“Any advice for getting a script read by some influential people?” A question asked of me recently that’s impossible to answer in just a few words. But here’s the digest version.   My experience is that “influence” is mostly a public illusion of power, and it’s no subsitute for the actual ability to get stuff made,…

On this, your birthday.

Over on the Top Suspense blog we’re trying out a form of online craft discussion in which a bunch of us tag-team the post over a number of days. Here’s my contribution; hop over and check it out in the context of the others’ thoughts and comments. My take on suspense is a pretty straightforward…

I’ve just released four of my backlist titles as ebooks for the Kindle, with other platforms to follow when I can get around to putting the work in. Formatting for a professional-looking result isn’t the doddle that some would have you believe; up-converting a Word file with Amazon’s own online tool gives a result that…

I just heard on the radio that Dennis Hopper died at his Venice home this morning, of complications relating to prostate cancer. Not too long ago, I was working on a project where the producer was pursuing him for a major role. To be honest, the part and the actor weren’t a fit, and Hopper…

Here’s a glimpse of Bryan Talbot’s new project:

I just read this on the website for Keswick’s newly-opened attraction, The Bond Museum. It’s a sister museum to The Cars of the Stars, Peter Nelson’s collection of movie action vehicles. “The jetpack in our museum was assembled for the major Paris Bond exhibition and using some of the original bits from the late Bert…

I met British SF great John Brunner in his later years – liked him, but could understand his reputation for a certain spikiness and hauteur. He’d come up to Preston to address our local SF group and when the pub closed we all went back to Bryan Talbot’s house, where John was staying. I was…

I just heard that Abel Gance’s monumental La Roue is to be released on DVD May 8th. La Roue was Gance’s major project before his five-and-a-half hour Napoleon. It’s an epic Zola-esque love triangle set against the iron and steam imagery of the French railways. I’ve been wanting to see it ever since I read…

There’s a story of a Disney staff party which included a screening of an in-house short in which featured Mickey and Minnie getting raunchy. Walt Disney stood up afterwards, expressed appreciation, praised the quality of the work, and asked who was responsible for it. The two animators put their hands up and he fired them…