The Sensual Typewriter

I remember my first typewriter well. It was a pale grey Remington and it weighed approximately half a ton. While it was theoretically portable, it was impossible to carry the damn thing from one room to the next without risking a double hernia. It was so heavy that I was under strict instructions from my … Continue reading The Sensual Typewriter

“After Liff” by John Lloyd and Jon Canter

It's always a thrill to get something published. My latest appearance in print is especially important to me, despite the fact it comprises just eleven words. It's my humble contribution to After Liff, a book written by John Lloyd and Jon Canter and just published by Faber and Faber. Why do these eleven words mean … Continue reading “After Liff” by John Lloyd and Jon Canter

The Pudding Club

Like all true Englishmen, I like my puddings. Not desserts. Puddings. There's a big difference. Desserts are for sissies. Puddings are big, steaming affairs, mountains of sweetness constructed for stout-hearted men possessing more appetite than shame and, preferably, wearing trousers equipped with an elasticated waistband. Imagine my pleasure, therefore, when the wonderful Mrs E took … Continue reading The Pudding Club

“Fire City” – An Interview with the Creators

Demons walk among us, but we cannot see them. That's the premise of Fire City: King of Miseries, a new short film directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Woodruff Jr. that's just premiered on DreadCentral.com. Though self-contained, King of Miseries sets the scene for a feature-length movie called Fire City: The Interpreter of Signs, for which a … Continue reading “Fire City” – An Interview with the Creators

Iain Banks 1954-2013

Iain Banks died yesterday, aged just 59. After his terminal diagnosis earlier this year, his final novel The Quarry was fast-tracked by his publishers for a June 2o release date, specifically so he'd get to see it on the shelves. Sadly, the cancer beat him to it, and we lost one of the true greats. … Continue reading Iain Banks 1954-2013

The Writing Radio

When you write stories, the ideas don't come from you; they come from the ether. You're not a writer; you're a radio. You might think you're making things up but you're not. You're listening to them as they come in over the airwaves. You're making sense of the signal and recording what you hear. You … Continue reading The Writing Radio

Are Special Effects Still Special?

Dennis Muren, a living legend in the highly specialised field of visual effects, was recently quoted by movies.com as saying this: "In some ways, I think special effects aren't special any more ... If you're going to make a motion picture, don't just throw computer graphics in to make everything bigger." Muren's a smart cookie. … Continue reading Are Special Effects Still Special?

Ray Harryhausen – Knowing When the Monster’s Coming

When I reviewed issue #5 of the visual effects journal Cinefex, I had this to say about stop-motion animation legend Ray Harryhausen: "I’ve always found it astonishing that the man who invented the Dynamation process (whereby models are animated frame-by-frame in front of a screen projecting a previously-shot live-action plate) seemed reluctant to embrace newer … Continue reading Ray Harryhausen – Knowing When the Monster’s Coming

Wide Angle Writing

I hated history at school. Except for the drawing. I liked some of that, especially the diagrams of motte-and-bailey castles. I was utterly bored by the endless lists of English monarchs, the sleep-inducing accounts of meaningless wars, tedious revolutions and labour marches within which no one thing related to anything else, much less to my … Continue reading Wide Angle Writing

The Storyteller Eternal

Nobody knows exactly when the first stories were told. I'm going to stick my neck out and pitch in at 250,000 BC, but only because it's a nice round number and I don't have a time machine. It feels like a fair guess. The "Out of Africa" theory of human evolution suggests our early homo sapiens ancestors may … Continue reading The Storyteller Eternal