LETHBRIDGE-STEWART- Announcements!

I am very pleased to announce another freebie — this time an Easter thank you from everybody at Candy Jar Books. An eBook introductory pack for the Lethbridge-Stewart series.

The ebook includes:

• The Ambush! – A short story originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #438, now extended with new scenes. It is set during the Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear, and serves as an introduction to the Lethbridge-Stewart book series.
• We Won’t Let Him Down – An extended version of the final chapter of Candy Jar Books’ Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants, focussing solely on the television adventures of the Brigadier.
• What Lies Beyond – A brief look at some of the Doctor Who novels that have featured the Brigadier over the years that pertain to the future of the Lethbridge-Stewart series of novels.
• Graeme Harper – An extended interview with Doctor Who director Graeme Harper (the only director to have worked on the classic series and the revived series) from the book Calling the Shots, in which he talks about Nicholas Courtney, the man who brought the Brigadier to life.
• Original Prelude – Never-before-seen original prelude that was written to open The Forgotten Son, set during the final moments of the Brigadier’s life.
• The New World – The opening chapter of The Forgotten Son, the first novel in the Lethbridge-Stewart series.

The Lethbridge-Stewart ebook can be downloaded for free as a pdf from Candy Jar Books or downloaded for 99p on Kindle from Amazon.

We can also announce that sadly Lance Parkin is stepping away from the project for the moment. Shaun Russell, head of publishing at Candy Jar, said: “Lance is such a huge talent in the world of Doctor Who and we have left the door open for him to return. Hopefully, one day, Lethbridge-Stewart will make it to Det-Sen.”

As a result we’ve had re-organise our 2015 release schedule, bringing forward David A McIntee’s The Schizoid Earth. A replacement novel will follow a few months later, which is a prequel/sequel to Terrance Dicks’ acclaimed 1977 Doctor Who serial, Horror of Fang Rock which starred Tom Baker. Beast of Fang Rock will be written by Terrance Dicks and me. And, as originally planned, 2015 will still be rounded off with Mutually Assured Domination by Nick Walters.

And the news doesn’t end there. We are finally able to announce the details of our authors for the 2016 schedule. They are, in no particular order;

• John Peel (whose Doctor Who books include the first original novel published by Virgin Books in 1991 and the critically acclaimed War of the Daleks, as well as novelisations of four Dalek serials from the 1960s)
• Jonathan Cooper (ex-Doctor Who correspondent with the Mirror.co.uk and author of two Space: 1889 novels)
• Adrian Rigelsford (author of the aborted thirtieth anniversary special The Dark Dimension, and Doctor Who reference books The Hinchcliffe Years and The Harper Classics).
• David A McIntee (our first returning author, this time with an authorised prequel to one of the most epic Doctor Who adventures of the 1960s).

(l to r) Jonathan Cooper, Ralph Watson, Shaun Russell, Nick Walters, Terrance Dicks, Andy Frankham-Allen, Hannah Haisman

So, exciting times ahead! In the meantime, while I edit David’s book and work on Beast of Fang Rock with Terrance, I hope you enjoy the free eBook. More special releases coming soon from this site!

News Update – Lethbridge-Stewart and Space: 1889 & Beyond

First of all, a very Merry Christmas to all my readers. I hope you all get a chance to spend the festive time with your loved ones, get some lovely presents (including many books!) and have a most awesome New Year!

Over at Type 40, the Doctor Who blog run by me on behalf of Candy Jar Books, we’ve arranged a very special Christmas gift for fans of Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart and The Web of Fear; an exclusive interview with Hannah Haisman, the Executor of Mervyn Haisman’s Estate and the licensor of the Lethbridge-Stewart book series.

Speaking of the series. Plans are gathering apace; we have a special gift coming early next year to precede the release of the first novel, although I can’t say what it is at this time, but I think it’s something a lot of long-time Who fans will truly love. We’ve also got five books planned for 2016 — yup, we’re planning on moving up to five books a year, although the fifth book of 2016 will be a special event that fans will be able to interact with. More news on that coming late 2015! Of the four novels planned for 2016 we’ve got three of the four authors confirmed, with the fourth confirmation imminent. As per our forthcoming 2015 series, it will feature three names well known to Who fans, bringing back authors who’ve been missing from Who prose for way too long. These authors will probably be announced in the summer of 2015, when the writing of our 2016 season begins. As well as the three ‘big names’, we’ll have a brand new name to Who prose, although this author has form, with novels published elsewhere. Part of our mandate is to introduce new authors, not only new to Who (although possibly established elsewhere) but giving new authors their first published work. It’s something Doctor Who has been doing since 1988, and it’s a tradition we intend to keep up. Without such a policy the world may never have experienced the works of such names as Paul Cornell or Ben Aaronovitch. We’re also mindful of the limited number of female writers in the worlds of Doctor Who, and so we hope, with our increase to five novels a year from 2017, we’ll have more opportunities to vary our author selection to include established names, first-time authors, and bring more female authors to the series. On top of all that, very provisional plans are being made and storylines discussed with authors for the 2017 and 2018 seasons – assuming, of course, the series continues that long. I choose to believe it will. 😉

