– These days it’s dark when I wake up at 6:30, though the house is warm from the new Hive central heating controller which turns the boiler on automatically. It goes to 23 degrees Celsius, and if I wanted I could crank that up from my phone via the app connected to the wifi router. – I could turn the heat up in my house from anywhere in the world, as long as I had internet access. Think about that for a minute. – Actually I’ve unplugged it. Not much call for it, really. It seems neat, but the timer … Read More
New Indie Writer’s Group?
For ages now I’ve been mulling over the idea of setting up my own writer’s group in London for independent, self-published authors. I’ve been to a number of writing groups in London already, some for sitting together and writing, some the standard kind of critique group, but none offering the sort of thing I’m after. What I’ve found are, essentially: Few serious writers, by which I mean, folks who are consistently putting the product out there, and actually finding readers. Instead I’ve largely come across: Many writing hopefuls. They come to writing groups hoping some writerly magic will rub off … Read More
Should church be so happy?
So we went to church again today, to the matinee show at 10:45 that caters to families. It was totally different to the 9:00 morning service: The church was packed to the gills. There was even more repetition of songs saying ‘God is strong, he will protect me, I’m desperate for Jesus (they really sang that), I’m nothing without God, I love him so’, following along with a pop band. The charismatic tall Mark Strong-lookalike vicar was not there, instead we had the older lady who felt like your home tutor in primary school, reading through a lot of community … Read More
Why ‘The Martian’ is not so out of this world – movie review
Have you any idea how many vacuum-packed turds it would take to turn desiccated Martian dust into thriving, bacteria-rich, potato-nurturing soil? How about hydrazine, if you knew what that was, could you turn it into water without burning your face off? Ridley’s Scott’s latest movie The Martian, based on the bestselling book by one-book author Andy Weir, will point you in the right direction: Turds- A lot Not burn off face- Wear a space helmet These are some of the most gripping scenes in the book, a runaway bestseller that started out as posts on Andy Weir’s blog in 2011, … Read More
5 things you may not know about MJG
Five I lived in Japan for 11 years, during which time I built this website up to getting over a million hits a year. I specialized in stories and photographs of my adventures in the ruins of Japan, places like abandoned military bases, forgotten theme parks and ruined love hotels. I almost had a book deal twice for this content, but both times they fell through. I decided to publish my own in the end, available only as an ebook called ‘Into the Ruins’. In addition most of the explores and photos from that time are still on this site … Read More
Breakthrough in zombie town
For the past few days I’ve been doubting the opening quarter of Zombie Ocean 3- but today I had s breakthrough. What seemed repetitive and dull became (I hope) gripping and taut. Even if we know what happens. It’s no secret to say the opening part of Zombie Ocean 3 has some substantial overlap with books 1 and 2, just as book 2 had overlap with book 1. Done well, I love this technique in the stories I read/watch, eg: – LOST did it all the time, showing us the same events from new perspectives, tied in to different bits … Read More
Movie option!!
Today I signed a movie option for my zombie book The Last! It is not big money at this stage, but the potential is there. I’m excited. Its a contract we’ve been negotiating for a few months now. I’ve learned a thing or two about movie option contracts in the process. I had legal advice from the Society of Authors after becoming an associate member which was very enlightening. Now it is done, and The Last is in the producers’ hands. They say the vast majority of optioned novels/screenplays never make it to the screen. Fingers crossed The Last will … Read More
Origami light
Our house settling-in has reached a new and advanced phase. We are almost wholly out of the ‘first-fix’ stage, where we didn’t have a working shower, boiler timer, downstairs toilet, internet, phone, front lights, front door lock or side gate lock. The side-gate lock still needs to be replaced, and the internet is still spotty, but the rest are all in. We are over half of the way through the DIY stage, with dining room, living room, bedroom, kitchen and most of the kitchen floor stripped, sugar-soaped and painted. All that remains is the kitchen floor to be blue-d, the … Read More
Why Tom Hardy’s Legend is basically a true story.
Numerous critics have been slating Tom Hardy’s movie ‘Legend’, about the notorious gangsters Ron and Reggie Kray, on the grounds that it misrepresents history, glamorizes and Americanizes violence and the gangster life, and generally does a poor job of showing the REAL Krays and the REAL social cost of their bloody trail of terror splattered from London’s East End to Soho. But they’re wrong to attack it for that, and I’ll tell you why. ‘Legend’ is a taut action gangster story, full of threat, charm, massive amounts of cocksure grinning, and of course sudden, bloody violence. Yeah, that’s what we … Read More
We went to church!
Today we went to church. That is not an earth-shattering admission for most people to make, neither is it for me, though from my point of view it is a really foreign and alien-feeling thing to do. My Dad was a Church of England vicar when I was a kid, up until I was perhaps 8, so I’m thinking I must have gone to church a lot then. But around the time I was 8 he and my mom split up, at which point my Dad switched faiths to Wicca or witchcraft, became high priest of a coven, and I … Read More