Time for a sizeable update... BOOKS, LIFE AND STUFF!

Okay. Stuff is going on and I'm doing all that I can to keep up. It's time for an update on what's going on at Castle Hawnt and what you can expect from me in the coming months. On a personal level I have been rather unwell of late, and will be arranging a hospital visit very soon in order to investigate some stuff. Nothing serious (hopefully) – just annoying and uncomfortable. For those of you that don't know, I got married in February to the mother of my beautiful son at long last. Married life is fantastic so far, and fatherhood continues to be exhausting but incredibly rewarding. So. Onto my current projects to update you on.

VHS ATE MY BRAIN 

I was really hoping to have this out by now. The book is largely written and ready to go, but is lacking a couple of interviews I am yet to carry out and transcribe. As soon as those interviews (with eminent collectors and VHS scene people far cooler than myself) are done, then the book will be ready to roll. A limited initial signed and numbered paperback run will be released alongside the Kindle book, and then once that run is gone a regular version will be made available in paperback too. I am currently considering a launch night event to support it. I'll let you know.

TO BANISH THE DARK 

And so, unless those interviews can be scheduled in the near future, the next book from me to see release will be TO BANISH THE DARK. A return to science fiction for me, the novella is an action-packed tale full of tension and a very surprising guest character. This book will be the first of my 'Doubles' releases, i.e. books containing a novella and backed up with an additional novelette. TO BANISH THE DARK will be backed up with the bonus science fiction story FALLING HEAVEN. Again, this will be out in paperback and ebook formats. 

BAGGED AND BOARDED 

My most popular book so far continues to sell in both formats, for which I am hugely grateful. I am now actively seeking a publisher who would like to take this book to more places than I myself can take it right now. 

It has a lot of potential, and feedback this past year has been massively positive. I am so very proud of that book. And yes, there will be a sequel. 

POWERPLAY ROCK AND METAL MAGAZINE 

After my recent cover feature with the GOO GOO DOLLS, my next interviews to see print are with SOUND OF CONTACT and LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE, which are both great interviews I'm very pleased with.

Next to be done is a chat with SKARLETT RIOT, who in my professional opinion are the very best young band in the UK right now. They deserve every bit of success they get. It is so rare to see a young band get so much stuff so right. The music, the look, the attitude, the live show and the social media presence is all perfectly carried out, and all four members are absolutely lovely people. Check them out:

MORE NEW BOOKS

The second collection of my DIARY OF A GENRE ADDICT pieces will be out soon too, and a new collection of short fiction is in the works, collecting short stories published since my previous collection, ACROSS THE SEAS OF MIND came out along with a new novelette and two new short stories. A full-length novel is being pitched soon as well as a non-fiction book I've wanted to do for years. So. Maybe I should get back to it and get this stuff done. Thanks so much for buying my books. I hope you enjoy the next ones!

AND... COMICS?

I want to write a comic book story. Three issues would be ideal. I've always wanted to do this. If anyone would like a chat about a prospective comic project for an established or new title, please do get in touch @andrewhawnt on Twitter, via Facebook at my author page or by email - hello@andrewhawnt.com

James Herbert tribute up at HORRORNEWS.NET

I wanted to write something special following the recent death of genre fiction icon james Herbert, but it took a little while to figure out how to approach it. The resulting piece, JAMES HERBERT - A LOST MASTER has now been published over at Horrornews.net and I am most proud of the results. Please do check it out, and feel free to leave comments in the section following the article. I hope you enjoy it.

Rest in Peace, sir.

GOO GOO DOLLS COVER FEATURE - OUT NOW!

My recent interview with Johnny from the GOO GOO DOLLS has been selected as this month's cover feature for the new issue of POWERPLAY ROCK AND METAL MAGAZINE, and is OUT NOW across the country! We chat about the band's new album, "Magnetic" and a career which has seen them become household names around the world. Please do check it out!

TO BANISH THE DARK: A RETURN TO SCI-FI

My latest pop culture book, VHS ATE MY BRAIN, is yet to be completed as I am still trying to get the last interviews finalised with people, but it'll arrive eventually! In the meantime I am turning my attention back to science fiction with the novella TO BANISH THE DARK. I've wanted to use that title for years and finally the story that fits it is coming.

This will be one of a series of 'Doubles' from me this year, and will thus be backed up by a novelette entitled FALLING HEAVEN. These stories are my first real dive into large-scale science fiction and are proving to be a ton of fun. Expect spaceships, action, danger and perhaps a familiar face...

More on this soon!

What the hell happened to Yahoo?

Has it really come to this? Has Yahoo really stooped so low as to become little more than a place that posts news stories about breasts? I've been a Yahoo user since 1998 and have seen the site go from being pretty much THE place to use to the sorry mess it's in today. Headlines like 'Kelly Brook Dons a Gold Bikini' and endless 'stories' about how Kim Kardashian is trying to hide her pregnancy bump have reduced a once great service to the depths of gutter journalism.

