Twitter Twatter #74

September 2019 on Twitter

I'm absolutely devastated to hear that Terrance Dicks has died. In a very real sense the man taught me how to read. I met him once years later and tried to thank him. He was very quick to play down his importance to me. pic.twitter.com/pgfCMg2KOP

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 2, 2019

Someone tell him pic.twitter.com/Ld2jtzYGYA

— Chris Mandle (@chris_mandle) September 2, 2019

I met Terrance Dicks when I was 14. He agreed to be interviewed by me for a fanzine I produced with my best friend from school. The trouble was, in my teenage years I had a horrendous stammer. 1/

— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019

"It's not your ball, it's everybody's ball." pic.twitter.com/bayWecDs3D

— Adrian Edmondson (@AdrianEdmondson) September 6, 2019

With @SupergrassHQ recently announcing they were reforming it only felt write to draw @GazCoombes @MonkeyBasket and @DannyGoffey in their second album glory days#Supergrass #InItForTheMoney #AlbumCoversDrawnRealBad pic.twitter.com/plvEl4xQFu

— Albumcoversdrawnrealbad (@albumsdrawnbad) September 8, 2019

Sometimes I go to amazing gigs and think the only way to thank the band is by drawing one of their album covers. Then it turns out like this. But anyway, thank you @suedeHQ, @BrettAndersonHQ, @matosman & @neilcodling for a great night last night.#Suede #ComingUp pic.twitter.com/BfmVQloc4p

— Albumcoversdrawnrealbad (@albumsdrawnbad) April 21, 2019

I sincerely hope this leak is an accurate reflection of Labour policy. There is simply no good reason to subsidise private education through the tax system. https://t.co/h7XiSk21aT

— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) September 13, 2019

If you're wondering why David Cameron's bottom shelf isn't quite full, it's because he hid the Hitler book before the photographer came round pic.twitter.com/fL3l5WTLOm

— Anita Singh (@anitathetweeter) September 14, 2019

Just discovered I might be the smartest man on the planet. pic.twitter.com/4yvVFhg56F

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 15, 2019

The Hulk is a tragic figure, the uncontrolable fury and anger that destroys everyone and everything, and a trap for Banner who has to live with the horror of the consequences of the uncontrolable rage, lonely, friendless he can’t even kill himself because he is trapped. https://t.co/UIokgxTJg0

— Bethany Blackula (@BeffernieBlack) September 15, 2019

Well, if this picture is good enough for you then I suspect you're got very low standards. It's not just @DodgyUK's name that is a bit dodgy here...#Dodgy #FreePeaceSweet #AlbumCoversDrawnRealBad pic.twitter.com/ANSW0xcn9o

— Albumcoversdrawnrealbad (@albumsdrawnbad) December 7, 2018

Well this hasn't happened before... tonight I get to see the album of today's badly drawn cover performed in full. And any day which sees me spending time in the presence of @theninapersson is a good one, unless she tells me to erase/rewind this post#TheCardigans #GrandTurismo pic.twitter.com/qQ2GDHvUUE

— Albumcoversdrawnrealbad (@albumsdrawnbad) December 3, 2018

Boris Johnson forgets that the Hulk only fights for the good of the whole. Mad and strong can also be dense and destructive. The Hulk works best when he is in unison with a team, and is a disaster when he is alone. Plus...he’s always got Dr. Banner with science and reason. pic.twitter.com/jN8BDzgpWl

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) September 15, 2019

Arrr! Shiver me space timbers! Avast behind! Walk the Planck! https://t.co/B7wxc4Opj3

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 19, 2019

To celebrate that of the two million people who said they were going to storm Area 51 only a handful turned up, here's @foofighters - the only band I can think of named after a term for UFOs. Is it a gun, Is it a deformed elephant? We just don't know#FooFighters #FooFighters pic.twitter.com/rrQjnrWlMq

— Albumcoversdrawnrealbad (@albumsdrawnbad) September 22, 2019

For the bargain price of $58 this beautiful piece of #DoctorWho couture can be yours.

