Stay-at-Home Festival and roundup of assorted things

I’m really not very good at keeping a website up to date. But let’s quickly catch up with what’s been going on…

Tomorrow! (That’s April the 1st. And no, it’s not a hilarious April Fool’s joke. (I passed my driving test on April 1st. Now that definitely was an April Fool’s joke.)) Anyway. As I was saying. Tomorrow! You can catch me, along with chums Jonathan Morris, Simon Guerrier and Una McCormack, taking part in the Stay-at-Home Literary Festival. This is especially exciting for me because as I’m generally housebound even when there isn’t a hideous plague sweeping the land, I don’t get to do events very much. We’re on between 2-3pm, technology permitting. When I’ve finished this post, I have to practise using Zoom and try to install a microphone. No doubt with hilarious consequences.

Wanderers in the Fourth Dimension. 2-3pm. Four writers of Doctor Who novels, audios, and just about everything else talk about writing for the best character in the universe. Una McCormack, Simon Guerrier, Jonny Morris, Jac Rayner. 

For the full programme and the link to join our talk, see here: https://stayathomefest.wordpress.com/programme/ 

The four of us will waffle on, and people can submit questions which we will try to answer. Woo!

While we’re on the subject of Doctor Who, the Donna Noble boxset is now out and seems to be going down well. The Sixth Doctor and Peri set is out later in the year. I’ve recently delivered two more plays, one of which is particularly exciting as it’s one of my favourite characters in one of my favourite settings – keep your eyes peeled for announcements!

Doctor Who: I am the Master comes out in July from Penguin Books. It contains six stories, each featuring a different version of the Time Lord we love to hate. As I’m not sure if it’s OK to reveal who’s doing who at this stage, I’ll just mention unconnectedly that I have a new hamster called Missy. I’m actually rather happy with my story and I hope that anyone who enjoyed Girl Power! in The Missy Chronicles will like this one too.

Big Finish have brought out audiobooks of Bernice Summerfield novels from long ago, most recently The Glass Prison, read by the incomparable Lisa Bowerman. The book was written almost twenty years ago, and there are a couple of things in it I wouldn’t do now, but if you commit your words to paper that’s part of the deal. Overall, it’s a book I’m actually quite proud of. I think. I mean, obviously I didn’t read it again or anything. That is not a thing I have ever managed to do to any of my stuff, apart from Episode Three of …and the Pirates because it makes me smile.

Ooh, and a nice non-Doctor Who thing, my book No Escape, one of Badger Learning’s series of short horror stories for reluctant readers, was shortlisted for the Reading Rampage Awards. I did a video introducing the book, but things have rather ground to a halt for obvious reasons – if it turns up I’ll let you know!

Stay safe, my friends xxx