If Godzilla became America’s president, could Tim become Britain’s prime minister?

Now, that would be a ’special relationship’ I could believe in. ;p

A Letter for Florence starts here. If, while more episodes are forthcoming, you’d like to check out Postcards from Cosmo, they start here.

And here (with thanks to The Kraken) is another Door – a short piece of animation written and narrated by one of my absolute favourite authors in the world, Russell Hoban.

]]> http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2011/12/open-doors/feed/ 0 http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2011/12/ta-da/ http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2011/12/ta-da/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:48:07 +0000 David Melling http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/?p=10446

At last! I’ve finally got around to starting my own blog: www.davidmelling.co.uk/blog

Which means as well as posting stuff like this mad eye-balled idiot here on Trapped By Monsters…

I might post stuff like this little chap…

Oh yes, we all have a dark and fluffy side.

Why not let me help you get in touch with yours here…and here.

Want to know how to get from Arkham Asylyum to Crime Alley where Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed? Now you can. Click on the map below to go take a look at the original blog post.

For those of you who like monsters, movies and comics (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) this is the stuff for you! You may recall my rather swift last post which mentioned my mental busyness on ‘super fun top secret project’ ???? No? Fair enough. Well the time has come to reveeeaall my secret!

Tadaaaaa…

Monsters from the Morgue is a 70′s zombie comic which can be found (and read) while sneaking around Joe’s Desk. Who is Joe I hear you ask? Joe is a young boy making his own horror movie with his friends, all of which are characters in the upcoming movie SUPER 8 by J. J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. Go have a snoop around his stuff! 

There you will find lots of clues as to what the film is about. You can even play an old-fashioned arcade game! I think  you’ll love it.

You can go to my blog for more info on what I actually did

Catch you later!

…is the new unabridged audio version of my book CRAWLERS. I’m delighted with it, and to celebrate its launch there’s a there’s a giveaway / competition going on right now at Spine Chills, the bloodcurdling blog of the supremely sinister Holly ‘Heart of’ Harkness.

For the chance to win one of these fine items, here’s what Holly wants you to do:

Simply write a short piece (less than 400 words) involving your brush with a crawler – oh, and extra points are given for any gory parts that make me squirm!

Send all entries to hrharkness@gmail.com. The competition is open to anyone in the world, and the winning entry will be read out by Sam Enthoven himself!

This competition closes Friday 15 July, so get crawling!

Full details over at Spine Chills. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. SNEE HEE HEE!

Sam

And the good news is that he has just had a selection of drawings published. I received my copy in the post the other day. A 160 page hardcover book of these blog sketches. Anyway, I won’t ramble. I’ll let his drawings do the talking. And remember, you can buy his book from the link above.

I keep coming back to monsters in my own work, partly because I grew up glued to the Muppet Show before bedtime every Sunday night and also because them seem to have a hold on me down here in the caves, ‘Stop chewing my toes!’

I’ve written picture books about very hungry Ravenous Beast and a picture book about family of Hugglewug Monsters. I really can’t seem to get away from them!

With monsters you can really explore strong emotions and feelings, really important in picture books.  I was really delighted to be asked to pick my top five Picture Books that feature Monsters for Library Mice Blog. Before you click can you guess who the monsters are?

www.niamhsharkey.com

Here’s a slightly unusual challenge a non-cavebound person has set themselves.

A friend of a friend of mine (it actually is – this isn’t the start of a unconvincing urban myth) has decide to write a novel a month for the whole of 2011. She’s aiming to dash off 2000 words a day every single day of the year to accomplish her goal.

Here’s an excerpt from her blog explaining what she’s up to:

“In November 2010 I joined in with National Novel Writing Month and wrote a book – or 52,000 words of a first draft of one – in 30 days. I enjoyed the experiment and found the daily target of 2000 words pretty easy to stick to. In fact, I found that the constant writing meant I was coming up with more ideas for various other blog posts and articles than before.
In December 2010, I was feeling a bit flat. I’d written a book – not an especially great one, but a book nonetheless – but I was well aware of the mantra that you should leave it alone for a couple of months before going back to edit the thing. What to do in the meantime? The title of this blog should give you a clue as to the conclusion I reached. But surely there wasn’t time to plan 12 novels before the new year?
My solution was simple. You may have heard it said that everyone has at least one novel in them, but most people claim they would never have the time to sit down and write it. I had proved to myself and three people on the internet that I could make the time, even when I was working 35 hours a week. So, why not get the ideas from those people who would never bother, and write their books for them? One a month, every month in 2011.”

You can find out more here www.12books12months.com/about/

An interesting experiment – but will she pull it off? Whatever she ends up with at the end, one thing’s for sure – with all that practising she should be a much better writer a year from now!

Never mind 12 books – why don’t you give writing just one a go? Even a chapter a month and you’ll have 12 by the end of the year (I’m good at arithmetic, me).

Go on – give it a shot!

First up, the lovely people at the BBC have made a selection of classic Doctor Who novels available to read online, or download to your ebook reader, should you possess such a gadget. Like I say, these are classic Doctor Who novels, so don’t expect David Tennant or Matt Smith to be popping up in any of them. Regardless of which incarnation of the Doctor the books feature, though, you can be sure of a great adventure, and they’re all worth a read.

Also, for those of you who watch the Sarah Jane Adventures, or for those of you who just like the idea of looking like an evil alien creature, hell bent on destroying the Earth, check out The Monster Morpher, which is also on the BBC website. Upload a photo of yourself, or take a pic with your webcam, and with a few clicks you can see how you’d look as an alien creature. You can even print your own alien ID card at the end, although be warned – it will use a whole lot of ink!

For the Doctor Who eBooks, click here.

For the Monster Morpher, this is the link you want.