It's what he would have wanted. pic.twitter.com/A3GTEZMHW6

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 23, 2019

On the eve of SPACED’s 20th Anniversary I decided to pop around to 23 Meteor Street and look who answered the door... pic.twitter.com/5XRnHvZM9G

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) September 23, 2019

20 years since Spaced graced our screens and @Davetweetedthis is still trying a rent a cheap flat in Tufnell Park: https://t.co/VXzgvF8cUA

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) September 24, 2019

Happy #TalkLikeAPirateDay! @Davetweetedthis digs up some Space Pirate treasure: https://t.co/Ei2ZzNk4Oq

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) September 19, 2019

#Marvel are publishing #MarvelComics 1000, which features a tour through 80 years of the Marvel Universe. The issue goes back to the very beginning with Marvel Comics 1 and pays a visit to the #MaskedRaider. Who?! @Davetweetedthis unmasks this mystery manhttps://t.co/z7fqkOMBi9 pic.twitter.com/HFJMBbg9ss

— Fear-O Collector 👻 (@HeroCollector_) August 30, 2019

He has a surprising influence on events in Marvel Comics #1000, but who is The Masked Raider? @Davetweetedthis investigates: https://t.co/ztkcAzHurI

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) August 30, 2019

This week #Marvel is celebrating its 80th birthday! As part of a week of features, @Davetweetedthis looks at the less well-remembered early Marvel heroes.

Did you know all of them?https://t.co/g9Bn1QhkS2 pic.twitter.com/WQrvJp6aJw

— Fear-O Collector 👻 (@HeroCollector_) August 28, 2019

As Marvel Comics #1000 hits stores, @Davetweetedthis looks back at the forgotten heroes from 80 years ago: https://t.co/1I42bsHOKM

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) August 28, 2019

As we celebrate 50 years since the #Apollo11 crew landed on the Moon, @Davetweetedthis looks at the fictional first steps on our satellite.https://t.co/efjRuB0BWf pic.twitter.com/iL44JAxJRK

— Fear-O Collector 👻 (@HeroCollector_) July 23, 2019

As we celebrate #Apollo50th, @Davetweetedthis looks at fictional first steps on the Moon: https://t.co/2o9gd1lVcl

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) July 23, 2019

50 years after 'Turnabout Intruder', the body-swapping game is the sci-fi trope we love to revisit: https://t.co/gOmYuvujEZ @Davetweetedthis

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) June 6, 2019

As Battlestar Galactica Ships launches the Cylon Raider Mk I, @Davetweetedthis looks at the classic series reboot, Galactica 1980: https://t.co/7uqky3dPkv

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) May 21, 2019

.@IraStevenBehr's love letter to DS9 was released last week. @Davetweetedthis took a look at What We Left Behind: https://t.co/nN9u2CYTAf

— Will Potter (@Hero_Collector) May 3, 2019

Here's an animated gif formed of 8 panels from the comic #DoctorWho Voyager. pic.twitter.com/hTRof8B57J

— Harry Robins (@HjRobins) September 26, 2019

One of these perspectives is mine... https://t.co/GP6fwxE0Bm

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 28, 2019

Hey,

I write geeky content and silly stories.https://t.co/csYSrnAXVV

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) September 28, 2019

Black Squadron Too

I've trawled through posts that I drafted but for some reason didn't get around to posting. I plan to rectify that over the next few months.

I took this photo for Adam and Joe's Black Squadron. I have no memory of it or the stimulus they provided to inspire it.



For those intrigued, here's an explanation of Black Squadron.

Twitter Twatter #73

August 2019 Twitter

Sigourney Weaver test-firing the flamethrower from Alien (1979) pic.twitter.com/7kKaSHre89

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) August 7, 2019

I don’t regard @BorisJohnson as prime minister. He doesn’t represent me or the nation’s interests in any way at all. Retweet if you agree.

— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) August 8, 2019

yo this is some looney tunes logic and I love it with all of my chest pic.twitter.com/pWNFZcRpK0

— mn (@MamoudouNDiaye) July 29, 2019

I've seen a few of these on twitter and not found it difficult to know where to sit.

