Oblivion

There's a debate going on between my agent, Simon Kavanagh, and Paul Cornell about which of them is better at The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Sorry, did I say debate? I meant all-out blogbrawl. Handbags have been raised in anger.

I had not planned to become involved, but the merits of Glass Armour have now been disputed, and so I feel compelled to speak.

Simon's epic trek to lead his old horse to a happy pasture was nothing less than heroic. (And yet you still abandoned the poor beast, Simon, didn't you? Eh? Eh? Have you once returned to that lonely field to brush its poor fuzzy snout? No, not now that "Shadowmere-the-Steed-of-Darkness", as you call it, is on the scene. I'll wager the wretched animal cries at night, all alone, cocking a hesitant ear to the distant howls of hungry wolves, while you cavort around the countryside on the back of your new shiny-muscled hell-stallion.)

Still, I sympathise with Simon's current Tribble-esque dilemma. Through some evil magick, his Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion home has become overrun with sinister men in helmets.



That said, the Gray Foxes seem to be quite happy with each other's company and, from what I can gather, there's even some hand-holding involved. Solutions? You could either move out of the crowded house, Simon, or wait and see if Bethesda Softworks releases a "Hot Coffee" mod for the game.

Scar Night in FPI Podcast

Joe Gordon at Forbidden Planet International talks about Scar Night (not to mention a lot of other very interesting stuff) in FPI's latest Podcast

Photographers Beware

My mate just got sent this email:

From: lapalcripple@yahoo.com
Date: Jul 28, 2006 4:56 PM
Subject: photographer needed!!!!!!!!!
To:

Hello Dear,

How are you doing today???We are from the UK.
I am the Manager of Clara lewis a model.We are seeking a great photographer who can snapshot sharply at a particular event coming on soon,The date and location is 09/22/06(by 11:00 pm)and the location shall be in Glasgow,Scotland in UK.The time period shall be for 6 hours.Please kindly let us know if you will be available and also we will like to know the cost of the shot,We can pay by cheque from (NAT WEST BANK PLC IN THE UK).We shall be responsible for all travel and all other expences.
We will need your details to where the cheque will be send to in this manner:

Name to be on the check....
Full contact address...
City...
State..
Zipcode...
Country...
Phone no...

Please kindly get back to me with this details so that payment can be send out to you as soon as possible.

I look forward for your response.

Cheers,

Lapal.

Note:Our Details are as follows...Brave Modelling Agency.
Our website is still under construction.
You can ring us on +447024017968.

-------------

Apparently you give them a quote, they send you a cheque for double the amount then ask you to wire them back the difference. The only photographer I could find who took the cheque to his bank was told it was worthless.

How do I create a title for each blog post?

You go to Settings/Formatting, then enable Show Title Field.

Makes it all seem more professional somehow.

And it's only taken me three months to figure out.

So are we ready for a book and an author more controversial than Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code?

Novelist Kathleen McGowan proclaims herself to be from the "sacred bloodline", a descendant of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

The Expected One

Her publishers, Simon & Schuster, believe her (uh... huh) and are putting out a whopping 250,000 copies for the first printing.

Yoinks.

I suppose if the book sells well, then we'll probably see a lot of her family writing their own ones: The Expected One's Uncle Frank, and so on.

Dreamwatch Review

From this month's Dreamwatch:

"Scar Night is a wonderful read, inhabited by flawed characters, set in a city almost as choked with pollution as it is with lies...Campbell's novel neatly sidesteps all traditional fantasy stereotypes and is well worth a look" 8/10

Reviews

I'm pleased to report another good review for Scar Night, in this month's Starburst magazine. Barbara Davies gives the book 5 out of 5. I don't think I'm allowed to paste the whole review here (isn't there some copyright law against that, or something?), so I'll just select a few snippets completely at random.

"Visually Stunning."

"Complex and engaging."

"wonderfully original"

"cross paths with"

"unlike her fellow assassins"

Ok, so the first three weren't exactly chosen at random. (And they're out of context.) But still... a good review.

Whoever commented on my post about the Edinburgh launch down below, regarding the Fuck Off I gave a mate during the reading, has the wrong idea.

Just to clarify, you've got your three basic types of Fuck Off.

Type One: The "You're really bothering me, and I'll end up thumping you if you don't go away" Fuck Off.

