A Dog's Life

Another photo I submitted for Saltpeter Production's Be Inspired to help publicise its production of The Death Of Tintagel. The quote, above left, seemed more than a little appropriate to accompany the photograph below. I took this photo in North London. It stank.

Microfiction Monday #50 & #4

Microfiction Monday reaches its half century, here's the photo:


And here's my response:

Five.
She saw the tanker.

Four.
The last of the oil sailed by.

Three.
She would make them listen.

Two.
She checked her watch.

One.
Boom.

- - - - -

And all the way back to number four, here's the picture:


And here's my response:

The Three Bears were forced into a witness relocation programme following the Goldilocks Incident.

The fairy bodyguards terrified even them.

Share Your Ten Best Novels

Madeleine at Scribble And Edit invites you to Share your ten best novels.


I've had a go and come up with this list of ten, but tomorrow this list will change. So for the moment, here's my list of ten in no particular order:

British Summertime by Paul Cornell
A great science fiction novel destined to be overlooked because its author is better known for creating Bernice Summerfield.







Slow Down Arthur Stick To Thirty by Harland Miller
A line from The Man Who Fell To Earth that became a novel in its own right.







Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold
This fictionalised biography is a series of escape attempts and a love letter to theatrical magic acts of the early twentieth century.






Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
If I'm ever asked for my favourite novel this is the book that springs to mind first, which is why when thinking of a fictional character to write to, I chose Lemuel Gulliver.





Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
I could have chosen any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, but the satire on religion and belief here is one that has stayed with me.






To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Amazing. If you haven't read it, do.









Doctor Who And The Auton Invasion by Terrance Dicks
This book is a very likely candidate for the book that taught me to read. Thanks Terrance.






Where's Wally by Martin Handford
I don't care if it's not really a novel, I bloody love Where's Wally?








Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor
The Red Dwarf novels are all underrated and are much more than simply novelisations of television scripts, but add depth and character to a universe which we have only seen the tip of the iceberg onscreen.



James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
I read this book time and time again. I'm in two minds about ever visiting New York for fear of discovering there isn't really a giant peachstone house in the middle of Central Park.





The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
Lucifer Box of No. 9 Downing Street is a gentlemen, a painter, a dandy and a spy with a sex drive that makes James Bond seem frigid. I have yet to around to reading Gatiss' other Box books, but only because I want to have time to savour them.




That's an eleven best novels, but nobody's perfect.

Dummy Run

Saltpeter Productions are calling for art, design, film, pictures etc inspired by quotes from The Death Of Tintagel.

I took the photo below, on a recent camping trip to Dorset with Mark & Brogan. These dummies were hanging on a string at Lulworth Cove and freaked us all out a little. Of course there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it and I'm sure they are better here than floating in the English Channel, but it's interesting that our immediate reaction was sinister. It seemed quite a good fit with the quote above.


Why not contribute something yourself?

Microfiction Monday #49 & #3

Same old drill as usual. Here's the picture:


And here's my response:

It was going to be a long walk.

When she asked him to the Sadie Hawkins Dance, she hadn't thought about what to do if he actually said yes.

- - - - -

And from the Microfiction Monday archives, here's number three:


And here's my response:

She looked at her son.

She thought of his potential.

She was amazed by everything he did.

She just wished he wasn't quite so bloody blue.

Carruthers Cartoons #1

Although I'm not particularly adept at drawing or painting I did find myself coming up with these for The Carruthers blog:

The Futures Here... features a poster for the act at the centre of Mike's Actors Gone Rogue sketch.

The Joy Of Specs and Speckled were both drawn for the Glasses sketch.

Apropos of nothing in particular I Drew A Frog and I Drew A Fish. Both found their way onto the blog.

The Death Of Tintagel

Rehearsals have started on Saltpeter Productions' The Death Of Tintagel by Peter Morris, which I am appearing in as a member of the chorus.

Here's their website and as is the way these days they are on the email, the twitter, the facebook and the flickr.

The performances run from the 25th of October until the 6th November. Tickets are on sale here.