Andrew Hook's Blog, page 21

From Book to Film

I recently read "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin and thoroughly enjoyed it. Having already seen the movie adaptation directed by Roman Polanski several times I was struck by how exactly Polanksi had followed the book. In fact, it felt more that I was remembering the book rather than reading it. The adherence to the story, dialogue, indeed every element, was incredible. A perfect adaptation, some might feel. Indeed, Polanski was such a stickler for detail that Ira Levin later claimed he had been...

Writing To Music

I've got into the habit of listening to albums on a loop continuously when writing short stories. It has to be something unobtrusive; a background noise to anchor me in the moment of writing, to enclose me like a bubble until the story is written and the spell can be broken. Different stories suit different moods and some albums I use repeatedly because I know I can write easily to them. I can usually knock out a 2,500 to 5,000 word story in one session, and during that time the CD can play t...

The Novels I've Never Sold

I thought I'd make a post here about all the novels I've written and the one which I've sold. With me there's a great disparity between novel writing success and short story writing success. With short stories I've sold over 100 so far and whilst I don't have the exact figure with me I would estimate I've written about 130. As some of those were written recently I think that's a pretty good hit rate. Some of these short stories were written in a matter of hours, so - again - the turnarou...

Fur-Lined Ghettos #2

As well as spending a large part of my life writing fiction I've also dabbled in editing in one form or another. I was one of the fiction editors for the short-lived magazine White Noise, was the driving force behind the multi-award winning Elastic Press from 2002 til 2009, and also edited the fiction magazine, New Horizons, for the British Fantasy Society for a number of years. Putting books and magazines together is an interesting process, they take on a gestalt of their own, with the conte...

The Pangolin

What better way to start the New Year than by celebrating a long-snouted animal?

In this instance, it's one of my favourites: the pangolin. Here's a baby one looking especially cute.


The pangolin is also known as a 'scaly anteater' (for obvious reasons) and the fantastically named 'trenggiling' (for less obvious reasons). It's the only mammal with large keratin scales covering its skin. The name comes from the Malay word pengguling meaning something that rolls up.

I was going to post a picture o...

My Writing Year 2012

I thought I'd do a quick blog post as to my literary achievements during 2012.

I completed one novel begun at the tail end of 2011, a crime pulp noir titled "Church of Wire", and have begun and am halfway through a new novel, "Body And Soul." This one is a far future SF/F book.

I wrote thirteen short stories this year: "Drowning In Air", "The Evening Of The Mule", "The Stench Of Winter", "The Universe At Gun Point", "Dumb Broad", "My Naked Man", "The Abduction Of Europe", "The Perfection Of Sym...

The Best and Worst of 2012

Well, it's that time of the year when everyone is doing their 'best and worst of' lists. As if the start to a New Year really is a magical time of ending and beginning rather than a human tradition defined by numbers which has no bearing on the real world. Yet, if there is a time to do it, I guess it should be now. I know I'm a little early, but it's the end of the world on Friday! I'm going to list the books and movies I read/watched in 2012 and pick my favourites. This isn't restricted to w...

Love Songs

Over the last year I read two books by the French writer Jean Genet. In some ways they are fascinating works about criminals and homosexuality, but having no direct experience of either I've also found them a bit of a struggle. "Our Lady of the Flowers" was an almost stream of consciousness narrative of masturbational fantasies, and "The Thief's Journal" - which seems more autobiographical - also slid from one story into another without much of a linear plot. Just as something seemed to be ac...

American Paddlefish

I remember reading in surrealist Spanish film director Luis Bunuel's autobiography, "My Last Breath", that whenever a film needed something extra Bunuel would chuck in a dream sequence. I follow a similar line with this blog, although when I get stuck I throw in a long-snouted animal. Some of these animals are the stuff of dreams and nightmares in any event.

Today's special is the American Paddlefish. The paddlefish takes its common and scientific names (Polyodon spathula) from its distinctive...

The Perfection of Symmetry

I've decided to write a blog post each time I have something published in order to say a few words about the genesis of the story. In this instance, the story is "The Perfection of Symmetry", recently published in the charity anthology, Chiral Mad.


I'd seen the guidelines for the anthology online and so in this instance my story was written specifically for the book, with the hope that the editor would find it met their requirements. Sometimes a theme can straightjacket a story, sometimes...