Ain't It Cool review

Ambush Bug, aka Mark L. Miller, has reviewed Septic Isle over at Aint It Cool News. It's another positive write up, although, like a couple of others, he reckons Marley and Maggie "knock boots" rather too quickly after their first meeting.

Here's a snippet of what he has to say: "... the story is thick with spy coolness with a bit of noir-ish hard luck, over-the-hill living adding flavor and distinction to our main character."

You'll find the full review here

Frustration

THE last couple of weeks haven't been very productive on the writing front as real life has been busy chucking obstacles in my way. First, my youngest son Connor contracted chicken pox so I had to forget about my comics work for a week and spend it looking after him. Unfortunately, he still isn't 100 per cent and I've had to take him to both the doctors (twice) and the hospital for a blood test. He still hasn't completely recovered and he has another hospital appointment a week Monday. Poor lad.

The other bit of disruption has centred upon my day job. Basically, the national newspaper where I work is making 11 people redundant and while I'm now about 95 per cent sure I won't be one of them, my job is still going to change. Looking on the bright side, it could actually change for the better but we shall see...

The one thing I have actually managed to get done recently is publicity for Septic Isle. The press release has appeared all over the net and Comics Village.com are doing a preview on Sunday. Next week I shall do a big postcard mail-out to retailers in the US and UK, and around the time August's Previews hits stores (later on this month) I'm hoping to actually visit some shops in London and Essex in a bid to get them to order copies. I have cool SI button badges with which to bribe them...

For now, though, I desperately need to get some writing done. I haven't written a single word of Kurse or Razor Snakes in a month and I'm worried that at this rate we'll see 2009 before we see complete scripts for either of them. Bah!

* A COUPLE of people have recently asked me what's going on with the movie stuff. As far as I know it's still happening. I'm just waiting for the guys from the production company (Phyllis, Sascha and Bill) to come over to London so we can finalise all the details and I can sign a contract. Updates as I get them...

Britain in broken...

THE Septic Isle website is now live at www.britainisbroken.com and includes a 10-page downloadable PDF preview of the book, plus stuff about the plot and characters.

* THERE'S a mostly positive review of Septic over at Comics Bulletin.com by Kelvin Green. He gives it four bullets out of five here