Mark Stay's Blog, page 27

Andrea Dunlop on the Bestseller Experiment and Should Writers Ever Just… Give up?

This week’s podcast guest is Andrea Dunlop who, like me, worked in traditional publishing before becoming an author, and that allowed both of us to go into publication with our eyes open. We both knew it wouldn’t all be big advances and lavish launch parties. Many books fail to sell to their full potential, and most authors don’t have a career beyond their third book.

If traditional publishing is so bleak, then why perser… parse… keep going? I think it all depends on your attitude to success and your goals as a writer. When we tell you that publishing can be slow, brutal and the money is crap, we mean it and the truth is there is virtually nothing you can do about it. Likewise for self publishing: you have more control over the finished book, but selling it means having the budget to pay for ads and few authors have the spare cash to do it properly.

Andrea talks about writing being a ‘second reality’ and that actually sitting down and putting words to paper — the real writing — is what makes her happy. And I’m the same. I suspect you are, too. Writers have to love the process. And yes, that includes all the days where it doesn’t quite work, but there’s nothing like sitting down and creating something out of nothing. It’s magic. Love the process. Write as often as you can. The other stuff — deals, money, launches, events, signings — that might happen, or it might not, but they can never take your words away from you.

Other highlights of this episode: I have a pop at the pisspoor wording of Bookbub’s Facebook ads (which they’ve since reworded) and Mr D has a wonderful rant about book pricing. And in the extended version for podcast supporters I talk about recurring themes and how they can help us as writers. You can listen to that by supporting the podcast here.

Ten Years On: Robot Overlords and Gillian Anderson plugs us on the BBC…

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

After the amazing response to the last blog, I’ve realised that I need to put the name Gillian Anderson into the title of my blog posts more often… Sorry, Gillian (and hello fans of Gillian… plenty more to come!).

Tuesday 11th June – home

My phone suddenly went mad at about five to eight this morning with people texting and tweeting me. Robots was featured on BBC Breakfast News! We managed to catch a couple of minutes, then saw the rest online. It was part of a piece asking if Northern Ireland is the new Hollywood after the success of Games of Thrones, The Fall and now Robots. They interviewed the stunt team, Piers and SBK and it was a great plug for the film.

Mum called, very excited. She was in the canteen at work when it came on. She was proudly telling all her friends.

Wednesday 12th June – home

Had a call from Jon this morning for an emergency rewrite: needed a few lines between Danny and Sean talking about his powers. Jo C (my boss) kindly let me duck out of the office for an hour while I zipped to the relative peace of the Curzon to have a go.

Emailed them to Jon and Chris, but haven’t heard back yet (night shoot tonight).

I’ve been reading Paddy’s pass on The Black Spitfire and making detailed notes for my rewrite. There’s some really good stuff to play with. He’s done a cracking job.

Thursday 13th June – home

Got a very brief call from Jon tonight. He had to cut it short when he realised the restaurant he was in was about to close, and he had to eat!

Got some additional notes from the BFI today. Chris is going to run through them with me tomorrow and Jon and I will speak first thing.

More BBC coverage tonight. BBC NI interviewed Gillian Anderson at the ravine location. Top marks to our publicist.

Friday 14th June – home

Went with work chums to lunch at the Giant Robot restaurant in Clerkenwell Road. The taxi pulled up and we were looking for it when (colleague) Jo Jacobs cried, ‘Look! Look what it says!’ On the chalkboard on the pavement outside the restaurant was written “OUR ROBOT OVERLORDS ARE COMING SOON!”. I thought that was nice of Jo to set that up, but she knew nothing about it. When she asked, the waiter said, “Oh yeah, it’s the name of a movie coming out next year.”

Jo nearly exploded. “Oh my god, he’s the writer! He wrote the film!”

So a fantastic little bit of serendipity. Made my day, I don’t mind telling you.

Sent Chris my comments on the BFI notes. He seemed happy. Going to tweak sc200 – when Sean links with the Mediator.

I haven’t been able to find the original piece with SBK and Piers, but here’s the clip with Gillian…

The Curzon mentioned is the one in Soho. It was just around the corner from where I used to work at Orion and I would regularly write in there on my lunch break. They have a great basement bar with nice quiet nooks where you can tap away in peace with a cup of tea and a bag of chocolate covered raisins.