Curse you @whedonesque, this is impossible. https://t.co/r5oD3Glxk4

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) August 13, 2019

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. STEPHEN HAWKING

— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) August 20, 2019

Monday pic.twitter.com/uDxzI0voon

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) August 20, 2019

Just another day in America. pic.twitter.com/rJaF5vCDbK

— Only in America (@Crazzyintheusa) August 28, 2019

Star Trek is all about the present.
The future Is yet to be written.
You don’t like the world of “Past Tense?”
Work to prevent it. https://t.co/PbEDDU5nG2

— Ira Steven Behr (@IraStevenBehr) August 31, 2019

Hungry Trees pic.twitter.com/cIYHgGEsY2

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) August 31, 2019

The old woman I’m cat sitting for has her mugshot framed. What a boss bitch. pic.twitter.com/sja6sF6XpJ

— Neanderthot (@smashyouburn) August 31, 2019

Seaside Kung Fu experiment pic.twitter.com/PtfXA1087x

— Jim Moir (@JamesMoir10) August 31, 2019

Unfortunately we’ve lost a few supporters due to our stance on Brexit, but this is exactly why we just can’t be impartial.

Please follow and RT if you remain right behind us - the NHS needs your support more than ever.https://t.co/a3lSwNggdk

— NHS Million (@NHSMillion) August 31, 2019

Insecure Writer's Support Group Twitter Pitch 2020

I took part in the Insecure Writer's Support Group Twitter Pitch on the 15th of January 2020. The idea is that writers turn to twitter to pitch ideas and any prospective interested parties can like them and then begin a conversation about what to do next.

The only rules were you could post once per hour per manuscript and you didn't like anything unless you were an agent or publisher.

I decided to pitch two ideas:

A school discovers that they are the only people on the planet. Cut off from everything they knew, they are forced to start again. What will they do? How will they cope? Who will learn more: the pupils or the teachers?

School's in. Forever.#CO #SF #MA #YA #IWSGPit

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) January 15, 2020

When her stage magician uncle dies, Sam inherits his props. She tries to learn his tricks but finds there's more to it. She visits where the rabbits in the hat are pulled from and meets a sawn-in-half lady.

Magic is real. The trick is making it look fake.#AD #MA #YA #IWSGPit

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) January 15, 2020

The hashtags at the end of each pitch were to detail the genre and intended age group. I chose #CO (contemporary), #SF (sci-fi) and #AD (adventure) for the genres. I was tricky for the former pitch, since although definitely a science fiction idea, it is very much a soft science fiction. I have no intention of explaining the science behind the fiction. For the latter idea, I should probably have included #F (fantasy). That wasn't my biggest hashtag related mistake, however, I decided that the age groups I expected to be interested in these stories to be #YA (young adult) and #MA (which I completely made up). In my haste to post the first pitches before the end of an hour I intended to write #MG (middle grade), but ended up with #MA which depending on your opinion is either Middle Age or Middle Adult.

I managed to post each of them seven times before I had to surrender to the need for sleep. Damn my time zone. My pitches received three comments, 39 retweets and were liked nine times. Sadly, none of the likes were from agents or publisher, but instead other writers, a friend and in one case a Ugandan orphanage charity.

I was encouraged that people wanted to spread the word on my behalf, but disappointed that none of those people were necessarily in publishing. Either way I am determined to spend this year working on both ideas.

Carruthers Ten Years On: January 2010

January 2010 on the Carruthers blog. This is the month that the blog reached 600 posts and we hit number one on the Noostar chart, whatever that was. It was also the month that I drew a fish.

I clearly did this one just for myself, although by this point I was pretty much doing all of it just for myself. I like this discussion of what to call the decade that has just ended.

For this one I recycled the joke from an adlib I was pretty proud of when I introduced our mime sketch on stage. I've used this joke on something else since as well, because I'm a hack. I also like this one and this one about Houdini too. In a somewhat bizarre move, I copied and pasted the entire text of The Railway Children into a series of posts, that I was able to accompany with photos like this:

Twitter Twatter #72

July 2019

You know what day it is!#DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/F9wbIoeN12

— TardisMonkey (@tardis_monkey) July 6, 2019

UK Brexiteers: "We need to find a way to de-sensitise the idea of chlorinated chicken for UK consumers."

