Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Shaw thing

The spangly seventh issue of free Big Finish magazine Vortex includes news of a new thing of mine. "Shadow of the Past" will be out in March next year. It features the return of the Third Doctor Who's scientist pal Liz Shaw, as played by Caroline John, recounting an adventure to a UNIT soldier played by Lex Shrapnel - off of New Minder and the Thunderbirds movie.

Meanwhile my chums on the Audio Time Team have nice things to say about Home Truths and about The Drowned World - the latter of which the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine describes as "magnificent". Christian Cawley at Kasterborous also thinks it,
"a work that succeeds in telling at least 4 stories at once that rich in mood, tone and dialogue and thoroughly enjoyable."
Hooray!

Michael Simpson has reviewed my Primeval book for the Blogger News Network, and thinks it,
"an entertaining, undemanding entry in the Titan series that should satisfy fans of the series and anyone who wants to get a taste of what the show is about. It was a quick and enjoyable read that left me looking forward to the next novel. Hopefully that won’t be too long coming."
Which I guess is okay. As Scott says, its tempting to wade in and point out where reviews are wrong, how they haven't spotted your genius or aren't looking at it in the right context. But that's not how this works. You write the thing as best you can then take the custard pies.

2 comments:

Michael Reid said...

First time on your blog!
Well done for all your writing/blogging/wittering achievements!

Stuart Ian Burns said...

I think we've (sort of) had that conversation.

All art, whatever it is, should be self contained and understandable on its own terms. If it's misunderstood or taken out of context then the creator didn't do their job properly. Unless it's been monkeyed with after they've finished with it, in which case it's the monkey's fault.

All of which said, it's also possible for the reviewer to be half asleep / not bothered / not doing their job properly / not paying attention which can happen. Believe me.