By contrast, their actual news stories are presented with nowhere near as much gusto as the stories about people going out without much on. Plus, the level of editorial quality is depressing, with typos and poor punctuation (not to mention truly awful writing) making the whole experience seem amateurish.

If the Yahoo email service hadn't served me so well over the years, I would have quit long ago. However, now that Google seems to be getting things right more often than they get them wrong (mind you, I'm a person who really likes Google+ - despite so many people forgetting about it), I think it's probably time to leave Yahoo behind.

It irks me, as I have always seen the site as pretty useful. The search engine itself was left in the dust years ago, but the email service has always served me well with my freelancing and personal admin. Yeah, I could just not go to the main page, and I do have a direct shortcut to the web mail page, but I'm fed up of it being associated with a stream of lowest-common-denominator tripe the likes of which would even make the E! Channel cringe.

If I wanted crap like that, I'd buy Nuts or Zoo. What I want is a service which offers some news and weather info along with a mixture of local and international material. Yeah, I like movie news and suchlike, but I can't help but feel Yahoo are dumbing down too far.

It's not been an easy few years for Yahoo, with Google basically leaving them far behind in every sense (I'll not mention Bing, as it makes me feel dirty), but that's no reason to let everything slip in terms of the content offered to the people who do still use it. It looks like, after 15 years, it's time for me to give in to the idea that Yahoo's best years are long gone. It's a shame, as Yahoo mail has been home to me ever since I got online.

James Herbert: Rest In Peace

Now this was a shock. James Herbert, the legendary genre author known for novels such as The Fog, The Rats, The secret of Crickley Hall, The Ghosts Of Sleath, Once and many more, died today at the age of 69. His books are absolutely dripping with a style which is at once supremely English and easily accessible by readers worldwide.

Erring usually more towards chills rather than all-out carnage, his writing remains pumped full of atmosphere and tension where many other horror writers' work has lost some of its power. Not Herbert's. His luxurious prose and slow-burning plots ensure that each of his books felt like visiting a stately home of the imagination; beautiful and inspiring.

Herbert is survived by his wife and three daughters, and I think I can safely say that millions of readers like me around the world would like to pass on our sincere condolences. A giant has fallen, but his legacy will ensure his drive and talent lives on for a very long time to come.

PROJECT UPDATE: VHS ATE MY BRAIN

Hey all! Here's a quick update on what's going on with my 7th book, VHS ATE MY BRAIN. It's been a little while since I said much about my projects here and I thought it was time I started giving you regular info on where I'm at with stuff.

VHS ATE MY BRAIN is very nearly complete. The book is written but is missing some interviews from the latter half, which I want to include before it becomes available. At first the book was just going to be about my own experiences as a VHS fan and collector, but the interviews I've done so far for the book have turned out to be fascinating and have given the book a new angle.

I want to offer you all the best book I can, and as such I'm holding off releasing it until it's properly completed. I can't post a release date yet until the final interviews have been placed into the manuscript. Rest assured, I'll post it here as soon as I can.

I'm extremely proud of what VHS ATE MY BRAIN has become. It's a very different book to my previous one, BAGGED AND BOARDED: LIFE ON PLANET GEEK, but it's just as heartfelt and possibly even more geeky. I hope that you like it once it's out. The book will be out in paperback and on the Kindle, and there will be a limited run of 100 signed and numbered paperbacks too.

More project updates on this and other cool stuff soon. Keep in touch!

@andrewhawnt

REVENGE OF THE HACK

So. It's been a tough few months here. With fatherhood, marriage, a looming new dayjob and all kinds of other stuff going on around me, it's not left me much time to write a great deal. The time that I have had available to write has been going on my magazine work, my column and occasional reviews for other places. I just couldn't fit much else in, and I was wondering why that was.

I figured out that it wasn't that I was using my time badly, I'd just got it arranged badly. Does that make sense? Writers starting out often ask people how they find the time to write, and writers often point out there's always time that can be refocussed to your writing, but what if you've already cut away things like a social life or hobbies in order to put words into sentences for fun and profit?

What if, like me, you've already reached the point where you're getting plenty written but still feel like not a great deal is getting done?

The key, I am finding, is to look at how your schedule can be reworked and rearranged in order to make the time you do have available to write the best possible time to do so. If short bursts are your thing, then look at where you can find short periods of time in which to get something done.

I've found my commute to be a productive time thanks to the joys of tablet computing, but a notepad and pen works just as well, and won't distract you with games or checking Facebook. Think of it as a game of Tetris - everything has a place, you just need to turn the blocks around a few times to make it all work. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm back, and I'm back on track.