Weapons Grade Snake Oil

There's another book out for which I painted the cover, namely Weapons Grade Snake Oil by Blair Bidmead, A Faction Paradox novel and thus part of the series for which I wrote Against Nature - which I only mention in case you never bought a copy but always meant to, perhaps even telling me I must buy a copy of your novel when it's published over and over, apparently having been thinking about something else all those times I told you that the fucker came out nearly five bleeding years ago...

Anyway, Faction Paradox should probably require no introduction, but if it does you should be able to find something here. Weapons Grade Snake Oil is great, and is probably as good (not to mention lively) an introduction to the series as you will find, so it gets my recommendation (and I'll be posting a full review here at some point) and you should purchase your copy or copies here, from Obverse Books.

While we're here, I tend to take photographs of my cover paintings as I'm working on them, documenting different stages mainly so as to have some sort of restore point in case I screw up (which is itself sort of pertinent to Weapons Grade Snake Oil, although you'll have to read it to find out why), so just in case these are of any use or interest to anyone:

Don't say I don't never give you nuffink.

A Target for Tommy

I'm never quite sure what to make of charity anthologies because there seems to be a million of them, and the cause usually looks like a bit of an afterthought from where I'm stood, plus when it comes to Who fiction, I'm not convinced we really need any more, and I'm generally keen to encourage people to read things which aren't Doctor Who.

But what the fuck do I know?

Stuart Douglas of Obverse Books asked me to write something for this, proceeds of which go to someone whom I don't actually know but who seems like a good guy and could clearly use a break, and it just seemed like it would be a extraordinarily wanky of me to say no. So as instructed I had fun with my story which, for those who may care about such things, occurs immediately after the events of The Two Doctors, or my own prehistoric fan novel Smoking Mirror, or Against Nature, or all three, with a special appearance by Señor 105, so that's a whole stack of premium grade fanwank right there.

You're welcome.

Without any conspicuous display of shame or modesty, here's my favourite passage from my own story which is, by the way, called The Time Wrestlers:

'Your people may be the masters of all time and space,' said the luchador in a voice rich with martial confidence, 'but when it comes to fighting as would a man, you seem lacking in certain departments, if you don't mind my saying so.'

The muffled response of a pained not at all sounded from beneath the huge wrestler's bottom, which had now made a seat of the Doctor's face.

There are also contributions from Paul Magrs, Sarah Hadley, Andrew Hickey, Nick Campbell, Rachel Redhead, Blair Bidmead, Simon Bucher-Jones, Paul Cornell plus a whole load of other names who can likewise be relied upon to spin a good yarn in my experience; so if this sounds like your sort of thing, then you will definitely need to buy a copy or two, or maybe even three; except you can't because it's still being edited and printed and whatnot, but you can put in a pre-order right now by following this link. So that's what you should do.

You can find out a little more about what Tommy has been going through by following his blog here.

 

Blair Bidmead on Against Nature

Huixachtepec

Well, it's probably not a review in the conventional sense, but I'm honestly not that fussy, and I particularly enjoyed the reference to Birds of a Feather. So here it is, as transmitted to me just the other day by Blair Bidmead, author of various good things published by Obverse Books, amongst other mighty works regularly described at Battlefield by the Meadow.

Yes! Against Nature! I read it and that. A while ago now. I thought I had already mentioned it to you, but I think your book broke my head, because I didn't, so I am mentioning it now instead. What a thing you gawn and done, eh? A tremendous thing! Crafted within an inch of its life. A dense, sleek and impressive thing. I am reminded of that episode of Birds of a Feather when Dorian pretends she has written a book and Tracy reads it and says to Sharon, 'Nah, Sharon. It's like a real book, with bits I don't understand and everything!' So, yeah. You're getting that I greatly admire your book? I enjoyed it too, sort of. A bit. But, what do I know? Eh? I'm pretty low rent, really. So, greatly admire is a proper win, yeah? I would especially like to applaud the book's militant opacity. I respect that that most.

There was a point, about halfway through, I think maybe when the talking dog appears (he the same one from your Doctor Who book, innit?), where there seemed to be a classic bit of exposition to clarify shit, and I thought two things - one was; ah, he's throwing us a bone here, right the path shall become clearer now, the second thing I thought was; ah, so I have been following what was happening. That's good to know. But, that was it. There was no further concession made. It was keep up or fuck off and I like that. And do you know what's really weird? That talking dog's face has just appeared in the sponsored ads column as I type this! Spooky. Oh, and the final chapter? It's a happy ending, so that's nice, isn't it? These other books of which you speak. Some cunt will publish them, surely?

I don't know the answer to that question, but Against Nature is still very much available through channels referenced elsewhere on this blog.