Y’know, even though I have the excuse of being born before the age of social media sapped all meaning out of everything, I’m beginning to suspect I’m a bit slow at this blogging lark. But you’ve all been very patient, and as I’ve just turned 37 I’m literally likely to die at any minute, so here’s an update.
Since I delivered The Ace of Skulls about a year ago, I’ve been writing for the screen. Mostly for TV, actually, as it’s rather more exciting than the movies at the moment. Some of the work I’ve been doing has been writing pilot episodes, crafting series outlines, then sending them off into the aether via my agents. Some of these works pick up interest from producers of other things, who either want to develop them or offer other work, which takes me off in other directions. Over the past year I’ve been really pretty busy, but in this world projects have a long gestation period (comparable to human lifetimes in some cases). Things are gestating nicely, but as I’ve said many times, it’s pointless talking about projects until they are some way down the line as many of them just disappear. Some resurface after years, some don’t.
At various points over the year I’ve been writing for a TV series in production that is, not to put too fine a point on it, goddamn awesome. The project is helmed by a big-name Hollywood screenwriter, there’s a big US network behind it, the concept for the series is fantastic and the writing is of really high quality, and I got to work with a brilliant team of screenwriters planning the series and working on episodes. Yet even a high-profile project like this has a hard time getting to the screen, and it’s currently on hold while people behind the scenes shuffle vast amounts of money around trying to make risk and reward add up. Maybe it’ll kick in again tomorrow and we can get back to work (God, I hope so). Maybe it will be years (I’m told Musketeers, the new big show in the UK, took years and years of torment to bring to the screen). Maybe it’ll quietly die, and that will suck. You’ll get news (and a name for the show) if and when we get the green light again.
I’ve also been working on something else. I know I’m going to regret this, but *whispers quietly* malicemovie
*covers ears as a thousand squees echo throughout the troposphere*.
…
…
*takes hands off ears*
Done? Good. Yep, writing a movie of Malice at the moment, a project for Sky Movies with Kudos producing (they of Life on Mars, Spooks, Broadchurch, and more, and more). Currently tapping through the first draft and having a lot of fun with it. But this is at a very early stage right now, and it’s a long, long journey of development, so hold them horses for a while. Right now we don’t know whether it will be a TV movie or a theatrical release, whether it will end up megabudget or minibudget, who will star, or any of a hundred other variables.
But, still, Malice movie, eh? Hehehe.
Broken Sky ebooks: I’m looking into ways to get them done with the proper level of quality that won’t eat up loads of time that I can’t afford to devote to them. This may or may not be possible. I’ll let you know if it is. I know people out there are waiting – some more patiently than others – and they’d love to get their hands on ebook editions of books that were beloved to them in their younger years. I’m genuinely touched by the enthusiasm and devotion to those stories. But I don’t want to release them until I can put them out in the best version I can, and there’s only one of me. So until I can get someone to help me out with them, they’ll have to wait.
I’ve also been talking about an idea for a new YA book with Scholastic. Once I get up and going on that, I’ll let you know more. But it’s in the pipe.
And that’s your lot! Man, I’m exhausted. Time for a restorative game of Thief.
