Deadbeats

Hot? Oh yes. dabbled around the 40 mark for the entirety of our stay. No air-con at the Travelodge — very little at the Travelodge in fact, except a cheap air of seedy fatalism and a special needs chef who clearly ejaculated in my meal on the first night (something that in most ‘restaurants’ would put one off dining, here though it was a welcome seasoning to what would have otherwise been a decidedly bland meal).

It was a very productive visit though, after a hellish first day of travel and having a head full of editing the Garry Kilworth collection Humdrumming are releasing in a couple of months (it needed finishing so that we could get a proof out to Brian Aldiss who’s writing us a foreword). Most production staff clearly thought that the Life On Mars book was being written by a vague simpleton who had no idea what he was doing — which is not so far from the truth — but come Tuesday morning, I was able to instill a little more faith into proceedings.

Very little actual writing was achieved which is no great surprise — it’s a long day in television, 7:00–7:30 on average — but interviews were had (on the stairs to the prop department lav, in the BBC bar, the annexe of a church… we were varied in location) and many hours of filming were attended, photographed and documented.

I know lots of things about next year that you all don’t! Ha!

And no, I’m not telling. You’ll just have to bloody wait.

Tuesday, and it’s over to Matthew Graham’s (co-creator and main writer) for a steak dinner or maybe a fondue party.

I passed your offer of interior decoration on to Ms. White, HLOF; no doubt she will be in touch (although personally or via solicitor I couldn’t say).

Could everyone join me in wishing aforementioned gentleman a happy birthday by the way? It is to my great embarrassment that I forgot the date…

Sorry old chap, still, no great surprise is it? This is me we’re talking about.

Sigh…

Useless shit.

Gx

So then, off to the set of Life On Mars tomorrow for five days of Travelodge living, catering coach eating and general kicking around in the hope of gathering material for Lee and I’s Life On Mars — The Official Companion.

Yes, the title’s now confirmed. Lee and I always fancied using the title of this post rather than go the obvious route but Pocket Books are wiser than us in the way of the sell so, the Ronseal School of Titling it is.

Other than that justifiable change Lee and I seem to be getting a free reign with some of our more unconventional ideas for the book. Both Kudos and Pocket Books were up for this being a little different to your usual TV Tie-In (in fact that’s why Kudos got us involved in the first place). Obviously some early ideas were a little too revolutionary (no episode guide at all, lots of historical matter, weird graphics) but there’s quite a bit that’s made it through to this ‘confirmed’ stage that, on reflection, should make it a rather unusual affair. It has a fictional thread running through it for example and, having agreed that an Episode Guide really must be present we have found a fun way of doing it.

One of the slight disapointments to next week - and I mention it purely to stem the flow of redundant requests and/or violent suggestions - we are very unlikely to talk to either John Simm or Phillip Glenister. Obviously they will be interviewed for the book but probably by phone and in a couple of weeks time. This is due to their workload rather than any unpleasantness on their part (if you think about it, John Simm is in every scene; has to be of course, when you accept that this is something we are experiencing through him, like a story told in the first person nothing could happen without his presence.). We will be talking to the other regular cast though so, Saturday Swap-Shop style feel free to offer questions you wish us to ask via the comments to this post.

I reserve the right to ignore every crude suggestion towards Liz White and in no way guarantee to pass them on.

Unless they’re really funny of course.

Gx

Give me that baby, it needs my tongue.

So… yeah! Time for more words I think. Both Humdrumming and Deadbeat have been nominated for an award by the British Fantasy Society (best publisher and novella respectively). Thompson the Design and myself have built a mini-site here to publicize the fact, have a look it’s a bit silly. Tomorrow night we’re in London to kiss babies, press flesh and generally curry votes at the BFS Awards Showcase night. I’ll probably get too drunk and throw up on Christopher Fowler and that’ll be that door firmly closed to me in future.

The Organisation - the bizarre serial I wrote for a nutty Californian company a couple of years ago has returned via the medium of Blog thanks to the kindness of the blog-crazy John Evans (he set it all up then had to pull his network out of it as my naughty words caused issues with his sponsors!). I also feature on another of his blogs (the man earns one hell of a living out of this believe it or not, the network is huge) as it would seem I and the rest of the Humdrummers have been mistaken for a ‘celebrity’.

Ha!!!

It’s [link no longer available - I.A.M.] by the way.

Any assistance in spreading the word on both of these much appreciated of course…

Visiting the set of Life On Mars in a fortnight or so, the lovely Exec. Producer Claire Parker has even secured Lee and I an office to work from! Probably the bloody broom cupboard but the thought’s there.

Work has commenced already - it has to, the book needs to be completed and delivered in under a couple of months.

Jesus…

All go innit?

So how are you all?

Gx