8Qs: David Morrell

Eight Questions is an occasional series of interviews that I’m including on the site. Being a naturally gifted (read: lazy) interviewer, I will be using the same eight questions in every interview.

This time, the questions are being answered by novelist, David Morrell. As you might expect of the co-founder of the International Thriller Writers, David is widely considered to be a Thriller Writer’s Thriller Writer. His books have set new standards for combining high action / adventure plots with intelligently portrayed characters to produce some of the most compelling stories of the modern era, starting with his 1972 debut novel, First Blood(A), and continuing with the likes of The Brotherhood of the Rose trilogy(B) and many more.

David’s dedication to research and realism is evident in all his books (his website, davidmorrell.net notes that David has been trained in, amongst other things, executive protection, hostage negotiation, defensive/offensive driving, and ‘assuming identities’, and he earned his private pilot’s licence in preparation for writing The Shimmer. He is also an honorary lifetime member of the Special Operations Association and the Association of Intelligence Officers, which probably tells you everything you need to know).

In addition to his productive career writing novels (his thirtieth novel(C) is due to be published next month), David has written three non-fiction books, numerous essays and contributed to such iconic comic books as Captain America and The Amazing Spiderman.

Welcome, David! Continue reading →

The mouse exclusion

About this time last year I wrote a post making fabulous (and ridiculously amusing) predictions about the state of publishing for the next fifty years. One of those predictions was a dramatic increase in the quality and variety of books available for free as a result of expired copyright.

Copyright law is one of those topics that I find it hard to stay away from when I hear it discussed. It’s often misunderstood, incorrectly interpreted, and / or taken for granted, but one part of the debate more likely to prompt me to get my trolling hat on than any other is expiry. Every now and again I’ll hear of creators and consumers complaining about the duration that copyright subsists after the death of the author, typically citing a certain American purveyor of theme parks and animated features as aggressively lobbying to get further extensions to protect their commercial interests (ie, their exclusive rights to use the Mouse and his friends). Those people are wrong.

And not “in my opinion they are wrong,” or “I can see where they’re coming from, but I personally don’t agree”. They’re just wrong. Continue reading →

The devil and the dictionary

In the play by Christopher Marlowe, Faust sells his soul to the devil [Spoiler, sorry]. But like any sensible commercial operative, Faust does have the sense to do a little bit of due diligence before completing the transaction.

The exchange, if memory and Google serve me correctly, goes something like:

FAUST: So, Mephy-baby. I thought you were supposed to be in hell? They, like, let you out and stuff?
MEPHISTOPHELES THE DEVIL: Why this is hell, nor am I out of it. Think’st thou that I who saw the face of God and tasted the eternal joys of Heaven, am not tormented with ten thousand hells in being depriv’d of everlasting bliss?
FAUST: Huh?
MEPHISTOPHELES THE DEVIL: O Faustus! Leave these frivolous demands, which strike a terror to my fainting soul.
FAUST: Man up, dude.

Continue reading →

Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental

At the start of each of the Novel-in-a-Day books there is a disclaimer, not dissimilar to the one you see boilerplate to the credits at the end of (nearly) every movie you see: “All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

I’ve been having a minor disagreement (all done very politely and respectfully, I might add!) with someone on the internet for a little while now about the value of first hand research in writing. The other person was advocating piggybacking on research done by other writers and, this being the internet, sensible points were made by several people on both side of the viewpoint. But a recent revival of the discussion got me thinking about that disclaimer. And when it comes down to it, I’m a little ashamed to have used it. After all, can there be any worse insult to someone’s writing to say that their characters and events bear no resemblance at all to reality? Or if it does, it must be a coincidence? Continue reading →

Section7 (NiaD 2014)

<LOGLINE AND TEASER TO FOLLOW>

 

This book was written as a Novel-in-a-Day on October 25th, 2014. Two versions were produced (one called ‘Blue’ and one called ‘Red’), each with written in 24 hours by 24 authors.

 

 

 

 

Get a free copy of both versions here:
– epub (Blue)
- mobi (Blue)
- PDF (Blue)

 

– epub (Red)
– mobi (Red)
– PDF (Red)

8Qs: Zach Weinersmith

Eight Questions is an occasional series of interviews that I’m including on the site. Being a naturally gifted (read: lazy) interviewer, I will be using the same eight questions in every interview.

This time, the questions are being answered by web cartoonist, Zach Weinersmith. Zach is perhaps best known for his award winning (and my own personal favourite) web comic, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, which has provided a slice of keenly observed humour daily since 2002. Welcome, Zach! Continue reading →

The Colour Of Magic

There was a  management fad a while ago that I’m sure is still alive and well in some corner of Corporateville to provide new recruits to grad schemes with fashion advice. No doubt this was designed to curb the wave of bright young things coming into the office in un-ironed shirts or the kind of body-con dresses that can play havoc with the blood pressure of the senior partners. The good consultants went beyond the condescending (“Wear a suit. No, not one from Topshop”) and started to provide advice on what colours best matched your skin tone… although I distinctly remember seeing pretty much everyone from one intake rush out and by purple shirts and ties after one session so I guess even fashion consultants get lazy? Continue reading →