Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 451

Let's Enhance

As cliches go, this is one of the best…

How Long Before The Scumbag Steve Book?

Remember the Scumbag Steve stuff? (Come on, it was like, two whole weeks ago!). The spinoffs are gathering apace. How long before you find the book sitting at an outlet counter? Three weeks? A month? And the publishers are telling you they can't bring out your book until NEXT YEAR? Liars!

You Made It Through The Week Again!

And you get to do it all again next week!

Life Needs A Soundtrack Under It

I can't work without music. I'm writing some severely mad stuff today, and needed to play appropriate sounds. Usually I fall back on soundtracks, of which I have an obscenely vast collection, including many so obscure that even I can't recall the names of the films they're from.

Certain composers are good for specific states of [...]

The Minefield Of Sexual Politics

You have to be so careful these days. Here follows a genuine email exchange between a friend of mine and his building contractor.

From: John Goodwin
Sent: 22 February 2011 14:15:
To: Andy Tynan
Subject: Floor & Basement Painting

Andy

Working through the 'to do' list, I've had a chat with Dave regarding the above.
It would appear there is a bit [...]

Black Comedy Primer: 1

I've always loved black comedies. The plays of Joe Orton and Peter Nichols, TV shows like the dark 'Brittas Empire' and the blacker-than-hell 'Nighty Night', and books like the ones above all work for me. There's a fine line to getting it exactly right – 'Lolita' treads it perfectly – but when it's good, it [...]

Hurt Your Eyes In Trafalgar Square

Two of my favourite things – London and reading – combine on March 4th.

The biggest single literary event in history is going to take place in London in just over a week as a curtain raiser for World Book Night, itself billed as "the biggest book give-away ever", when 20,000 book lovers will give away [...]

Welcome Back To Cole Bay

'What's it like, being in a panto?' Harry asked.
'Widow Twankey went to prison for child molesting a few years back.'

Remember Cole Bay, suicide capital of the UK? The crummy seaside town where Kay grows up (and from where he falls into Persia) in my novel 'Calabash'? It remains a personal favourite of mine.

Well, the town [...]

'Galaxy With Your Jane Eyre?'

WH Smith, the stationery souk ('Do you want a giant chocolate bar for a pound extra?' 'Shawarma while you're waiting?') sells largely remedial reading matter, and has a private panel which decides what goes on the shelves. They turned down the fabulous chance to stock 'Paperboy', saying it was not populist enough. Maybe I should [...]

How To Be Unpopular

We're in strange times for horror and fantasy.
China Mieville writes the knockout 'Kraken' and gets criticized for being too weird.
Stephen King writes four new novellas and gets praised for avoiding the supernatural.
TV dramas like 'Whitechapel' get greenlit so long as they have a factual element in them.
Writers produce fiction based on real-life crimes.
Whatever happened to [...]