To my horror, I’ve just uncovered incontrovertible evidence that the monsters are currently engaged in a stealthy public relations drive. All over the world’s media the psychological warfare has begun. Seeds of doubt are already being planted in hapless human minds. The old certainties about monsters are being eroded and undermined, leaving humanity utterly vulnerable to their unguessable ultimate intentions.

Examples? Well, this T-shirt design, for one.

The message these T-shirts would have you believe is that giant monsters are not terrifying city-smashing behemoths [like (say) the ones found in Tim, Defender of the Earth] but are in fact harmless, tidy creatures who take care of their environment and clean up after themselves and others.

After a year in the company of monsters – scorched by their eructations, forced to wallow in their effluences – we TBM authors can state categorically that nothing could be further from the truth.

The two benighted souls in the picture above think they’re just wearing cute T-shirts. In fact they are colluding in the spread of monster propaganda.

Don’t buy this T-shirt and make the same mistake!

Sam

As the dread day dawns of the first anniversary of our incarceration in these caves, here’s a lovely thing I’ve just heard about that’s cheered me up a bit.

Commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families, The School Library Association has just produced Everyone’s Reading – a list of books the SLA reckons might inspire more 11 to 18 year olds to read for pleasure.

Every state secondary school in England has the chance to choose fifteen books from the Everyone’s Reading list for their school libraries for free. But as if all of that wasn’t awesome enough, to my great glee and delight I notice that the list contains books by no less than four of the Trapped By Monsters posse! Joe’s Jimmy Coates: Power, Andy’s Hero.com: Virus Attack and Ali’s The Shapeshifter: Stirring the Storm are all there, together with my own The Black Tattoo. Go us!

As you’ll see if you click here to take a look, there are some truly wonderful books on this list. I’m hugely thrilled and honoured that one of mine has been included. HEE HEE HEE HEE!

Sam

Here are a few quick links to some stunning animation I’ve been enjoying lately.

First up – and thanks to Andy for spotting this one and mentioning it on his Twitter – here’s a wonderfully macabre short film called Alma, directed by Rodrigo Blaas. Creeped out by dolls? I know I am – and after watching this, I’m twice as creeped out now!

If you’re in a musical mood, take a look at rising animation star Henry Lambourne’s beautiful video for Space Girl by The Imagined Village. I particularly like the louche, smiley, one-eyed, blue geezer who makes an appearance around 1:43.

To round this post off, here’s a blast from the past:

Not “only” does The Trap Door arguably contain some of the greatest and most gleefully disgusting claymation ever, but the series is also like a primer on how to keep your cool when, y’know, monsters imprison you in a cave for a year.

Check out Berk’s poise and equanimity in Episode 4: Lurkings when confronted by an unspeakable green thing. When I’ve faced similar situations – as has happened more times than I can count these past twelve months – my reactions tend to run to the usual unstylish replies like ‘Help!’ or ‘Argh!’ I’ve never said anything as downright suave as ‘I think I might have considerable trouble stuffing that in a sandwich.’

Here’s another highlight of the series: Episode 5. ‘Gourmet’s Delight’, indeed.

Bon appetit.

Sam

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for one of my absolute favourite monsters, THE KRAKEN.

Reprising the classic look from Ray Harryhausen’s original film, the Kraken appears for a whole gleeful climactic eighteen seconds in the current trailer(2) for the soon-to-be-released remake of Clash of the Titans.

To my enormous delight, the Kraken was also recently honoured as Badass of the Week by Ben Thompson, on his brilliant website of the same name: click here for a great piece that rounds up some classic Krakenology in fine style.

However: Mr Thompson’s excellent description of his subject as (I quote) “basically a giant-ass emotionless cephalopod who lives solely to eat boats, destroy all life in the ocean, and violently implode warships with his ultra-powerful crush-o-matic appendages of doom“, while wonderful, isn’t, I believe, quite the whole story. There’s a very different side to our titanic tentacular friend, as anyone familiar with the Kraken’s starring role in my own Tim, Defender of the Earth might already know.

Another mad year draws to a close. I am knackered, but with CRAWLERS poised to launch in April (and plenty more thrilling projects in the pipeline) I’m very, very happy.

Thanks, best wishes and Merry Christmas to anyone reading this. I hope you enjoy your food. ;D

SNEE HEE HEE!

Sam

By “shorts” I mean “short stories”. Sorry if I caused any confusion there.

