A fine first day at the NYC Comic Con, remind me to tell you about it sometime. But internet access from here is somewhat wonky, so for now I’ll keep this short and – hopefully – sweet (or sweeter than my last post’s nightmare vision of yours truly’s ravening glossy-pink features as I prepared to consume half the Atlantic Ocean’s piscine population, at any rate ;p) by pointing you in the direction of this Q&A piece I put together for the US booksellers Powell’s.

And yes, it’s true, I am really related to a wizard. Well, that’s what they called him at the time, anyhow!

Here’s the view from my window…

Here, I kid you not (Hell’s teeth!) is a BOATLOAD OF SUSHI-!

And here, recorded live in London this very evening but, thanks to the ever-evolving wonders of t’internet, watchable to me and now you, if you fancy it, is some awesome music from my mates Simon Metheringham and Adrian Taylor.

Tomorrow, the New York Comic Con, to do whatever I can for Tim there. HUZZAH! I’ll keep you posted whenever I can.

For now, though, ‘nighty night. 😉

Yes, following on from my last crack at it back in November ’06, here I am about to embark on my SECOND ATTEMPT TO CONQUER THE USA! Well, erm, at any rate I’m just this minute setting off on a trip to New York. And I’m very excited!! 🙂

The main purpose of the trip (apart from cocktails and shopping, hee hee hee!) is to catch the New York Comic Con, which is taking place this weekend (April 18th-20th). Are YOU, reading this, going to be there, by any chance? If so I’m going to be doing a READING in the Author Room(?!) at 3pm on Sunday, followed by a signing at the Midtown Comics booth from 3.30 to 4pm. In addition, I’ll be lurking around the Con most of that day and the Saturday, and will definitely (but details tbc) be spending some time doing my stuff at the Penguin booth, too. Drop me a line in the Tim Guestbook if you want to meet up with me there for a chat!

Got to dash, I’ve a plane to catch. I’ll do me best to keep you posted on my adventures while I’m away – but…! 😉

Here are some pics from yesterday’s AWESOME visit to Alcester Grammar School, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. I did three talks, with around sixty young people in each audience, followed by a signing session in the library. I’d thoroughly enjoyed coming to the school to do my stuff back in October ’06, so was keenly looking forward to my return – and let me tell you, I wasn’t disappointed.

AGS students are an absolute pleasure to speak to. They love to ask questions! At each talk hands shot up straight away…

…so many, in fact, that I occasionally was a bit nonplussed about who to answer first…!

…But I did my best to respond, albeit in my traditional manner:

Spike Milligan wrote a poem once about a baboon who wanted to fly to the sun. It was a formative influence on me in my childhood years, as I think the above image demonstrates somewhat conclusively. 😉

All three sessions were an absolute blast, as I fielded questions on everything from where ideas come from to what car I drive (btw: heh! I don’t! ;p) But a particular highlight of the day was seeing a display of giant monster artwork that students had put together to celebrate Tim.

My hasty photo does no justice whatsoever to the glory of these monsterpieces (can you make out that green dude with the manga-style hair?? And look at that one top right of Tim asleep as he appears in chapter one! Fantastic!!) HOWEVER…

Inspired by the sight of the above, THE WEBSPHINX and I have had an idea. We would LOVE to create a Reader Art Page for the Tim website if we can (along the lines of this one for Black Tat). We’re raring to go: all we need is some art! So: if TIM has inspired you to create some giant monster artwork of your own, and you fancy seeing it displayed for the amazement and edification of all, then simply scan it into a computer and send it to the following brand new email address: readerart@timdefenderoftheearth.com -We can hardly wait to hear from you!

Meanwhile, a MONSTER thank you to the students and staff of Alcester Grammar School (and particularly Mrs Doubleday) for what was another thoroughly brilliant visit. HEE HEE HEE! 🙂

‘I was wondering who inspired you to write?’ asks Josh, from one of the schools I visited last week.

Great question. Thanks, Josh! There are a few different possible sides to it – and more than few possible answers.

In my case (as I suspect it is with most writers) the drive to write comes from all sorts of different directions. If you’re talking about people who pushed me to chase my dream of being a published author, I’d have to include – for instance – my friend Mary. Her sudden and utterly unexpected death in a car accident when I was 18 (and she 16) was a timely reminder that life is short, it can stop at any time, and if you have an ambition then, well, you’d better get on with going after it. If, by contrast, you’re talking about writers whose work has inspired me – positively or negatively – then the list is very long indeed, and growing all the time (check my LibraryThing profile for some of the positive ones!)