The Black Spitfire was a script that I was developing with VFX director Paddy Eason. It was, if I say so myself, a bloody excellent action adventure feature about an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot called Ginny Albion who has to rescue Churchill from the advancing Nazi Blitzkrieg in France in the lead up to Dunkirk. Sadly, it never got picked up. Too expensive, too British for Americans, and back then film backers were iffy about an action movie with a female lead. Hey ho. But check out the sales poster we commissioned…

Art by Brian Taylor aka Candykiller: https://candykiller.artstation.com| Model: Claire Garvey

Readers of the Witches of Woodville books might have spotted that a black Spitfire arrives at the end and is piloted by a young woman called Ginny. Yup, that’s her…

Next instalment: I go to Belfast and find some standing stones, there’s more Gillian and a cameo from Air Force One…

Ten Years Ago Today: Robot Overlords and Gillian Anderson is Injured!

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

Filming was well under way now and I had returned to the UK and was back at Orion for my last few weeks in the office before taking six-months leave. This meant I was relying on Jon for updates on the filming and he was kind enough to send me messages on a regular basis. But today’s update was a shocker. We nearly brained our leading lady…

Sunday 9th June – home

Jon called today with an update on the week’s filming. Gillian threw herself into the fight scenes with gusto, nearly flooring one of the stuntmen and banging her head on the ground! But she dusted herself off and carried on without a word of complaint*.

*I later heard that she’d been accidentally kicked in the head during this scene and lost her eyelashes!

Jon is completely in awe of SBK. The second the camera’s on him he’s completely in the zone and often nails it on the first take. Jon said he was giggling watching the edit – it’s that good.

The overall message was it’s going very well. The crew are outstanding and they’re on schedule. Jon sounded relaxed too. Can’t wait to get out there again.

Careful with that Axe, Gillian…

I was also taking meetings with film and TV production companies to see if I get more writing gigs. I was pitching a TV series idea called Myths & Magic, this was an early version of what would eventually become The Witches of Woodville books. I had also joined a group of filmmakers called The Vipers Nest, who were chosen by Samantha Horley (then MD of the Salt Company) as up and coming filmmakers to watch. Here’s my diary entry for our first meeting on Wednesday 5th June…

First Vipers meeting last night. Any worries of reservations I had about feeling out of place vanished almost instantly. They were a great bunch of people, all passionate about movies and their projects. Sam singled me out at the start, telling them that Robots was in production. It was a wee bit embarrassing, but there was a genuinely excited and encouraging round of applause from the group. Of course, I soon discovered they all had far more experience than me: they’d all made shorts, or written for TV, or made documentaries or commercials. I tried to talk to as many people as possible, but mainly chatted to Tom Fickling (sci-fi and comic book fan), Joy Wilkinson (writer with a nice “Geek” t-shirt), Mustapha Kseibati (big hair, big personality), Jacqui Wright (comedy writer with Alice Lowe) and Jonathan Pett (filmmaker working in France). I arrived at 5:45 and the next time I looked at my watch it was nearly 10. Time flies when you’re talking movies…

This group would go on to have a big influence on my thinking about screenwriting as a career (and one day I might even be able to pay the mortgage with it… one day…) and I made some excellent friends in this group.

Tune in next time when the film ends up on the news.

The Holly King cover reveal

Once again, Mr Harry Goldhawk has done us proud with the cover art for THE HOLLY KING…

I love it. It’s a little different to the previous Witches of Woodville books, but without straying too far from the established style. I won’t say much more about it (other than to say that’s not Faye with the sword), but would love to know what you think.

THE HOLLY KING is out on September 14th and available to pre-order from all good bookshops here. And if you wanted a signed and dedicated paperback, then just click here.

James Naughtie on the Bestseller Experiment and Bookshelves as Shrines

Back when I was a sales rep for Headline publishing, I would drive all over the south east of England from my home in Epsom, Surrey. I decided that if I was going to be stuck in a car for much of the day, then I would use that time to fill my brain with some good nutritious listening, which meant a lot of Radio 4, including In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg and Women’s Hour. But the day almost always started with the Today programme and so many of my early morning traffic jams were in the company of one of its presenters James Naughtie. So it was a particular delight to be offered the chance to interview him for the podcast. Of course, whenever I’m interviewing a journalist I worry that I’ll fluff if and look like an amateur, but James was great and put me at my ease right away. It’s a fun interview and James’s Will Flemyng spy thrillers are from all accounts proper page-turners.

