Jason Arnopp's Blog: Jason Arnopp's Blog, page 8

WRITERS: YOUR WORK IS NOT A LOTTERY TICKET

Some writers think about their careers and advancement in a rather curious way.

It can be comforting for the writer in his or her ascendancy to think of career advancement as largely luck-related. That it's a matter of writing novel after novel - or script after script - and firing them into a machine full of other National Lottery balls, which may one day be picked out.

This view is, at best, complacent and at worst, dangerous - at least for the writer who holds it. One thing's for sure: if it...

Talking Writing With James Moran

Ah yes, hello! There you are. I'm the latest guest on James Moran's irregular (highly irregular, in fact) online series Writers On Their Writing Process. James and I descended upon a mate's Brighton home, so that he could quiz me about how I write.

James, in case you bizarrely don't know, is a writer and director, whose remarkable writing credits include Doctor Who, Torchwood, Spooks, Severance, Tower Block and Cockneys Vs Zombies, while his directorial credits include Crazy For You and Ghosti...

Writing Peep Show: Interview From The Archives

The Best in Show: Jesse Armstrong and Sam BainThe ninth and final series of Peep Show starts tonight. I’ve seen half of this series and can confirm that it is superb. Episode three, in particular, brought tears to my eyes with its brilliantly-plotted ridiculousness.

Obviously, this tremendous Channel 4 sitcom reaching the end of its lifespan is a sad thing. Having said that, no-one involved seems to have ruled out some kind of return to the show in future, such as specials and what-not. So it’...

Get New Writing Book At Special Price

'Ere! My mate William Gallagher, the estimable writer of Doctor Whoand quality non-fiction, has written a new book called The Blank Screen: Blogging. I've contributed to it, but for Christ's sake don't let that put you off.

The book is available in paperback and Kindle form at Amazon, which is all very well and good, but William has also created a special PDF version of the sage tome for 5/$8, on which I can offer you a special 30 per cent discount, because you're great and worth it. But you d...

Boom! Advance Copies Of Jack Sparks Exist

Orbit Books UK have been toiling away on the creation of special advance review copies of my novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks. Look at them here, in these pics, going the extra mile. And here's a quick Vine-based flick through the book. Backwards.Lastly, here's a nice piece at Tor.com, about the announcement of the book.

And here's a page at the Jack Sparks tribute site, where you can read an extract.

Good day to you!* * *

@JasonArnopp on Twitter
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New Book Deal Announced!

Hello! As The Bookseller revealed yesterday, I now have a two-book deal with Orbit Books.

This is a great big bag of wonderful.

Founded in 1974, Orbit have published the late Iain Banks’ work. As if any more Impressive Info were needed, they’ve also published some of the finest genre novels I’ve read in recent times. I’m talking about the likes of MR Carey’s The Girl With All The Gifts, which I absolutely loved, and Claire North’s mind-bogglingly greatnovels The Fifteen Lives Of Harry August an...

What If Spiders Made Noises?

I often like to use Twitter to gather opinions on the Issues That Matter. See below for a sterling example from last night.[View the story "Spiders: What If They Made Noises?" on Storify]What do YOU think, readers? If spiders absolutely had to make a noise, what would you prefer it to be? Tell us in Comments...Photo Credit: Aaron Jaux via Compfight cc
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@JasonArnopp on Twitter
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New Doctor Who Mag Writing-Fest!

Hey there, you! Stop doing that, it's illegal. I've written a whole load of stuff for the new Doctor Who Magazine, out today. Thirteen whole pages of it. As I always say, this is a shame for me, because it means there's less DWM for me to read. There's still a great deal written by other people, mind you, including a big chat with Steven Moffat about Davros and Part Two of Simon Guerrier's interview with Millennium FX's Kate Walshe.

Here's how my 13 pages break down:

Nine pages: my bumper inte...

HEAR MY DOCTOR WHO/BLAIR WITCH MASH-UP FREE

My Doctor Who audio story The Demons Of Red Lodge aired on BBC Radio 4 Extra this weekend, and you can still hear it via BBC iPlayer for the next five days.

This was the title-story of Big Finish's 2010 anthology, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. It was also my attempt to bring a little Blair Witch Project atmosphere to Doctor Who's world.

I wanted to see what would happen if I dropped the Fifth Doctor – the most fragile and vulnerable of them all – into Bla...

IT'S 'HIDEOUS HALLOWEEN GIFT' TIME!

Ever since the 2012 release of my short story A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home, I've made a special Paper Edition available.

I only ever expected to sell the odd one, here and there, but they'veended up sellingby the hundreds.

A Sincere Warning... takes the form of a letter written to you, the reader, by the person who lived in your home prior to you moving in. As a result, the story describes your home in a generic way. However, the Paper Edition of the story gets very specific....