Tag Archives: novel

In which the Writer adapts a bestseller for the screen – and can’t tell anyone.

You may sometimes stumble across descriptions of movie projects that state “story kept under wraps”. They may even just call the project “Untitled”. I’ve always found such posts annoying.

And now I’m doing that very thing myself. Ah, irony. Right now I’m under contract to adapt a bestselling novel for a producer in the UK. A producer who can walk the project into a major US production company. A production company that has links to two major directors.

Which is why I can’t say anything other than “story kept under wraps” and the project is “Untitled”. All I can say is, it’s a wonderful, epic story, and working on it has been a pleasure.

Will the project get greenlit? Who knows? But I’d really, really like to see this get to the screen: audiences will be wowed.

In which the Author writes a vampire novel…

After writing dozens of non-fiction books on mysteries, witchcraft, zombies, ghosts, poltergeists, murders,

bodysnatching and other gleeful subjects, I’ve finally finished my first novel.

It’s a vampire novel, which will perhaps surprise no one given my genre tastes, but in addition to featuring serial

killers, explosions, bodily naughtiness, and jokes about Jimi Hendrix, it is also an alternative history.

Basically, I’m attempting to do nothing less than replace the current standard vampire mythology with an entirely

new one based around evolutionary biology and cutting-edge archaeological thinking.

I know, modesty has always been one of my greater faults.

Now that the novel is finished, the real hard work begins: trying to find a publisher or agent. Despite having written 31 non-fiction books, when it comes to getting a first novel published I’m back on the starting block.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

In which the author confesses he is writing some film scripts…

 

 

This weekend (19th/20th November) I’ll be attending the ‘360 Narratives’ two-day event in Stirling, a session designed to bring together writers from different disciplines to forge partnerships and collaborations. There will be children’s authors, novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, graphic novelists and games developers.

And me. I’m going to have to come out of my non-fiction shell and reveal that I’ve been working on two spec screenplays. The first draft of one is complete, while the second is stalled somewhere in the middle of Act Two. So far I’ve been keeping this new area a secret, largely because – well, actually my motives are a tad obscure on this point. Self-confidence issues? Fear of rejection? Lack of an agent? A mild dislike of the script formatting software? I’m not really sure. But such uncertainty, such self-questioning, is undoubtedly part of the writer’s journey. Oooh, deep.

What are the scripts about? Well, given the subject of my books, you’re not expecting a romantic comedy, are you?

See http://www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/360narratives.htm for more. If you are one of the writers and other creative types attending the weekend, I look forward to seeing you there. I’ll be the one toting around the horned skull…