But I guess there is one person I can point to who had a big effect on my choice to do what I do. He’s also a large part of the reason I’m always looking for opportunities to do my stuff at schools, by the way! I’ve mentioned him on this blog before (though THE IRON MAN is by no means his most representative piece of writing). His name was Ted Hughes – and I GOT TO SEE HIM IN PERSON.

He came to my school. If you haven’t heard his name before then it’s hard to explain what a big deal that was: his writing is still loved and admired today, but at that point he was arguably the most famous living poet in the world – and (to repeat) HE CAME TO MY SCHOOL!

He’d been asked to read some poems of his that we students were supposed to be studying for our exams. To my absolute glee he refused, reading instead from what is still one of my favourite books of his, namely CROW. And as if all of that wasn’t wonderful enough, it was a magical performance: his craggy face and deep, slow reading voice were utterly hypnotic, and are etched on my memory forever.

But something else is etched there, too. I was sitting in the front row of the school auditorium, and pardon me if this sounds a little weird, but as he read I realised I was close enough to him to smell that he’d just drunk a cup of coffee.

You see: he wasn’t a wizard, or an alien, or a myth. His writing may have been phenomenal and his life was dramatic – but he was a person. He was a human being, who got up in the morning, who drank coffee. This was a revelation to me, because until that point, while I’d written stories at school, becoming ‘a writer’ myself was something I’d never even considered. Writers were different (I thought). Writers were special – bizarre, mythical creatures separated from the rest of humankind. As far as I could see, becoming ‘a writer’ was as likely as getting superpowers – being able to shoot laser beams from my eyes, say. But there he was, Ted Hughes, this writer I admired. And I could smell his breath! 😉

Writers are people – just like (for instance) brain surgeons, or particle physicists, or polar explorers, or Olympic javelin-throwers are all people. Writing is a job: it’s done by people who sit in rooms and put words together – it’s as simple, and as difficult, as that. And passing along what Ted Hughes passed to me that day as I sat in the audience – namely that if you want to do it, and if you’re prepared to work hard enough, you can do, not ‘just’ writing, but whatever you want – is a big part of the reason why I love doing school visits so much. Seeing (or, heh, smelling-!) that he was a real person made the idea of being a writer suddenly seem real too. That was hugely inspiring to me. And if I and my stories even come close to having that effect on someone else, I’ll be very happy! 🙂

Saturday’s event at Waterstone’s Guildford with Mark Robson was tremendous. For those who don’t know, the traditional drill with bookshop appearances is for authors to sit at a table somewhere, waiting for people to come and ask them to sign their books. Well, let me tell you, that’s not Mark’s style at all. Hee hee hee!

When I arrived he’d set up a low table with some stacks of our books – but it was at the front of the shop, about three paces in from the door. And from there, from about 10 am until 4pm, he and I stood there and approached almost everyone who came in. We engaged them in conversation, we put our books in their hands and (as often as not…!) we convinced them to buy ’em!

I found the business of hand-selling our stuff to be very satisfying. I guess it helped that I’d been a bookseller myself for ten years: I was used to the idea of recommending books to people. It helped, too (of course!) that Mark and I enjoy each other’s work: his IMPERIAL series, for instance, is TERRIFIC! But having to convince someone of the merits of my own stories, enough to part with their cash and give a book of mine a go, was a great experience – humbling, sure, but empowering, too. The day passed in a flash and we had a lot of fun, and I’m delighted to say that Mark has indicated that he might be up for us ‘double-heading it’ again sometime soon. Watch this space! 🙂

Here are a couple more pics of me blethering like a madman to the bemusement of young students yesterday… 😉

The first session was a gleeful return to Westleigh High School, this time to do my stuff for some Year 7’s, in the library. This was great fun, with loads of good questions, my favourite of which (after I’d been expounding on how much I love writing about monsters) was, ‘Are you ever going to write a romantic story?’

‘Yes indeed,’ was my reply. Believe it or not, my fourth [published!] book – the one that comes after the one I’m writing now – is going to have a strong love story element. But when I explained who (or, heh, what) the “lucky couple” are going to be, the person who asked the question seemed a bit surprised – or was that disgusted? HEE HEE HEE! ;p

After a swift lunch it was off to the beautiful and newly-refurbished Ashton Library, to talk to some students from St Edmund Arrowsmith High School.

All five sessions from my Wigan Borough Wanderings have been an absolute delight. But if I had to pick one that was my favourite, this was it.