Later in the podcast, inspired by my chat with James about books as treasured things, me and Mr D discuss how bookshelves are like carefully arranged shrines with sacred objects (books!) from significant moments in our lives. I recalled buying a copy of David Selzer’s The Omen in a second hand English language bookshop while I was holiday in Spain when I was about 11-years-old. I can’t tell you how many times I read and re-read this, but I loved it, totally falling for the (fake) quotes from Revelations. I’m pretty sure this was the first horror novel I read (unless you count Jaws, which I probably should) and it sparked a love of the genre that’s never left me. Just holding it on my hands takes me back to that holiday and happily reading in the shade… What was the first horror novel you ever read? Let me know in the comments below…

All together now… “Sanguis, bibimus!”

Here’s this week’s podcast for you to enjoy. In the extended edition I give all sorts of tips for building characters. If you want to hear that, then become a Chart Topper supporter of the podcast here.

Ten Years Ago Today: Robot Overlords, the First Night Shoot

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

I flew home from Belfast on Sunday 2nd June after Jon and I spent a solid five hours on Saturday working on last minute rewrites. Mostly forensic little bits, poring over the BFI notes and the notes from our exec producer Chris Clark. Once Jon and I were done, we sent the production draft to Piers (Tempest, producer) and Chris for approval. This is the document that the crew would be using to make the film. Any changes from now on would be issued as “pinks” — additional side pages coloured pink, so that every knew a change had been made: hugely important when so many people are working on a film. And so my work was pretty much done.

Not one, but four cabs came to pick me up from the airport. I guess they wanted to be sure I was off!

Tuesday 4th June, 2013

Got a call from Chris Clark on the way home last night: could I check and transcribe all the line changes for SBK? Took me about an hour and a half.

Lots of locals in Bangor posting photos on Twitter of yesterday’s night shoot of the death of Connor’s dad.

I asked Jon how it went. “Hard work,” though SBK was brilliant. And he’s doing Smythe with a Huddersfield accent! Not what we wrote or expected, but he’s knocking it out of the park.

I forget that Sir Ben doing the Huddersfield accent was a surprise to us at the time. I can’t imagine it any other way now. Apparently he based it on an old teacher of his, which was a perfect choice. For more on SBK and his line changes, check out my previous diary entry here.

As for the Belfast locals taking pics of the shoot (in Holborn Avenue), I was sent a few via social media which I can share with you here. I believe these were taken by someone known as Rossographer, but if that’s wrong, or you were one of the photographers then drop me a line and I’ll update!

Bangor was a nice neighbourhood until our crew arrived… A big crane is always guaranteed to draw attention. We took over the whole of Holborn Avenue in Bangor for two days! Jon and crew preparing to shoot a scene that will traumatise children everywhere… Gillian Anderson and Sir Ben Kingsley on location.

The Wish Demon Limited Edition Comic Book — Just a Few Left…

There are just a few copies of the 10-page Witches of Woodville comic book left. You can grab your copy (one per customer!) by clicking here.

I was at the MDC comic con a couple of weekends ago and a few people spotted something on my table that they hadn’t seen before…

No, not the skull… behind the skull… No, not my skull. The other one…

If you’re a newsletter subscriber, you’ll know that THE WISH DEMON is a free ten-page comic book about how a simple wish on Faye’s 18th birthday goes disastrously wrong. It’s illustrated by the brilliant Emily Stewart, and here’s page one…

Emily and I decided it would be fun to create a print version, which we’ve limited to 50 copies. They’re all numbered and signed (which you can see us doing here)…

Most have already gone to newsletter subscribers (they get first dibs on everything, so if you want to subscribe you can do that here), but we still have a few left and if you want one, they’re just a fiver (plus P&P) and you can get yours by clicking here.

I’ll Be At The MEDWAY LITERARY FESTIVAL Thursday 8th June

Sunyi Dean and Mark Stay
AUTHORS TALK: 7pm-9pm.
Chatham Library and Community Hub, Dock Rd, Chatham ME4 4TX

Fantasy authors, Sunyi Dean whose Sunday Times bestseller ‘The Book Eaters’ is a unique take on the vampire myth, and Mark Stay (The Witches of Woodvile series), whose film ‘Robot Overlords’ starred Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley and is available on Amazon Prime, will be in conversation with Sam Hall.