In other news, the end of the current series of Space: 1889 & Beyond has been officially announced in a somewhat unplanned way on Facebook (the first I knew was when I happened across the post two days ago). This statement was made by Jay Hartman of Untreed Reads: ‘Dear Space: 1889 & Beyond Readers: Due to various reasons, Untreed Reads will not be releasing new titles in the series moving forward. However, this does not mean the series will be ending altogether! Stay tuned to this page as things continue to develop. Thanks so much for your support over the last few years!’ One day I will go into these ‘various reasons’, but for now all I will say that it was a mutual decision made by all the authors of the series following a long period of dissatisfaction with the lack of marketing and promotion for the series, which ultimately affected sales in a detrimental way. The Facebook page has been shut down for now, although it will be re-activated at some point in the near future. As intimated above, none of this means the series as a whole is over… Plans are, tentatively, afoot for a print run of the series, which will lead to the eventual continuation of the mission of HMAS Sovereign and her gallant crew as they traverse the aether beyond the asteroid belt. As well as these we hope to release a series of stand-alone novels set elsewhere in the fictional universe of Space: 1889 & Beyond, making the property more accessible to those unwilling to commit to a serialised set of novels. Alas, until these plans are confirmed and the legal side of things sorted out (which could take a while – red tape being what it is!), it could be a while before the series is taken out of the limbo it has found itself in. Until then, the series continues to remain on sale in digital form, which allows everybody a chance to catch up. 🙂

So, the year ends with a bit of a mixed bag. As one series of novels ends (for now) I find myself moving from one range to another, with the arrival of Lethbridge-Stewart. It’s sad that Space: 1889 & Beyond has temporarily ended like this, as we all spent a lot of time and effort on that series, and I feel we created some really good stories and made some nice in-roads with great themes and characters. But, the future looks bright for me as I guide a legend of Doctor Who and get to work with some authors who inspired me back in the ’90s and I get the joy of bringing back some of the best Who authors out there, some of which have been sadly neglected by Doctor Who prose since 2005.

See you in the New Year!

Andy Frankham-Allen 😀

 

My Writing Process

I was recently invited to take part in the ‘My Writing Process’ Blog Tour by Anthony Lavisher and, um, kind of forgot. It’s been busy times of late, with lots of projects on the go, much editing to do, and preperations being made for Project Hush-Hush (or Project: Greyhound, as Jon Cooper called it — I may end up using that term). So, since I tend to neglect my blog a lot I thought it’s about time I did something new and thus will now do my part of the ‘My Writing Process’ Blog Tour…

Q1  What are you currently working on?

A book titled The Forgotten Son, which will be the first novel in Project Hush-Hush, which means I can say very little about it as I am contractually obligated to keep all details to my self.

 Q2 How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Genre is neither here nor there; at least not for me. I do not write to one specific genre. Every piece of fiction I write blends different genre in the hope of creating something a bit more original. Even my Space: 1889 & Beyond work is not really steampunk. There’s elements of horror, of issue-based drama, all sorts. I guess that’s how my work differs; I don’t stick to one genre, I write what I enjoy reading, I write about people. No matter what kind of story I’m writing, it’s always about the people. And that includes Project Hush-Hush.

Q3 Why do I write what I do?

Because it’s honestly what’s in me to do. I don’t do it for fame or fortune (which is just as well, as writing is not the best way to make a living), I do it because it’s what I love to do. I love to develop stories, to make commentary on the world I see evolving around me. I love to explore the nature of our lives, to explore what makes people tick.

 Q4 How does my writing process work?

I usually say I don’t have a process, but as time goes by I’m realising I actually do. Taking The Forgotten Son as an example, I start off with a core idea. A concept that interests me. I look at similar books and stories from other authors, other TV shows, to see what’s going on out there, and wonder in what ways I can do it different. Then I start looking at the characters I’ll be needing. In my most recent works the characters are pretty much chosen for me, since I tend to work with series a lot, and so as such I’m often in the position of already having established characters to write for. Fortunately, these characters tend to be creations of mine anyway, since it is I who devised and edit the series’ in question. Project Hush-Hush is different, as I’m given a set of characters that I did not create, but in this case they are characters I know very well and so am looking at ways I can develop them, add to them, make them fresh and new. Once I know the basic cast, I start to research. In most cases it’s period-specific things, since I do seem to write a lot of period dramas — be it the early 1890s or the late 1960s. It is important to get the small details right, to be able to paint a broadstroke picture, so that the work feels like it belongs to the period in which it is set. Such research is ongoing, and continues throughout the entire writing process, as along the way I will continue to come across things that I need to research. Be it something like the British Army ranking system or the orbital pattern of the moon.

The writing itself is, for me, the easiest part. Once I get into the book (which will take me anything up to a week), I find myself wanting to know what’s happening next and so I am inclined to focus more and more on the book, often to the exclusion of social interaction. I tend to edit as I go along too; I will re-read anything I wrote in the previous sitting (be it all of the previous day’s work, or simply the work written only a few hours before), and while re-reading I will edit and tighten up, thus by the end of the first draft I’m really up to second draft status.

Once I’m relatively happy with it, or am aware of an approaching deadline (one of the best incentives for cracking on with the work), I will send it on to my editor. Which is the most fun and daunting as you just never quite know what feedback you’re going to get.

Q5 What’s new from you?

Nice of you to ask. My latest piece of work is a co-authored novel called Horizons of Deceit Book II which is, as the title suggests, part two of a story. It opens up the third season of Space: 1889 & Beyond and was co-written with Jonathan Cooper (who wrote book one). It’s available from all good e-book sellers, although I think you should all go and buy it direct from the publisher, Untreed Reads Publishing.

As for what’s coming next, well it’ll be The Forgotten Son. Again I can’t say much about it at all really, as the series will not be officially announced until December sometime. However, due to the nature of the project, I think I shall be posting a lot about the process and development of this book (and by extension the entire project) over the coming months, so check back for further updates and, if you’re lucky, subtle hints. 🙂

And that’s it from me on. I’m going to nominate Sharon Bidwell, and, to give it a different spin, comic artist Simon Williams…