The way my talks work is that I like to throw them open as quickly as possible to questions from the audience. I’ve got some passages from my books that I’ve been practicing reading, sure, and I’m more than happy to stand there yakking – but it’s much more fun for me (as well as for my listeners, I hope!) if the pace and direction of a session is largely directed by the people I’m speaking to. Well: the questions from the Arrowsmith students were so much fun that the session ran for more than an hour and a quarter! I was gobsmacked when I caught sight of the clock – the time seemed to have shot past. But one would never have guessed I’d been rattling on that long from the pin-sharp concentration and attention of the students. The fact is, I can’t sit still for that length of time – especially not on the floor! So if anyone from the Arrowsmith group is reading this, I’d just like to say THANK YOU. I hope you got something out of listening to me, because I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to you.

I’ve got one more event this week: tomorrow – to my great delight – I’m sharing a bookshop appearance with the brilliant fantastical action thriller author MARK ROBSON! From around 10am to 4pm we’re going to be in one of the Guildford branches of Waterstone’s: the address is 71-73 High Street, Guildford GU1 3DY, and you don’t have to pay to get in. If you’re in the area, drop by for a natter!

…But before I stop for now, I must just say a special MONSTER thank you to Supreme Ninja Librarian KATHY WILLIAMS, of the Wiend Children’s Centre for inviting me to Wigan, for fixing up the events, for driving me around and looking after me while I was there, and for generally being a complete superstar. One of the greatest things about the book trade is the passion, enthusiasm and belief of the people who are involved in it, and Kathy’s commitment to young people and reading is an absolute inspiration. Thank you, Kathy! My first visit to Wigan was AWESOME, and I hope to come back one day very soon.

Out on the campaign trail again: since Tuesday night I’ve been here in the wonderful borough of WIGAN, where I’ve been invited to do my stuff at schools in the area as part of The 5th Annual Leigh and Wigan Words Together Literary Festival. I’m always looking out for more event opportunities, that’s a huge part of my sinister masterplan to conquer the universe but, let’s face it, I haven’t been a published author for all that long (only since Sept ’06!) The festival scene is really thriving here in the UK just now, so the fact I’m starting to get invited to those is very exciting! YAY!

Ahem. OK: now I’ve stopped waving my tentacles in the air I guess I’ll tell you how it’s gone so far. 😉

This morning I did two talks at Westleigh High School. Here’s a pic…

At one point in the first session I was just taking a swig from the water-bottle, preparatory to tearing into a reading with my usual gusto, when a couple of young gents in the front row suddenly burst out laughing.

‘What?’ I asked, brilliantly. It was only then, of course, that I realised I’d managed to pour a goodly amount of the water straight down the front of my shirt. Ho, hum. Well, manual coordination has never exactly been my strong point. And stain invisibility, I’ve learned, is one of the great advantages of wearing a lot of black! ;p

This small mishap aside, both these sessions were a lot of fun. Being asked for more at the end of one of my readings was a particular highlight for me – and since the passage in question (from Tim) involved the total and utter destruction of Britain’s Houses of Parliament, I was more than happy to oblige.

The second session was followed by a slap-up lunch in Westleigh High’s LRC. Bearing the lovely food in mind on top of everything else, let’s just say I’m looking forward to returning to Westleigh for another session tomorrow morning. 😉

The third and final session of the day was at St Mary’s RC High School.

If you look carefully at the above pic, you’ll notice that the camera flash in my eyes has rather revealed my true demonic identity (see ‘THE ENTHOVEN IS DEAD’) But you’ll notice I wasn’t the only one in the room, HUR HUR HUR!

This was another terrific session. I was worried, going in, that having a mix of age-groups in the audience (about half Y7, half Y10) was going to make things awkward, but not a bit of it. Questions from both groups started flowing straight away, and were uniformly excellent. HUZZAH!

My thanks to everyone I met today for giving me such a warm welcome. Example: I’ve only just returned from being taken out by Gillian Forrester, one of the masterminds behind the Festival, for a restorative mountain of sausages, mash and mushy peas. All is right with the world. Or (urp – ‘scuse me!) this corner of it, anyway. ;p

Today I dropped by awesome brand spanking new local independent booksellers THE BIG GREEN BOOKSHOP, to pick up some comics. To my great glee and delight, in their ‘seal of approval’ section I found my favourite review of TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH so far! Take a look:

‘If you don’t like books with action-packed chapters with big scary monsters wrecking national monuments and giant cockroaches killing people, you will not like this book. I LOVED IT.’ – Finn, 12

Job done. I am happy. 🙂

Now seems a good a minute to answer Amin from London, who asks:

Where did you get the idea of TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH?

The single best piece of writing advice I’ve ever heard came from an interview I read once with the awesome thriller writer Lee Child: “Write the exact book that you yourself would be thrilled to read,” he said – and as soon as I saw those words it was like a door opening in my head. The only way as a writer that you can hope to get readers excited by your stories, is if you’re excited by them yourself. GIANT MONSTERS thrill me half to death, and have done for most of my life now.