Sunyi Dean is a biracial fantasy author who was born in Texas, grew up in Hong Kong, and now resides in the UK. She writes speculative fiction with a weird slant.

Mark Stay is a novelist and screenwriter. His Witches of Woodville series is published by Simon & Schuster, and his new film Unwelcome premiered at the Sitges Festival recently, and was released by Warner Bros. in 2023.
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Free, book with Medway Libraries in person, phone 01634 337799, or via your SPYDUS account.
Chatham Library is fully accessible.
Nearest bus stop: Chatham Bus Station

Ten Years Ago Today: Robot Overlords and the Shoot Begins…

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

Here we go. Day one of the filming of Robot Overlords. You’ll note from the image that I didn’t write my diary entry until 1st June. To be fair, I was a very excited little puppy as you’ll see…

Friday 31st May

Belfast – First day of the shoot

The first day of filming couldn’t have gone better. We were at the Belfast Metropolitan College, an abandoned edifice, now mostly used for filming. Gillian Anderson’s TV series The Fall shot there and we even re-used one of their sets for the File Room.

The day started with shots of the VC guy coming down a stairwell, followed by the gang, then lots of sneaking around and running down corridors. Then, in the afternoon, the file room scene.

The rehearsal paid off: the kids work so well together and they look so good on camera.

I snuck off to a nearby hotel lobby (the Fitzwilliam) where they had a nice open fire (it was quite chilly for June) and worked on the rewrites. Both Chris (Clark, executive producer) and Piers (Tempest, producer) are worried about the number of line changes for SBK (Sir Ben Kingsley), so I made sure to list them separately.

It was good to see Jon in action again. Very calm, very sure of what he wants and very good at getting it out of his young cast. They can be inconsistent, as young actors often are, and I think Jon is driving our continuity guy mad with his choices of performance over continuity.

As I watched all this unfold, I wanted to go back and tell my 10-year-old self that I would get to make a cool movie… and that the next 30 years would just fly by.

After the wrap, me, Matt (Platts-Mills, editor), Paddy (Eason, VFX Supervisor), Piers (Tempest, producer), Aidan (Elliott, co-producer) and Jon had a drink at the Duke of York pub before Matt, Paddy, Jon and I went for a meal across the road where we got very excited at the results of the first make-up tests for Craig (Garner) who plays the Mediator. They’ve given him black hair and strange contact lenses and he looks like Gary Numan.

And so we’re off! They have a night shoot on Monday – rather them than me – and SBK and Gillian will join the cast.

I have rewrites with Jon today – hopefully the last major pass – before I fly home later tonight.

Let’s begin with the line changes for SBK… and yes, that’s how we referred to Sir Ben in all our emails, and yes, we were asked to address him in person as Sir Ben. I know he’s had a lot of stick for this over the years, but if that’s how he wants to be addressed then fair play to him. I didn’t meet him till much later, and all I can tell you is he is everything you want him to be: a gent, no nonsense, and completely committed to the craft of acting. We were bloody lucky to have him on board.

Separating out his line changes was a curious exercise. I thought it was a complete hassle at the time, but it was later explained to me that SBK learns the whole script. Everything. And it’s all there in his mind ready to go when the cameras turn over. So any changes can disrupt this process, and he likes to have any changes in plenty of time so that he can compare them with the original lines and incorporate them into his memory and deliver a performance with confidence. It’s a method that’s made him Academy Award Winner Sir Ben Bleedin’ Kingsley, and who was I to argue with that?

Being present for the first shot of the film was a real privilege, though I very nearly fluffed it by sticking my iPhone too close to the monitor to take a photo and distracting Jon, who almost got irritated with me. Jon is completely unflappable and focused on set. This film was a step up in budget and scale for him and he must have been under tremendous pressure to deliver, but he never showed it… despite my best efforts.

Every now and then I would be struck by the scale of the production — the crew, the trucks, the gear, the cast — and realise they were all there because of some words that Jon and I had committed to paper. It’s an odd feeling. Both empowering and terrifying. But one I like.