I found the following on the BookArmy site and thought maybe it would be of interest to some of you.

HarperCollins and Act on C02 are running a writing competition.

They would like you to re-write a short story or fairytale to help to educate people about climate change and encourage them to take responsibility and make changes in their lives to reduce their carbon footprint.

The winning stories will be submitted to a panel of judges and the best ones will be published by HarperCollins in a special Act on C02 book.

Write your own short story or fairytale. Click here to find out more and enter.

A pair of links for you, to recent interviews with the authors of two of the finest books I’ve read this year, namely:

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, and-

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill.

Both interviews are a blast to read, but there are some great writing tips in there too. Watch out particularly for what Abercrombie says about daily writing discipline, and Hill’s “first step to making a successful horror story”.

You know, in some ways being kidnapped by monsters and held prisoner in a cave for nearly a year isn’t quite as bad as it might be.

For one thing (and maybe I’m reaching here, but…) thanks to the monsters’ internet connection, I haven’t been deprived of music.

Not at all long ago, a music collection was something that had to be confined to a physical location: a stack of cd’s, say (don’t get me started on records and tapes). Now, of course, that’s no longer the case. And I can’t tell you how grateful I am.

Music is an essential part of my daily life. It’s also an essential part of my writing process. I don’t listen to music while I’m actually writing (or not usually – for me it’s too distracting) but I use music all the time in other ways: when I’m getting myself ready to write, when I’m thinking myself into a different frame of mind for a particular scene, and when I’m trying to come up with ideas.

I’ve found that all sorts of music can help with this stuff. But I thought I might share with you a few specific things that have been making my story-brain twitch and bubble over the last month or two…

Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age sounds like it was recorded forty years ago, but it wasn’t: it’s only been out since October. A series of short experimental pieces (none longer than a few minutes), this mini-album plunges you straight into the woozily sinister atmosphere of a 1970s horror film.

I liked where that took me so decided I’d stay, with the newly-reissued soundtrack to a genuine horror classic from the era, Blood on Satan’s Claw, composed by Mark Wilkinson. Disarmingly cute and massively ominous both at the same time, you can hear some samples of it here.

On the same label (Trunk Records) I found this incredible story about the rescue of another soundtrack from the era, in this case that of a nature documentary: Life on Earth, composed by Edward Williams. Imagine a whole album about living creatures and their biological processes. The Sex Life of the Fern, I can tell you, is a particular highlight. Comb Jellies is dead good, too.

Finally, here’s something really odd: twenty-two pieces of experimental techno created by various artists Twitter style – allowing themselves a maximum of 140 characters of code. Click here to hear sc140, and even download it free for you to own if you like.

Febrile psychedelia, rustic English horror, music for jellyfish and what sounds like the stomach rumbles of computers. There are all sorts of weird noises to be heard in these caves. But it’s great to be able to choose them for yourself.

If you’re interested in what else I’ve been listening to, you’re welcome to take a look at my LastFM profile.

-Sam

PS: The first illustration in this post is by Henry Holiday, from Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.

Great news for those of you wanting to enter the writing contest where you could win the chance to become a character in a future Scream Street book – the deadline for submissions has been extended to 1st March 2010!

Find out more at: http://www.watchthemgrow.co.uk/quest_missionfive.html

Tommy

Remember the post I wrote a couple of months back about the poll that awesome independent booksellers The Big Green Bookshop have been running to determine people’s Top Fifty Favourite Books Of All Time?

Well, the results are in.

All this week on their blog the Big Green Booksellers will be counting down the chart from 50 before revealing the winner. There are already some surprising titles that didn’t make the list!

Whether you agree with the selection or not, there are bound to be some top notch book recommendations in there. Take a look, and happy reading.

-Sam

Eeee(book) by gum!  It’s grand news…

The first four Scream Street titles – Fang of the Vampire, Blood of the Witch, Heart of the Mummy and Flesh of the Zombie – are now available to buy as iPhone apps from the iTunes App Store.  Each book costs just £3.99, and is instantly available to read as soon as it has downloaded.

Simply click here to launch the App Store on your computer: http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?media=software&term=scream+street

And, as if that wasn’t enough – ALL SEVEN Scream Street novels are now available to buy from the Waterstones website as ebooks by clicking here: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/advancedSearch.do?buttonClicked=1&title=scream+street&author=&bookkeywords=&format=3757&ctx=&price=&age=&isbn=

What a scream!

Tommy