Authors Electric

 Happy Star Wars Day everyone. How are you planning to celebrate this momentous day? Don’t scoff and declare this a made-up event like National Trivia Day, National Doughnut Day, World Animal Day and National Cookie Day – which happen on the 4 th of January, June, October and December respectively. (I may have inadvertently stumbled on some other topics for blog posts in the future.) Star Wars Day is a very serious affair even celebrated on the International Space Station in 2015. "Just watching @starwars. In space. No big deal." Tweet from NASA In the same year in Ottawa, Canada, the carillon bells inside the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill played "The Imperial March" theme, along with other space related music. The story may take place in a galaxy far, far away but for those who don’t wish to travel you could easily celebrate from the comfort of your own sofa by hosting a watch party with friends far and near. Disney acquired the franchise in 2012 an...

Daisy Ridley's Ophelia swims with the fishes It's a writer's nightmare. You've put everything into a novel based on an idea that you thought was original, only to discover that it's already been done - maybe better, and perhaps famously. How did you overlook it? Just like that, your shiny new bicycle has a flat and you're out there pedaling with no pants on! No matter. Call it "a reimagining" and carry on. Writers have done it for thousands of years, most notably, William Shakespeare, that all time master of tales retold in iambic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet , was already a popular Italian tale when the Bard made it the subject of his masterpiece, as were other most famous plays. He based Hamlet on a very old Danish play entitled "Ur-Hamlet" which in turn was derived from a lengthy, 1200 A.D. compilation of Norse legends written in Latin: Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, or History of the Danes , telling of the rise and fall of t...

Do you sometimes struggle to come up with a subject to blog about? Well that was me up until I read Reb MacRath's blog on size (Friday) and Jan Needle's comment about interviewing the Beatles. I was about to add a comment, when I suddenly realised that what I was going to put, could be turned into an entire blog. So first off, thank you Reb and Jan for inspiring today's blog! My comment was in response to Jan who had once interviewed the Beatles, finding that three of them were smaller than him. That reminded me of interviewing Chewbacca, an 8ft Wookiee about a month ago. That was certainly a bit of a size difference! It dawned on me that over the years, I've interviewed some weird and wonderful characters. So I thought I might share a few with you. Topically, as Star Wars celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, I remember writing an article for a magazine celebrating Star Wars' 25th anniversary. I got to interview Dave Prowse – who played Darth Vader. ...

Here I go again, doing what I'm told you absolutely should not do - Foiling The Dragon by Susan Price that is, talking back to your critics. I did it here, when people said my villain in the Sterkarm books, James Windsor, was not believable - and now I'm going to defend my poetry-loving dragon in Foiling The Dragon. I recently put Foiling The Dragon. out as a paperback and e-book. It is, as the strapline informs you, 'A light-hearted fantasy of poets, sorceresses, dragons — and wrapping paper.' It's not epic fantasy. It's meant to amuse for a few hours, and maybe make you smile. On Amazon it's collected some positive reviews. J. Mathews says,  ' I enjoyed this book as a child, and have just read it again. I found it equally enjoyable.' Thank you, J. Mathews. I don't know who you are, but I greatly appreciate your taking the time and trouble to post a positive review. The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price D. Lamb says: ...

The first Doctor Who I remember being conscious of as a child was Jon Pertwee, and the story was The Green Death – all about toxic slime, rogue industrial chemists, and malignant maggots. I liked Jon Pertwee, but then the following year his face metamorphosised into that of another actor, Tom Baker, and this new incarnation was such a spectacle of drama and bombastic tour de force that for me, looking back, my “Dr Who years” must be the Tom Baker years. He came into the role straight from a stage of thespian unemployment which had led him to take up a job operating a Kango drill as a labourer on a building site. He must have thought he was never going to get anywhere as an actor during that period, and then the next second there he is in the Dr Who role, hat and scarf in place, and throwing himself so hard and desperately into the performance that the Dr Who sets sometimes shook even more than they always had, perhaps set off just by the timbre of his voice alone, though h...

Me and horror writer Sam Stone I spent last weekend in the company of several incarnations of Dr Who, a few daleks, lots of stormtroopers, jedi knights and Chewbacca – plus various characters from Lord of The Rings, Batman and numerous other film and television shows. Not forgetting the creepy Pennywise the clown and other scary creatures. I was at Sci-Fi Weekender – an annual get-together of more than 6,000 fans of science-fiction, fantasy and horror in all media forms. At a Haven holiday park in North Wales, I stayed in a gorgeous caravan with stunning views of Tremaddog Bay and so close to the sea, you could hear it at night. And I was there as a “guest artist”, with an access-all-areas pass! With several other writers, I co-hosted a variety of panels on writing in the Author Zone – part of the Spaceport (aka the smaller of the two main areas on the site – with a stage, seating, bar etc). I somehow managed to get listed in the lovely, glossy, full-colour event guide on...

I was trying to think of something interesting and inspiring to write about for my Authors Electric blog this month, and thought I'd look back at the blog, to remind myself what other authors had written in the hope it might kick start my blogging brain! So I Googled Authors Electric – or rather I didn't Google Authors Electric, I hit the wrong keys and Googled Arthurs Electric . And got a whole different category of topics and websites. I was suddenly faced with all the information I needed if I wanted to get my chainsaw serviced! It had to be word association, because when I thought of chainsaw I immediately thought of two things – and they both have a writing link. Hurray! I'd got my blog idea by default – very weird, but I'm not complaining. So, chainsaws! And my first thought was of the horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the time I interviewed the leading man from the original film, Leatherface himself – Gunnar Hansen. My second...