Today's update is more or less a list of things to look out for on other people's blogs - Blogs I love! The remarkable comics artist Bret Herholz has just posted the brand new picture, above. It's a summative portrait of the Fourth Doctor andMrs Wibbsey - as they appear in the three series of audiobooks I wrote for Audiogo. This is how Bret sees that macabre world of Nest Cottage - with the Doctor a bit like TH White's Merlin - living backwards through time, in a house cluttered with belongings from both his future and past. I love how Bret always includes little visual references to other stuff, all over the place, hidden away in the corners and on the walls... His regular blog updates are a delight - and you must buy his books!
Also - just as it hits Episode Eleven - it's way beyond time that I alerted you to the ongoing spooky serial being written by another dear friend - Nick at 'A Pile of Leaves.' It's a very strange, twisty tale of crazed bibliophiles, foxes and bears - set in the present day, but with a curiously Edwardian bent. It starts here with Part One.
Here's something else wonderful. Something I've hunted for ages..! It's an almost complete list of Puffin books, in publication order, from the start, till the late Sixties. I'm hugely endebted to Karyn Reeves, who maintains the utterly entertaining and inspiring 'A Penguin a Week blog'. Here's the puffin checklist - which seems to be part of another, very informative site for book collectors. I love the way that the decades it spans take us from good old Worzel, all the way to the heyday of Paddington Bear. And I love the intriguing titles of long-out-of-print Puffins, too. Even bland-sounding ones like 'Cornish Adventure' or 'The Secret of the Missing Boat.' I do want to know more about 'Gay Neck' and 'The Winter Princess', definitely...!
It's absolutely chucking it down here in Manchester. It's a day for hiding away with a pile of Puffins, I should think - though the daily word-count needs to be done. I love how noisy and rattly the rain is being in the garden today. Poor Fester Cat is furious, however - having spent an hour or so on his beach House veranda - he's just come running in, miffed and soaking. Hopefully the weather will clear up in time for tomorrow's day out at the Buxton Book Fair. I want to have afternoon tea with friends in the sun. What are the chances, eh..?
I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!
Buxton book fair? That sounds brilliant! I wonder if Rhid would like to go, I definitely fancy it. What is it like?
ReplyDeletePoor Fester, he and Kiki are both miffed about the weather. She seems to have spent all of this morning either in a grump about being wet or curled up in her little bed (or trying to get on my knee whilst I'm writing) xx
I haven't been before to the Book Fair - but I've heard it's wonderful!
ReplyDeleteCats are so funny when it rains. Fester radiates sheer moodiness! He's just been sitting by my laptop, tutting at me.
Poor Fester! Give him a pat for me. I'd love to come to the book fair, will see what the boss says! Kiki is now looking gloomily out of the window into the fog ...
ReplyDeleteThat would be amazing, if you could be there!
ReplyDeleteI'll let you know what he says and then it would be lovely to finally meet! Eek!
ReplyDeleteMy cat Gimlet is asleep, but he will in a very bad temper when he wakes up, although he does get a strange kick out of being dried with a tea towel; sometimes I suspect he goes out just to get wet...
ReplyDeleteI admire other people's blogs, I have a blog but fail dismally to stick to promoting my work, preferring instead to let all the randomness in my skull sort of fall onto the internet.
Wishing you better weather, pouring in Suffolk, I am about to blog about cutting my daughter's waist length hair off (seriously!)
Thanks, Michele! Fester *hates* being dried with a tea towel. Furious when I tried it this morning.
ReplyDeletei'll have a look at your blog!
Gimlet can be quite vicious, but he loves the tea towel for some reason. I am not sure my blog is worthy of a 'real' writer seeing it, I have probably committed many crimes against semi colons, but thank you for the thought. True to my word however my daughter's extreme hair cut has been immortalised in cyber space.
ReplyDeleteI notice Bret loves the Season 18 costume, with the question marks and wine-red colors. And say...it looks like "The Three Doctors 2.0" is hinted at - perhaps the Fomasii and the Vril teamed-up and reactivated the giant robot to become their new enforcer?...;)
ReplyDeleteI think June Hudson's redesign for the Fourth Doctor's look is probably my favorite of all his costumes. That one and how he looked around Brain of Morbius/Seeds of Doom are probably my two favorites.
ReplyDeleteActually when I was designing it, I tried to keep up with the past and present theme Paul created by creating an amalgamation of his costume. So it's a mix of the one he wore around Invasion of Time wiht the one he wore in his last season as the Doctor :-)
Actually it was supposed to be the Wirrn and the Zarbi mounted on the wall. But looking at it now I think it came out looking more like the Formasii ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for such kind words, Paul. I'm so pleased I could help you find what you were seeking.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, I had a copy of 'Something to do' and I wore it out through constant re-reading. It's long since gone, but I do remember reading the words 'vede mecum' which I puzzled over for years. Of course, like every book from my childhood (Freewheelers, Timeslip, The Zebra book of Puzzles), I want it back.
ReplyDelete