Conversations that begin with "Wha dae ye hink yer lookin' at, pal?" or "Whit fitba team dae ye support?" usually end with this one.

Type Two: The "What a lot of nonsense you're speaking" Fuck Off.

An appropriate response to -- for example -- "See that Christopher Eccleston, he was a shite Doctor Who."

Type Three: the "Stop ribbing me, you guys, I'm doing my best" Fuck Off

The one I used on the night.

So now you know.

Kindly Fuck Off.

Cheryl Morgan finds the heart of the story over at Emerald City.

The city of Deepgate hangs over the abyss, literally. The city itself is suspended on chains, hundreds of them. Beneath it is a hole, seemingly bottomless, that is the abode of the god Ulcis. Expelled from Heaven, he lurks

Guardian Review

Another great review of Scar Night by Jon Courtenay Grimwood appeared in yesterday's Guardian. It's now online.

Spreading his wings to catch a night wind, an adolescent hesitates on the edge of a roof and decides to obey the rules that

Edinburgh Book Launch

I would have posted this sooner, but I've been away for a few days camping at Loch Awe, recuperating by carrying heavy gear up and down a hill. I never learn.

The Scottish launch of Scar Night went well, although my memories of the whole thing are a bit of a blur. Simon Kavanagh and Peter Lavery came up to Edinburgh for the event, and I think it was Peter who said, "Are you sure the books have arrived? It wouldn't be the first time they've gone astray."

Of course, I assured him that the books were in place, just moments before Waterstones called to tell me that the 40 copies they had ordered had been sent to Aberdeen by mistake (through no fault of MacMillan's). You have to laugh, don't you?

We were in a pub close to the bookshop at the time, having a drink with Iain Banks. (There's a sentence I'd never have imagined writing a few years ago.) I have to admit, it was a huge thrill for me to be in the company of so many great writers: Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod, Hal Duncan, Charlie Stross, Jack Deighton and Deborah Millar, to namedrop a few. Not to mention those phenomenally-talented-and-about-to-be-massively-famous writers from both the Edinburgh and Glasgow writers' circles (I'm not just saying that to be nice - I know this because I've read their work.)

It's one thing to be surrounded by so much talent in the field you've chosen for yourself, but just as wonderful to see friends and family again, and I wish the night had been longer so that I could have had a chance to speak to everyone properly. Thanks to all of you for coming along and making the occasion so special for me.

But the books... John at Waterstones saved the day by bombing round the city in a taxi, hunting down copies. Unfortunately this meant I had to read. My mind's a bit of a blank here (nerves + free wine, nerves + free wine). Did I, while standing up at a lectern before a large gathering of guests including my family and my girlfriend's family and some very highly respected writers, tell somebody to fuck off?

I did, didn't I?

It must have been a friendly, caring kind of fuck off.

Anyhoo, we left the bookshop and piled into the Travers Theatre Bar, which I hadn't hired out because it costs about ten thousand quid to do so. I was just hoping they wouldn't mind a crowd turning up all at once. Then Iain very kindly took us out for a curry at Omar Khayyam's, which was absolutely cracking.

At this point, the holes in my memory are vast (taxis, lights, pints, more taxis), so I'll just post a link of the pictures my mate Dave took during the night.

Edinburgh Launch

I particularly like the DSC0801 picture, the one where I look so very handsome.

SFX Review

Jon Courtenay Grimwood's review of Scar Night for SFX magazine is now online.

This book is far too good to be anybody’s first novel, so expect a lot of established authors to get cross. Of course, it’s not that simple, because

Bulwer-Lytton

The 2006 Bulwer-Lytton contest winners have been announced!

Paul F Cockburn made a comment here the other day about the "glamour" part of being a writer, and I won't deny that I'm enjoying the parties and the jet-setting to and fro London (ok, technically it's easyjet-setting cos I'm not Stephen King). But one thing that still freaks me out are the readings. Gulp. I was always the guy who sat at the back of the English class and didn't raise my hand when questions were asked, even if I knew the answer.

So far I've done two readings. One was at a Writers' Bloc event, where I attempted to get over my fear of public speaking by guzzling several pints and then standing up before a very friendly crowd. The second one was at a Robert Louis Stevenson festival in North Berwick, thanks to Deborah Millar.

