Something of Value

There's one question I've been asked more than any other, and it's not 'where do you get your ideas?' it's 'What are you passionate about?' which translates to what do you want to write about.

Oddly.

Frighteningly.

I never have an answer for that. I don't want to think I'm not a passionate man. I mean Shadow of the Jaguar (Primeval) and Black Water (Torchwood) were different takes on ecology and environmentalism - and the pitch I've just turned in to my agent, The Harrowing, is another environmental/ecologically driven storyline. Jaguar was the trafficking of endangered species, Black Water was a thinly veiled oil story. So perhaps ecology and the environment is my thing? I mean, there's Father London in London Macabre, which is battled by a golem-spirit whipped up in the 1800s from the thick smog polluting the air. In Tau Ceti it was the terraforming of a new world in the shadow of an oppressive regime. With Slaine the land was being soured and drained of magic. In Laughing Boy's Shadow the city of Newcastle itself was a living breathing entity, being torn apart by the depression of the 90s.

So, yeah, maybe that's my thing.

It may sound flippant, but you might be surprised to know it's actually taken me years to work this out.

So, next time I'll have an answer about what I'm passionate about.

Will you?