Wednesday 7 February 2007

Remember remember this coming September


Well, I can finally spill the beans. Well, a few of them. And no, this isn't more of me rattling on about 'Doctor' Gillian McKeith. This is much more important.

After two months of having to keep quiet and bite my tongue, I can finally run to the top of an Alpine hill in a nun's outfit and declare that the hills are alive with the sound of my keyboard as I finally get around to writing a new novel.

Yes! Come September, every bookshop in the land, every supermarket and every library will proudly be stocking three new Doctor Who novels. And one of them will be mine. At the moment, it's going by the provisional title of Wetworld, but that could quite possibly change. Tieing in with the absolutely brilliant new TV series, it features David Tennant as the Doctor, and Freema Agyeman as new companion Martha (pictured above.)

The other two books are also by newcomers to the NSA (New Series Adventures) range - published since the Russel T Davies-helmed series burst back onto our TV screens in 2005: one by acclaimed author Paul Magrs (possibly called The Wicked Bungalow - the book, I mean, not Paul) and one by veteran horror and thriller writer Mark Morris (called Forever Autumn). I'm absolutely chuffed, not only to be asked to write one, but to be in the company of the two of them. I'm hoping some of the shine from their books rubs off on mine, actually.

Can't tell you what Wetworld is about, obviously, but suffice to say there are swamp monsters in it. The NSAs are aimed at a slightly lower starting age (8 and upwards) than the two previous Doctor Who novels (and the Professor Bernice Summerfield novel) I've written which is proving to be an interesting challenge. For a start, I'm having to struggle against my habit of writing ludicrously long, multi-clausal sentences: ones full of colons and semi-colons; ones full of multiple, often unnecessary, adjectives - and clauses separated off with dashes.

And as if the excitement of being asked to write an NSA wasn't enough, me, Paul and Mark - who are absolutely lovely, as well as being great writers - were forced at gunpoint to go down to Cardiff to view rough cuts of the first three episodes of the new series, and it really is the bee's bollocks!

And this afternoon, I got to interview Phil Collinson, Doctor Who's producer, for my gay paper, Shout! - which was very weird, considering I'm writing a Doctor Who book at the same time. He's a lovely bloke, he really is: I'm just hoping that the battered old dictaphone that I used to record the interview has recorded everything well enough, otherwise I'll just have to make it all up. Check Shout!'s website over the next month or two to see the finished thing. If you discover that he was born 'Phyllis Collings' and spent his formative years at a sex-change clinic in Rio de Janeiro, then you'll know it's time I got a new dictaphone.

Mxx

12 comments:

IZP said...

I can't believe I wasted this afternoon on the 'phone to Kimpton when you could have been taunting me with hints of unrevealable secrets.
Boh!

Ix

and wow.

Mark Michalowski said...

So you weren't doing what I thought you were doing on the phone, then..... How disappointing!

Mxx

IZP said...

A boy can multi-task you know. Just wish I could...

Ix

SAF said...

Not only is it fantastic news, but David Tennant's shirt goes well with your blog site. :)

Mark Michalowski said...

Spookily enough - and purely by chance - most of the pics do, including that rather formal and stiff one of me.
'Pink is the new black', anyone??

Mxx

Stuart Douglas said...

Finally I know (even if only in an interwebby way) a bona-fide star of the new series! I knew that putting up with assorted mailing list waffle would pay off eventually :-)

And go on, tell us - the Doctor is going all flowery shirts, tight black jeans and chelsea boots for the new season, isn't he?

Mark Michalowski said...

Ssssh! It does seem an odd publicity pic to release, doesn't it?

Mxx

IZP said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

They do, unfortunately, look like the presenters of some new lifestyle programme in BBC1's morning schedule.

Congratulations on the book, dude.

Mark Michalowski said...

Cheers Ian - very kind of you! It's still amazing me, you know. And yes, they do look a bit 'Next, we'll have our three-minute in-depth look at the Middle East' style of morning TV, don't they? Not quite sure why that particular pic was ever released: the Beeb have been fairly tight on image and branding since it started, and I don't actually remember seeing any similar shots of Billie and David (or Chris) - certainly not properly-posed, pofessional-looking ones.

Mxx

Unknown said...

Good grief, that's not the Wetworld I remember from your WhoInk days, is it? It's like great chunks of my past whoring themselves to the BBC like, er, melting... authors.

Okay, I can see why you're the one with the book contract. Massive congratulats!

Mark Michalowski said...

Eeeeh... WhoInk... that's taking me back a bit. If it wasn't for WhoInk, y'know, I reckon it'd be a lot less likely that I'd be here, writing this, today!

Same title, Pebble, but quite different book. The original WETWORLD was about telepathic fish, the seventh Doc and Ace - and Elementals!!

Mxx