My first giant monster encounter was when I was six, reading Ted Hughes’ THE IRON MAN – I think it’s called THE IRON GIANT in the US (and I’m talking about the book, not the movie, which is quite different). For those who don’t know, in the book the Iron Man is something of an enigma: ‘Where did he come from? Nobody knows’. But as soon as he stepped off that cliff on page one I was hooked — and by the time he squared off to defend the human race against the annihilating space-angel-bat-dragon (a creature so colossal that it sat on the whole of Australia!) Mr Hughes’ book had started an obsession that would last the rest of my life. I love monsters – all kinds. But from that book I can trace a love of /giant/ ones, specifically, that has sustained and fed me through (to name a few) all three versions of King Kong, the wonderful work of Ray Harryhausen, innumerable Japanese ‘kaiju eiga’ such as Gamera and (naturally!) Godzilla – right up to this year’s CLOVERFIELD.

Sometimes, I’ll admit, I’ve felt a bit silly about it. Sometimes – especially when I was trying to convey my excitement to other people! – I would wonder what it was I loved about giant monsters so much. ‘But it’s blatantly just a guy in a suit,’ they would say (for example). ‘I know,’ I would answer, ‘but…’ ‘That building he’s just stepped on is about six inches tall. It’s totally unrealistic!’ ‘I know,’ I would flail, ‘but-!’ But the thing was, I didn’t know where that ‘but’ came from – why I loved these stories so much. Not until just a few years ago, when I was asking myself that question again. Then, at last, it hit me.

A lot of the satisfaction to be had from these stories… comes from imagining you’re the monster.

Take me, for instance. I’m six foot two, I’m a little clumsy, and when I get excited I tend to wave my arms around like a big blond baboon. I had to give up learning Wing Chun Kung Fu recently when I realised that all it was doing for me at this stage (even Wing Chun, one of the tidiest and most short-range of all martial arts!) was to make me knock things over even more than I did already. Well: imagine the destruction if, like Tim, I was a HUNDRED METRES TALL!

What would it be like, say, to wade through a multi-story car park? What would it be like to be stuck trying to walk around in a city that’s built on a vastly smaller scale to you, even if you didn’t want to destroy it? What if every time you opened your mouth, people ran screaming in terror? And what if, like the Iron Man, you found you then had to face a threat that was even more powerful, and frightening, and seemingly indomitable, than you?

In his brilliant book of the craft, ON WRITING, Stephen King describes the germination of the seed of a book as the ‘What if?’ stage. That’s where writers get their ideas from: by asking themselves ‘What if…?’ The combination of that, giant monsters, and Lee Child’s advice, and there you have it: TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH. And as with THE BLACK TATTOO, if you have even a quarter as much fun reading it as I had writing it, then you should be in for a pretty good time. HEE HEE HEE HEE! 🙂

Have you seen the Q&A pages on my Black Tat and Tim sites? For about eighteen months now I’ve been doing my best to answer every question that comes in on my websites’ Guestbooks. If you have a question about me or my writing (and I haven’t answered it already!) then drop me a line on the Guestbook of your choice, and I’ll see what I can do – here on the blog first, then it’ll wind up on those Q&A pages.

If it takes me a while though, like this one has (sorry, Amin!) you’ll have to forgive me. After all, I’ve got more cool stories to write! ;p

Hi there.

Here’s a picture of me at some unspeakable hour on the night of Friday 2nd Feb 2007:

Yeah, well: if you thought being an author was glamorous, now you know the truth! 😉 But this is what I looked like after the two years of work (and the climactic thirteen-hour-straight ‘crunch’!) that it took to complete the first draft of TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH. That pile of paper I’m holding there is the very first time the book existed, outside of my computer and my porridge-like excuse for a brain…

…And now, as of tomorrow, the finished version is officially released in the US.

This is my second go around at having a book of mine published in America, after my debut novel, THE BLACK TATTOO. One would have thought, perhaps, that by now I might be getting used to the idea that a story I wrote here in my flat in north London (England) is going to appear in shops, sorry, ‘stores'(!) all across the USA. But no. A large part of me still can’t quite believe this is really happening. And the rest of me… is just HUGELY, HUGELY EXCITED! -WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Ahem: ‘scuse me. 😉

To anyone reading this as a result of my just joining the Amazon Connect program, a very happy HELLO AND WELCOME TO MY SINISTER MASTERPLAN TO CONQUER THE UNIVERSE! My apologies for all the shouting, and I promise I’ll try to write something more intelligible on this blog soon.

Meanwhile, do have a click around the special Tim website. THE WEBSPHINX and I have been working pretty hard on it: we think it’s coming together quite nicely – hope you agree!