece of paper or their equivalent. Be prepared to take it seriously and be prepared to follow where it takes you, even if that takes you to some very strange places.

This is by no means the most glamorous profession.

Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

I’ve got favourite authors, of course. I’ve had phases of having favourite record labels. But I’ve never had a favourite imprint before…

Over the last few months I’ve become a massive fan of Haikasoru. They’re an imprint of Viz Media, specialising in English-language translations of thrilling fiction from Japan. And they are awesome.

I first came across them through their new edition of Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami (for my thoughts on that, check my LibraryThing review page). Impressed by the obvious care that Haikasoru had taken with the book, I decided to try out some of the other titles on their list. I’m glad I did…

Dreamlike, surreal and chilling, Zoo by Otsuichi is the finest collection of short stories I’ve read since Joe Hill’s 20^th Century Ghosts.

Imagine if the story of the film Groundhog Day took place during a war between brutal spike-gun-wielding aliens and hard-pressed humans in mechanised battle-armour and you’re somewhere near to the inspiring madness of All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

But my favourite Haikasoru book I’ve read so far has been The Stories of Ibis, by Hiroshi Yamamoto. In the far future, in a series of dazzingly imaginative interlocking stories, a beautiful android explains how AIs took over the Earth from humans – and why that’s a good thing.

The work of imprints like Haikasoru reminds me that there’s a whole world of astonishing fiction out there, waiting to be discovered. Take a chance yourself and try something new.

Sam

Today is the 90^th birthday of Ray Harryhausen, creator and animator of some of the finest monsters in cinema.

In fact in interviews such as this one Harryhausen has always said he prefers the term ‘creature’ to ‘monster’ – an indication of the respect and reverence with which he approached his storytelling.

Each one of his lovingly-crafted stop-motion beasts has character, personality, life: that’s why, even though special effects techniques have changed, his work still looks fresh today.

To celebrate Mr Harryhausen’s birthday a big new exhibition is opening today at The London Film Museum. Hit the link for all the details.

One answer I’ve always liked to the question of where ideas come from, is that they’re often the result of chance combinations: two or more things that come together unexpectedly in your mind. Well, here are three that have been colliding lately in mine…

Long-term followers of this blog might conceivably remember this post, in which I linked to this article by Warren Ellis for Wired Magazine about Rescue Fiction. He talked about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s classic puppet-animated tv series Thunderbirds and the potential for awesomeness of stories involving colossal and ambitious engineering: crisis, ingenuity, resolution and rescue.

That’s the first colliding thing. Here’s the second…

The Deepwater Horizon disaster: the rig explosion, the resulting catastrophic environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico – and the unfolding story of the increasingly desperate attempts to come up with a solution when massive depth and crushing water pressure mean only remotely controlled machines can be used. Right now as I’m typing this – not to excuse BP or the other associated corporations for their part in creating this problem in the first place – some of the finest problem-solving minds on the planet are working against the clock. As this real-life case shows, engineering has drama.

Third colliding thing: this. It’s a post that appeared recently on one of my favourite blogs, Pink Tentacle, imagining some of the most fabulously ambitious engineering projects that the human race might conceivably engage in in its future, including floating cities, a space hotel and (my favourite) a plan to supply the entire world’s energy needs by means of a ring of solar panels on the moon.

Now: I have other books to write. I have my next two full-length projects lined up in my head already, and I don’t have the time or inclination to write this story right now. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to read it if it was written by someone else. Quite the reverse, in fact!

So, You, reading this now: how about it? How about writing some thrilling Rescue Fiction? I’m not talking about Thunderbirds, except how much I loved it when I was small, the world is already too full of sequels and remakes. No: I’m talking about you taking charge of this idea and writing something completely new and amazing.

…I know: having the idea is the easy bit. Or rather, once you’ve got your initial idea like this, you’ve then got to have more ideas: believable characters who have personal stakes in the story’s events, a satisfying structure, a way of telling this tale without too much exposition, plus all of the other bits and pieces you’ll need to thrash out so you can make the concept work.

But: I would love to read a near-future story of daring, ambition, spaceships, explosions and engineering ingenuity in the white heat of crisis. I think it would be awesome.

Someone write this. Please?

Sam

Here’s a link to an interview with me about my book Crawlers at terrific new horror fan website Snakebite Horror.

It contains an exclusive sneaky early announcement of thrilling developments currently afoot right here at Trapped By Monsters. Take a look. ;D

Sam

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

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 Stoke) has a truly brutal ordeal ahead of him. Once a generation, men in his family have to fight the Contest – a series of one-to-one duels with demons with the fate of the world hanging on the outcome. But (though not for Tom-!) it gets even better. Not content with waiting until Tom is full grown, the demons have decided to start the Contest now, when Tom is only seven years into his training and he’s just fifteen years old…

I’ve had my eye on this series since reading this awesome interview with its author James Lovegrove in which he talks about Barrington Stoke, their editing process and exactly what makes their books so special. I read the series opener The Lord of the Mountain over the weekend and it was a blast: like Tom, this story’s fast on its feet with the potential to be utterly deadly. Follow-up The Lord of the Void is out now. I can hardly wait to lay my hands on a copy. Click through to The 5 Lords of Pain website if you’d like to know more.

Sam

As anyone familiar with Tim, Defender of the Earth will know, I’m a MASSIVE fan of giant monsters. Imagine my delight this week when I discovered this site full of beautiful haiku about Godzilla and other classic kaiju.

Warren Ellis (on whose wonderful swear-filled blog I found the link) was particularly taken with this one:

But my current favourite is this:

While I’m linking to stuff, here’s my page on a new site called Author Hotline. There’s a whole bunch of other authors on there too – including my fellow TBM victims Andy Briggs, Mark Robson and Joe Craig – all answering questions such as ‘What were you like at school?’ ‘What strange habits do you have?’ and ‘What’s your favourite food?’ Take a look.

We don’t often get parcels here in the caves. As soon as this one landed in my pit I tore it open with gusto. What did it contain? Food? Loo roll? Some kind of message of comfort from the outside world?

…No.

But this is a good t-shirt, I’ve got to admit. Fancy one yourself? Click your way to Genki Gear.

MEANWHILE: Are you – yes, you, reading this! – anywhere near Hackney or Colchester in the next day or so, by any happy chance? The monsters are letting me out for events! Click here for all the details.

Sam