This is my next book, My Name is O, looking like a book for the very first time:

It’s not the finished article: it’s what those in the book trade refer to as an Advance Reader Copy (ARC), or Proof. Publishers produce them (in very limited numbers) to send to reviewers, bloggers, authors and others for the purpose of drumming up buzz and interest for when the final book comes out.

At the time it went to press, the cover art (which I have since seen, by the way, and I can tell you it looks AMAZING) wasn’t finished. That actually isn’t particularly unusual with proofs, but it hasn’t happened to me and my books since the UK proof of The Black Tattoo back in 2006 (below).

My Name is O will be published by Barrington Stoke in January 2012. I’m very excited about this. One of the things I say a lot in interviews and author bios and whatnot is that I am passionately – possibly ‘certifiably’ – committed to the ideal of books that make young people want to read. Aimed at reluctant and struggling readers as it is, My Name is O is that ideal distilled to the purest form I could possibly give it. I think it might be the best thing I’ve written so far. But now I’ve got to wait and see if anyone else agrees.

*bites nails*

More soon.

Sam

OK, as promised, it’s time to announce the winner of the Spinechills / Crawlers Competition, the horror writing contest that’s been running this past month or so based on creatures from CRAWLERS.

Picking a winner was a nightmare. My congratulations and best wishes to runners-up Ajay, Veronica and Ecner for their bloodcurdling and brilliant work, but my favourite was FINE, by Oliver Reid.

Here I am reading it out. Those of a nervous disposition listen at your own risk…

Congratulations, Oliver! Your 5-cd unabridged audiobook of CRAWLERS is on its way to you now. And another big thank you to Holly for running this competition on her awesome blog.

Just posted to TBM: Top Notch Teenage Fiction.

To celebrate the launch of the all-new unabridged audio edition of CRAWLERS there’s a giveaway / competition going on right now at Spine Chills, the bloodcurdling blog of the supremely sinister Holly ‘Heart of’ Harkness.

For the chance to win one of these fine items, here’s what Holly wants you to do:

Simply write a short piece (less than 400 words) involving your brush with a crawler – oh, and extra points are given for any gory parts that make me squirm!

Send all entries to hrharkness@gmail.com. The competition is open to anyone in the world, and the winning entry will be read out by Sam Enthoven himself!

This competition closes Friday 15 July, so get crawling!

Full details over at Spine Chills. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. SNEE HEE HEE!

Sam

Behold…

This is the all-new unabridged audio edition of Crawlers, as produced by Oakhill and performed by Joe Coen. I think they did a terrific job. Here’s the bit where Jasmine examines one of the crawlers for the first time – take a listen:[audio:http://www.theycrawl.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/crawlers.mp3|titles=crawlers]

In other news, the language edit for my forthcoming (Jan ’12) Barrington Stoke book – now entitled My Name Is O – is DONE. Just like my other books, My Name Is O is aimed at 11 to 15 year olds but it’s particularly intended for reluctant or struggling readers. The process of making the story as accessible as possible to its target audience wasn’t easy(-!) but it was every bit as eye-opening and inspiring as I’d hoped it would be. An ENORMOUS thank you to Vicki at BS for her sensitive and surgical linguistic skills. My thanks, too, to the book’s young consultants and to the eagle-eyed writing group at The Big Green Bookshop who also kindly agreed to have the manuscript tested out on them. I’ve learned all sorts of good stuff about style, usage and technique over these past few weeks. I’m looking forward to taking it all on into what I write next. 😀

Before I became a writer I remember thinking that research was probably the boring bit of the job…

…I’m happy to say I was wrong. 😀

Bad first, because that’s generally the way around that I prefer: I’ve had to put a bullet in the head of my haunted house project.

It was a grim decision after six months’ work, but a rational one I think. Do you know the moment in the film Apollo 13 when the near-despairing ground-crew chief played by Ed Harris asks ‘What have we got on the space-craft that’s good?’ Well: after careful examination of the haunted house zero draft I concluded that there simply wasn’t enough there to justify what it would take to turn it into a functioning book I could be proud of.

I won’t lie to you: there has been some wailing and gnashing of teeth going on over here. As any long-term followers of this blog will know, this is not the first project I’ve had to abandon recently. I can see I’ve got into some bad mental habits about the way I’ve been going about longer-form stories. I’m reassessing my methods. More on this in a second.

Now the good news. Opinions are in about The Last Duel (my latest short story) from my agent and the person who is going to illustrate it. Both (to my delight!) were very positive. The next bit of sinister masterplan therefore looks something like this…

–Line edits for my upcoming book for Barrington Stoke. It’s now been tested by young consultant readers, and their notes are about to arrive. This part of the process was my main reason for writing something for Barrington Stoke in the first place, so (though I hear it’s going to be intense!) I can’t wait. Bring it on. 😀

–More short stories: Jethro, Family and now The Last Duel makes three. That’s a decent start towards a collection, but still only a start. ;D

–A new novel. I’ve already begun drawing ideas together for a completely new long project – something epic, wild and properly awesome. But this will take time – possibly a long time (reminder: The Black Tattoo took me five years). Everyone will have to be ok with that – and in that ‘everyone,’ I include (since one of the aforementioned bad habits that I most need to break is impatience) me.

I’m feeling hopeful. I’ll keep you posted.

Sam

PS: The sweetly smiling green dude at the top of this post is the star of a new Portuguese short horror film called Blarghaaahrgarg. You can watch the whole thing at Twitch, here.

PPS: Here’s something I just posted to TBM about another manga, the wonderfully scurrilous Gantz, by Hiroya Oku.

OK, I think my latest short story (current title: The Last Duel) is just about good to go. On Monday I return to my larger work-in-progress – the prospect of which, I have to admit, is making me feel a little like this:

This is “Sir Frederick Burke and His Leviathan“ by Travis Louie, exhibiting now at the Roq La Rue Gallery. You can read the startling history behind this image and view more wonderful artwork from the show here.

My favourite thing on the internet this week is this (below, via Boing Boing again) as typed – with more passion and belief than strict concern for grammar or spelling – by Ray Bradbury…

As The Cookie Monster wisely once said, ‘To thine own self… be shoe.’

My manga habit continues to consume me: here’s something I just posted to TBM about Naoki Urasawa’s astonishing 20th Century Boys.

No doubt about it, choosing and researching awesome places in which to set scenes of stories is a lot easier in the internet age. This week I was lucky enough to stumble across TENDER.IS/THE.NIGHT, an astonishing urban exploration / photography site. Hit the link and prepare to be amazed. Here’s a taste:

This is Albert Bridge. What I’m writing isn’t set there – this time! – but a key scene of my current story takes place at a location (I won’t tell you which, yet!) that has been explored and beautifully photographed on the site. On the off-chance he sees this I’d like to take this chance to offer my thanks, appreciation and respect to TENDER.IS/THE.NIGHT‘s creator for his physical intrepidity, his evocative writing and his jaw-dropping camera skills.

Also while I’m here, here are two links to things I’ve posted to TBM about wonderful comics I’ve been reading recently: Twin Spica by Kou Yaginouma and The Lovecraft Anthology Volume 1 edited by Dan Lockwood.