Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Reading Pleasure Anticipated (which makes a change)

Excellent news on the Who front, with the announcement that two of September's three New Series novels, featuring David Tennant as the Doctor alongside new identikit companion Martha, are to come from the pens of* Mark Michalowski and Paul Magrs. My love of all things Magrisan is well known, but for those who don't know him I can heartily recommend Mark M's work too. It's definitely more traditional than Paul's but none the worse for that.

For anyone wanting a taster of Mark at his best, I'd point them to the recent Benny collection from Big Finish, Collected Works, which features what I think is his most satisfying short story, 'Let there be Stars'. I've never been entirely convinced by Mark's short stories, as opposed to his novels where he has the room to let the plots expand, but there's a lyricism to this particular story which bodes well for Wetworks**, his new series offering.

What's also nice is that he will now be unfeasibly wealthy, instantly joining the exclusive Who Author Millionaire Club, which up until now has been populated only by borderline hacks and Cliche Writers for Hire. I believe that Mark had to spend over a month not on holiday last year, so the wads of cash will doubtless come in handy and help prevent any unfortunate repetition of that horror :)


* Does anyone still say 'from the pen of'?
** Not the title but left as is, in the interests of full disclosure of my incompetence

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12 Comments:

Blogger Mark Michalowski said...

Aw, bless. It's only cos I employ him to write about gay icons. And I see that my new, september book has yet another title: WETWORKS??

:)

Mxx

11:30 pm  
Blogger IZP said...

Phf yes! You bought me with your proofs of books about Quentin Crisp and letting me review Marc Almond albums and now he's succumbed too, and for a mere sniff of a Judy duet and a Dusty mime too! Nice Mother Fist ref by the way, Stu.

11:42 pm  
Blogger IZP said...

PS I think 'Wetworks' just proves Stuart's DW fan credentials, I suspect he can remember unused working titles for Mike Tucker BF audios even when he doesn't know where his house keys are. I wish I couldn't.

11:50 pm  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Mark: "And I see that my new, september book has yet another title: WETWORKS??"

Hmm, don't know where I got that - is Mark Morris' book called that? God, my research is crap, and I went and bought DWM and everything...

2:13 pm  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Ian: "for a mere sniff of a Judy duet and a Dusty mime too! Nice Mother Fist ref by the way"

Judy, Dusty, Marc Almond...

I *really* need to get some of that heterosexuality top-up therapy.

2:18 pm  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Bloody hell - you're sitting talking to Eric Sykes in your avatar!

Lucky, lucky sod!

2:23 pm  
Blogger IZP said...

He was, wasn't he?
One of my best days ever!

2:29 pm  
Blogger SAF said...

Man, that is just about the coollest avatar I've ever seen. Now there's a claim to fame that's in danger of stealing Mark's WETWORKS* thunder ;) (*it's one of the few working titles Mark never came up with :) )

11:06 pm  
Blogger IZP said...

The new working title has been decided on as 'Doctor Who - Burnflicker', just because of how good it'll look in the BBC's special new series letraset.

12:41 pm  
Blogger Scott Liddell said...

I read the title and I thought you might be talking about my opus...sadly, no...

10:39 pm  
Blogger TimeWarden said...

What did you think of "Horror of Glam Rock", Stuart?

5:59 am  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Tim: "What did you think of "Horror of Glam Rock", Stuart?"

I thought it was great. But then again a combination of Doctor Who, Paul Magrs, Glam and the 1970s was bound to appeal to me :)

Looking forward to Paul's two upcoming Big Finish audios - in fact (and whisper this so that no-one ever finds out I said it), the BF line-up looks a million times better since Nick Briggs took over. To the extent that I'm considering picking up the majority of the next year's output.

8:31 pm  

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