Jason Arnopp's Blog: Jason Arnopp's Blog, page 14

Thank You Utopia...

... for reminding me to write exactly what I want to write, instead of trying to second-guess what might slot into the current TV climate and landscape.

It's a reminder we all need from time to time: follow your heart, gut, balls... whichever part of the body you use to personify your gumption and personality.  Writer Dennis Kelly clearly followed his, and the result has been six weeks of Utopia on Channel 4.

What a great show.  I consider myself a battle-hardened viewer of unpleasant...

The Launch Of V/H/S... In A Video Shop

Last night, I attended the UK launch of the found-footage anthology film V/H/S.  With characteristic imagination and effort, Fetch Publicity located the required free drinks in a pop-up, one-night-only retro video shop.  Foolishly, I had feared that this Shoreditch-based 'shop' might consist solely of a couple of half-hearted shelves, but no, they'd gone the whole hog, with every available stretch of wall covered with old-school videos in racks.  There was also a glowing video...

My 2012 In Ten Uneven Slices

Hello you!  GOD I LOVE YOUR FACE.

A good working year, 2012.  Broadly speaking, it was the year in which I tiptoed away from previously established franchises like Doctor Who and began to carve my own furrows, while continuing to collaborate with others on new things.

Even the most pro-active writer spends the majority of their time playing a big waiting game, which is only natural but can be frustrating.  By building their own mini empire, the writer can gain full control over a...

Ten Slices Of My 2012

A good working year, 2012.  Broadly speaking, it was the year in which I moved away from previously established fictional worlds like Doctor Who and began to carve my own furrows, while continuing to collaborate with others on new things.

Even the most pro-active writer spends the majority of their time playing a big waiting game, which is only natural but can be frustrating.  By building their own mini empire, the writer can gain full control over at least one aspect of their career...

The Twelve Days Of Fast Fiction

A while back, Lee 'Budgie' Barnett wrote two unique collections of short stories, entitled The Fast Fiction Challenge and The Fast Fiction Challenge Volume 2.  He had invited friends to challenge him by providing (a) a title of up to four words and (b) a single word which must be included.  Oh, and just to up the ante, each short story had to be 200 words exactly.

As you can imagine, these projects gave rise to a nice variety in stories and genres.  Both books also contain 380 s...

Scary Christmas: The Deadlines

In October, my short supernatural tale A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home was published.  Perhaps the first ever ghost story to be largely set in the home of whoever reads it, the book is available as a low-cost ebook or as a personalised, physical letter mailed to your home.

I wanted to let potential buyers of the Bespoke Deluxe Paper Edition (ie the physical letter, which addresses you by name, knows exactly where you live and all sorts) know the situation with pre-Christm...

Ray Palmer: Ten Years Gone

10 years ago today, my great friend Ray Palmer died suddenly at the age of 48.  It's hard to believe that this happened a full decade ago.

Ray Palmer was a photographer on rock magazine Kerrang! between 1981 and a year in the late ‘90s which I now forget.  He was, of course, far more than just a photographer: he was a husband to Chris, a father to Ross and Faye, and a friend to so many.  He was also an absolute one-off: there was no-one in the industry like him and there never w...

Doctor Who Ultimate Art Auction!

I was asked to donate a piece of art to The Ultimate Doctor Who Art Auction Round 2, organised by the tireless Robin Miller in aid of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.  So I produced this extraordinary work.  Just soak in the QUALITY of it.  Take a moment.  Yeah.

So that's up for grabs in the new auction and I'm pleased to say it's had a few bids.  But here's the thing: loads of other, way more thrilling Doctor Who-related people have donated unique pieces of...

Black Weekend Book Blitz!

Wanted to let you know a couple of things, you insane GOOSE.

Thing Number One: JMR Higgs' book KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money is now available at Amazon.  This, you may recall, is the book which made me think our neighbour was going to burn the building down.  It's a potentially dangerous and quite brilliant affair.  Even if you have only a passing interest in The KLF, you'll find this to be a deeply unusual and compelling music biography, which examines the idea that Bill Drummon...

A Sincere Postmortem

Yesterday, I made my book A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home free for the day on all Amazon sites.

As this was a first-time experiment for me, I thought it might be interesting to hold a quick 'postmortem' (as we always used to call the weekly examination of the last issue of Kerrang!, way back when I worked on that magazine).  This might also be useful for other Kindle authors who are considering the same 'free day' course of action.

First of all: a word on how you set up th...