And now a third one is looming. In Edinburgh again, this time at Waterstones bookshop. Oddly enough, I'm even more nervous about this one than the others, not just because my agent and editor will be there and they'll see how crap I am at READING WORDS OUT LOUD, but because a lot of my mates are going to turn up.

Some writers are exceptionally good at this -- if you ever get a chance to see Gavin Inglis read, then go -- but it scares the bejesus out of me. I'd much rather be in the audience, at the very back, beside the bar, wrapped in a cloud of cigarette smoke. There are highs and lows to this glamour.

But speaking of glamour, Caragh and I had a lot of fun at a photo-shoot on Sunday. Fun for Caragh, because she got to model some funky hats, bags and scarves, and fun for me because I was one of the ones behind the camera (and because Caragh's family dog, Tess, thinks it's hilarious to come tearing towards me like a furry wee RPG before bowling me over). We were shooting some pics for a friend's website. As he mentions on the site, the sheepdog is optional.

London Book Launch

The day of the launch party started in fine style with a drive through gloriously sunny South Lanarkshire countryside and the Pixies screaming at full blast on the stereo. In London, things just got better.

Peter Lavery brought me safely through the west end's mad maze of streets to Forbidden Planet where I signed a bunch of copies of Scar Night and then on, on, to Goldsboro Books for more signatures on a limited numbered edition and then a dash back to MacMillan's offices where a stack of books the size of Cumbernauld lay waiting for yet more scribbles.

Phew.

Halfway through the process, I had some fun when nobody was looking by signing the books with various other names instead of my own: Jeffrey Archer, Snoop Dogg, George W. Bush, etc. (No, not really.)

Then back to the hotel for a quick change of shirt and to meet up with Caragh and my Dad and Jane again and a frantic phone call on the street corner to help my lost brother, Neil, find the hotel from the tube station ("See the Superman poster, see where he's pointing, go that way, you can't miss the bloody hotel. Elvis? What Elvis? I don't see Elvis, Neil, follow Superman, not Elvis.") and then on to the Phoenix Artist Club to meet everyone.

And... relax.

What a great night. Neil and Sian had come up from Brighton, as had my friends Susi and Ben. Tina and Kevin made the long drive out to London, for which I'm very grateful (it was great to see you guys). And then there was everyone from MacMillan, and Mic Cheetham, and Oliver and Dagmar. It's always a pleasure to meet up again with such lovely people. Of course, it's nice to meet new faces too, and I think I inflicted my own boozy ramblings on more folks than I can mention here.

Fortunately Simon Kavanagh was there to keep me from drinking too much. At least I assume that's what he was doing by plying me with drinks (obviously his way of controlling the alcohol flow).

I borrowed a small digital camera from a mate to take some pictures and then couldn't figure out how to use it (Should have read the instructions I suppose). However, I did manage to get a few snaps.

Party at the Phoenix

Some more cool news: Stephen at MacMillan has come up with an astounding website.

My copy of SFX arrived today (the newsagent eventually found it buried under a pile of Tractor magazines), and I was very pleased to read Jon Courtenay Grimwood's review of Scar Night.

So it's been a nice couple of days.

Forthcoming SFX Review

Jon Courtenay Grimwood has given Scar Night a very positive review in this month's SFX magazine.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

I've seen a copy of this review, though not in the actual magazine yet. The newsagent in the small country town where I live doesn't stock SFX (although we're fine for What Tractor? and Pig Digest, thank you very much), but I have ordered it.

My First Review

I have a review to post! From John Berlyne over at SFRevu.

The speed at which this has made it to my blog might suggest that I have been visiting www.sfrevu.com on an hourly or even half-hourly basis, biting my nails in frenzied anticipation while waiting for the review to appear, which is actually true.

Here's the link.

Scar Night is an impressive debut fantasy by Scottish author Alan Campbell and publisher Tor UK are touting it as one of their major releases of the year. Their smart limited edition proof copies and sturdy hardcover release all count towards giving us the impression that this is a...

Published

The Big Day is almost upon me now... Four days till the book is released and yet -- strangely enough -- Amazon.co.uk is quite happily flinging out copies already. One of them has just been delivered to a friend's workplace.

So I suppose that technically, this is the Big Day.

Me book is in print. How about that?

And there's still the launch to look forward to (and a mad dash around bookshops in London, signing, signing). All very exciting.