Just a quick note to say that my competition entry for the sci-fi now competition, 'the film that scared me the most', won! A bag of blu-ray, books and other merchandise is on its way to my door.

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Tags: horror, scary, film

I get annoyed with climate sceptics. I read an article recently in the Independent and the number of ranting comments from climate sceptics, based on hopeless evidence, really got my goat. I accepted that if I argued with them, I'd get nowhere. Instead, I wrote this comment: Read More...

Tags: climate change, the independent

I've written another article for a Sci-Fi Now competition (I am doing proper writing projects too but I think it's good practice!). This one is a review of Doctor Who: Season 6. Here it is:

It was near the end of Doctor Who season six that I knew I'd developed Tarditis.  Read More...

Tags: doctor who

Time. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? It obviously goes by, but at the same time we can’t grasp it. We have a past and a future but neither is perceivable by us. We can conjure up the past with memories and predict the future but the former is a vague, uncertain fog and the latter is just an abstract idea. It would be tempting to think that there was no past and future, there is only the ‘now’ and everything else is just a by product of us thinking about it; but if that’s true, what is ‘now’? Read More...

Tags: science, consciousness, the brain

Sci-fi now are running a competition asking for people's recollections of their scariest movie. Here's my contribution (now on the sci-fi now site here):

It was The Thing.

That wasn’t the scariest part. The Thing was scary, very scary, but the scariest part was that it was my first experience of watching a scary movie with my mates.
I say mates; looking back, I’d be hard pressed to think of a definite example in which any of them acted selflessly on my behalf. It never seemed to be like ‘Stand by Me’ in which the youngsters band together and face down fears and dangers because they love their friends. It was more like a prelude to The Road. They’re friendly and want your company but you realise that if they get hungry enough, it won’t be ‘you go! I’ll stay and fight them off!’, it’ll be ‘what’s the big deal? We only want your left leg.’

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Tags: scary, the thing, sofa

I thought I'd send a letter to Boris Johnson putting forward the idea of introducing electric taxis in London. Read More...

Tags: london, environment, transport

The winner's been announced for the second caption competition in the New Scientist. I've popped the picture alongside. My entry was 'Dan Brown novels: 4, Shakespeare plays: 0'.

The winner was Patrick Kavanagh with his line: 'No, we haven't had any Shakespeare yet. It's mostly just been Dan Brown...' Read More...

Tags: new scientist, caption

Here's another sketch I've sent to the Radio 4 Newsjack programme. Old cuddly David gets satirised again... Read More...

Tags: radio4, comedy, satire

Here's a script I've sent to the Radio 4 Newsjack programme, a snippet of political satire... Read More...

Tags: radio4, comedy, satire

Hope everyone's enjoying their Autumn (unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere in which case I hope you're enjoying your Spring). Just to let everyone know that I've updated/made new pages describing my progress with my Ancient Mysteries story, my fantasy comedy and my comedy scripts. I've also added an article talking about some of what I've learnt through several years of writing. I've already blogged about the subject here but I thought I'd give it its own page. Apart from that, I'm furiously working on several projects and drowning my sorrows over regular rejections with large amounts of tea. I've also been tearing a shed apart. For anyone frustrated and angered about the modern world and the human condition, I strongly recommend tearing a shed apart. One caveat; choose a rotten one. They come apart fairly easily...

Tags: fantasy, scripts