DWM's been nice about me...
Anyways, since I last posted I've had the rather lovely experience of seeing a lovely review of something I've done in a professional publication. I've been writing for fanzine Shooty Dog Thing for about three years or so, and last January Hirst Books published a rather fine collection of the best bits. Egotistically, I'm bound to say that a fair chunk of it's my work, which is particularly gratifying (and no, I had nothing to do with the selection process, that was all down to Editor of Refined Taste Paul Castle). We had an absolute blast at this year's Gally selling books and it's one of the publisher's best selling titles. Which is lovely.
Anyway, the review...
Although Ness Bishop wasn't particularly keen on the overall package, being doubtful about the fairly significant coverage of books/audios and ephemera, she was far more complimentary about the section dealing with the Sixth Doctor (which gladdened my black heart given I wrote two of those pieces), and singled out my Baker Jnr era overview as 'engrossing' and 'that it 'gets the mind whirring over one of the programme's most endlessly fascinating what if's?'. Which naturally caused me to dance the happy dance. It's the only piece singled out in the review, and it's massively gratifying as a) it's a one column review and b) it's something I pitched to Paul once I knew there'd be a Sixth Doctor section. Actually, I pitched it to him purely as an overview of how the character had been rehabilitated by the books and audios, but fairly early on I realised it was going to end up bigger than that and it ended up being pretty much an overview of the development of the character and where things went wrong (and then right) for him. By halfway through I was even egotistical enough to think of it as a definitive statement from me on the subject. So in the unlikely event that you've read this, cheers Ness, I owe you a drink!
Obviously I disagree with Ness regarding the criticism of the contents, but that's purely perspective - I know Paul's aim is to get fans exploring areas of the show they wouldn't otherwise and pitching it at a level for fans like ourselves. And while I might be critical of my own pieces (now I've been published, I realise what writers say about cringing when they go back over what they've written years later) I'd unhesitatingly recommend the book for Paul's piece, David J Howe's lovely intro and (yep, Ness is spot on with this) the Sixth Doctor section. ANd the Benny and Iris sections. And...
And yep, the reason I've started blogging again is to get myself into the writing habit again is because there's a second volume due out early next year, and I really should be doing more to get on with my pieces because we're starting from scratch on this one instead of garnishing a selection of ten issues worth of material.
Clearly, this is what the pros mean when they talk about displacement activity...