Stay tuned for a report on that night shoot on 2nd June…

Supernerd in the filing room set. Never distract the director with your social media shots! James and Ella on the monitors.

Ten Years Ago Today: Robot Overlords and I’m in Charge for a Day…

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, just as we were prepping to shoot Robot Overlords. From now on the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).

After the previous day’s debacle with the chunky implant props, Jon was called away from rehearsals to sort it out. Which left me in charge of rehearsals. What could possibly go wrong…?

Wednesday 29th May

Belfast – Rehearsals

Jon had a frantic day sorting out the implant situation, so he asked me to run today’s rehearsals, while he popped in and out. 

We kept off the script and improvised scenes not featured in the film – little moments before or after key scenes on the film, so the actors could get an idea of their characters’ lives outside of the script. I was worried I might become the kind of hippy-dippy workshop-happy drama teacher I hated at school, but actually it all went really well. Callan (McAuliffe) didn’t completely buy into it — he’s a very no-nonsense kind of actor, but the others seemed to really enjoy and benefit from it.

Had a good one-on-one session with James (Tarpey) going through his lines. In the middle of our meeting he got a call from M&M World, his current employers, whom he had to inform that he was quitting his job to make the film.

The kids got to try out the quad bikes today. Great fun if their excited squeals were anything to go by.

Our new Executive Producer, Chris Clark, arrived today with an armful of script notes compiled by him and the BFI. Chris is an experienced producer who’s worked with Gillian Anderson and SBK (Sir Ben Kingsley) before on films like Johnny English and Thunderbirds. I was worried by the number of notes he had, but none of them are drastic, mostly to do with clarity, and Chris’s objectivity has helped focus on a few weak spots.

I like Chris a lot. He’s very calm and methodic. When I first heard we were getting an Exec Producer to look at the script from a creative perspective, my writer’s paranoia kicked-in and I was concerned that he would sweep in and demand huge changes or you’re fired. I needn’t have worried. All of his suggestions have so far improved the script.

The only trouble we had was pinning Jon down to go through the changes. He’s so busy with the implant issues and other shoot prep that if we’re going to do this properly I might have to extend my stay until Saturday.

Jon Wright (director) and Piers Tempest (producer) checking out the implant props during pre-production. Rehearsals: from L-R James Tarpey (making us all laugh), Ella Hunt, Jon Wright, Milo Parker, Callan McAuliffe. Ella and Callan pretending to be robots in the production office.

Thursday 30th May

Belfast – Rehearsals

A frantic day for Jon, an odd one for me. I wrote some additional dialogue for a scene at around 9.30am this morning, but couldn’t get Jon to approve it till around 6pm (it’s for tomorrow’s shoot). He was around for some rehearsal this morning, but also had to visit the set for tomorrow, look at the finished implants (much improved), and then had to go clothes shopping with Callan because they couldn’t find him a suitable outfit (and Jon hates clothes shopping).

Rehearsals were okay, but Callan wasn’t that interested, and the others were giggly,— they just want to get on with the film and I don’t blame them. But it was nice to hang out with Jo Donnelly again, she’s a lovely person and a fine actor.

Paddy (Eason, VFX supervisor) turned up in the afternoon and I was happy to see a familiar face. He showed us a few pre-viz VFX clips which were just terrific. Some of the images and framing seemed to have been plucked directly from my brain. Paddy kindly put them on a memory stick, so I can show the kids when I get home.

And tonight we finally finished our script notes with Chris. Jon and I will use Saturday to do the final rewrite.

This has been a great week. Tiring, sometimes worrying (the implants), but a great learning experience. The team at the production office have been friendly and helpful and it’s been humbling to watch all these people work so hard to bring this story to life… and the shoot starts tomorrow.

Poor Callan, James, Ella and Milo. Suddenly their director is called away and they’re left with the bloody writer to run rehearsals! No wonder they were all a little antsy. We did a few games and bonding exercises, but by the Thursday it was clear that they were all ready to rock and all anyone wanted to do was start filming.

The sessions with Chris Clark were terrific and I wish we’d had him earlier on in the process. He challenged every scene in the script and there’s no question that he helped make the story stronger. I don’t recall how much sleep I got that night. I doubt I got much. It was the night before filming and I could hardly believe it… We were about to make a bloody movie!