US: "Hold my beer..." pic.twitter.com/o7FBCDL9x1

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 7, 2019

White Midget? pic.twitter.com/tXhsTDFDQP

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 13, 2019

Welcome to the weekend... pic.twitter.com/SiBafXkudL

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 13, 2019

For the original novelisation cover Omega's hands were nicked wholoesale from the cover of a Fantastic Four comic. #Pertweet pic.twitter.com/6CRUOSgSJr

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 14, 2019

Omega. One of the most powerful blokes in the cosmos. #pertweet pic.twitter.com/Y1Ze2XaDop

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 14, 2019

To celebrate @bigfinish’s Birthday I’m going to give away a signed copy of Torchwood: Night of the Fendahl. To enter just like and retweet! I’ll have a friend pick a winner at random. Don’t forget Torchwood is for mature audiences only👍 #BigFinish20at20 #Torchwood #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/wkhxLkNBt7

— Blair Mowat (@BlairMowat) July 21, 2019

British politics 2019 pic.twitter.com/OpL9SKDpUJ

— Julia Bell (@JuliaBell) July 26, 2019

The Emerald Tiger finished. Really enjoyed that. Fascinating use of the period and genre. Epic in all the right ways. Was very surprised that Haggard wasn't played by Timothy West. I thought it utilised Nyssa and Tegan very well in particular.

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 30, 2019

Fantastic stuff. Feels like Doctor Who meets The Expanse.

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) July 30, 2019

#OnThisDay 1977: Thanks for the Memory - The Viewer's View asked people what they thought about television.

This woman was likely approached for a snappy vox pop, but ended up delivering something closer to a dramatic monologue. Fantastic stuff. pic.twitter.com/vzQTAe3ujz

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) July 31, 2019

Insecure Writer's Support Group #1

I'm new at this. I've been meaning to join in with the Insecure Writer's Support Group for years and never gotten around to it. Well, that changes now.

It's hosted by Alex Cavanaugh, T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff. So, thanks to them.

The only thing I'm currently insecure about is time.

There is never enough of it. Since my son was born there has been so little time. You know that having children means that your life will change, but you'd be a fool to think you could predict how it would change. I knew there would be more calls on my time, but it never occurred to me that I would have almost no time. Last year, I got a job writing for a website, but when I started my son was a largely immobile babe-in-arms. As the months have progressed, he is now an inquisitive little boy who can crawl at speed, pull himself to standing and make quite complicated vocalisations, whilst armed with an increasing number of teeth. All of which is brilliant, but means watching him is a far more involved endeavour than it was nine-ish months ago and therefore there is less time for anything else. I take some pride in the fact I haven't missed a deadline, although I have come closer than usual. I feel some guilt that inevitably he is being ignored in some small way in order to make that possible. I should stress that he isn't being left unsupervised, he is always with a capable adult.

Each month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group poses an (optional) question and here is this month's: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

I've always wanted to write, initially lots of unfinished short stories as a child, followed by comedy scripts and sketches in my mid-teens and scripts for comic books in my twenties, but I've surprised myself by moving increasingly towards prose and non-fiction as well.

The Year Ahead

So I made my own predictions for the year ahead, but science fiction has made many more. It comes with the territory. If you set things in the future, the future has a habit of catching up to you. It's easy to see that in the science fiction of the last forty years or so, 2020 has sounded suitably futuristic and provided a shorthand for in the near future rather than the far future.

I wrote this about science fiction's predictions, depictions and assertions about 2020.

My Predictions For 2020...

For four Earth years, I have been predicting the annum ahead with perfect prognostication.

Allow me to present a preview of the year to come. Here are my predictions for 2020:

• After years in the wilderness, Atlantis will finally win Eurovision.

• The recently-elected Conservative government will privatise laughter.

• The Leaning Tower of Pisa will be renamed the Fallen Tower of Pisa.

• The Carmarthenshire village of Bancyfelin will inexplicably win Miss Universe.

• November will be optional.

Happy New Year.