Despite being a supporting character in my novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, Sherilyn Chastain seems to have a struck a chord with readers. She certainly did with me, and I enjoyed writing her very much.This will be a spoiler-free piece, by the way, in case you’ve – gasp – yet to read the novel.

An Australian-French combat magician with a foul mouth and a possible sex addiction, Sherilyn was created to serve the story in three ways:

1) I needed someone to question Jack’s dogged cynicism over the supernatural. Obviously, Jack’s flatmate Bex does this to a certain extent too, but Sherilyn’s knowledge of the arcane world allows her to go much deeper and really get under Jack’s skin. Which is why they argue like cats and dogs.

2) I needed someone to explain a fair bit of mysterious, supernatural stuff – especially later in the novel. Come the final third of the story, Sherilyn essentially becomes the Doctor in Doctor Who. Jack and Bex become her companions, asking what the hell is going on. Doctor-esque characters are ever so handy in stories in which bizarre conceptual stuff is going on.

3) I wanted a fun, colourful character who could be funny and dark at the same time.

So that’s why Sherilyn was created. What about the how?

What with knowing nothing about combat magic, I turned to my excellent friend Cat Vincent, a retired combat magician. Yes, yes, combat magicians are actually a thing in the real world. So I got Cat on Skype and interviewed him for around an hour. Because I knew the basic shape of the plot at that stage, I was able to ask him specific things that I needed to know. At times, I also asked him whether certain things would make sense within the magical world. Magical logic, if you will… or even if you won’t.

When writing Sherilyn, I made good use of Cat’s words. In fact, I quite often literally had his words coming out of her mouth. As a result, there is the occasional moment where I actually don’t understand what she’s talking about, but it sounds awesome and that’s all that matters at the time.

While Sherilyn is Aussie-French, she speaks with an overwhelmingly Aussie accent, and so I turned to another excellent friend, Dijana Capan, to make sure she would sound suitably Down Underly. This was mainly a matter of asking Dijana to supply the odd Aussie-specific phrase (“Get a dog up ya!”, for instance) or checking that I hadn’t made any phrases up myself.

So that’s Sherilyn Chastain. You know... beyond all that research, the more I look back at this powerful person, the more she does have the sense of a female Doctor about her. The way she’ll sweep into any given room and take control, and have a seemingly endless supply of magical ghost-hunting gadgetry, such an aerosol spray can of St John’s Root. So, yeah, Doctor Who probably smuggled itself into my work there. Certainly wouldn’t have been the first time and it won’t be the last…

Subscribers to my free mailing list The Necronoppicon received this article direct to their inboxes last Sunday. Consider joining them? 

The Last Days Of Jack Sparks: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada

And here's the Jack Sparks page on my website.

Following the terrible Grenfell fire tragedy in London, my publisher Orbit Books and I wanted to do our bit to help. So we're taking part in the Authors For Grenfell initiative, in which various authors auction things to raise money for the British Red Cross London Fire Relief Fund. 

The item we're auctioning is a one-off proof copy of The Last Days Of Jack Sparks. Let me explain...

In the months running up to the novel's release in 2016, Orbit created some super-special proofs, designed to go out to early reviewers. These were very cool indeed, featuring added pieces of physical paper, some typed, others handwritten, to compliment the 'found footage' feel of the book. Here's a picture of the incredible Orbit team putting these together by hand.

Only 85 of these super-special proofs were made, and I'll make this particular auction copy a one-off by adding a few extra paper notes to it myself, in 'character' as Jack. Plus, I'll sign and dedicate the book.

You can bid by adding a comment on the Authors For Grenfell auction page for this item, with your bid amount (and the currency if it's not GBP). As is the case with all the other amazing auctions of Authors For Grenfell, this will end at 8pm BST on Tuesday, June 27, 2017. It's valid worldwide, so get over there and sling some cash at that comments section.  Here's the AFG site's FAQ page for more details of the whole set-up.

Here's the Jack Sparks auction page

And here are just a few of the other tremendous auctions:

Claridges tea and book reading with David Walliams

Name a character in a Philip Pullman book

Be an extra in Iain 'The Inbetweeners' Morris' new film

​And here's the full list of auctions.

Just for the sake of absolute clarity: any wonderful bidders should bid over at the Authors For Grenfell page itself.

​Thank you! Blog ends.

Incredibly, this is not fake news.

Even though I've had a whole year to absorb the shock and the divine majesty of all this, it still feels utterly surreal and amazing.

Yes, Imagine Entertainment, the Hollywood production company founded by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, have optioned my novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks. I expect you know Imagine's pedigree, but just in case, they've made huge Ron movies like Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code and Frost/Nixon, as well as the likes of 8 Mile, Katy Perry: Part Of Me and the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

I'm writing the first draft of the Sparks screenplay as we speak, and I'm having a real blast. Ron and his great folk at Imagine have been an absolute pleasure to deal with.

As for more details, I promised that my newsletter subscribers would hear those first. So if you'd like to hear how this development deal came about, or what it's like to have a meeting with Ron Howard, sign up to the newsletter and get a free book!

Here are a couple of online articles about the deal:

Screen Daily

Movies.com

I'll also be talking about the deal in the next issue of the mighty Starburst magazine, out April 21. Oh, and the US paperback edition of the book is imminent: April 4 through Orbit Books. Shriek soon!

​Here's The Last Days  Of Jack Sparks at...

Amazon UK | US | Canada

Yesterday, I wrote the final line of my second novel, one year and one day after Orbit Books published The Last Days Of Jack Sparks.

There's still plenty of editing work to do on this book, but the damn thing exists, fifteen months after I started work. This has not been an easy journey, but books very rarely offer anything of the kind.

So!  The book is called Key Man.

Your front door key is not unique.

If a homicidal maniac walked from house to house for long enough, trying the same key in each front door, he might eventually open yours.

Six-year-old Emilee Brink finds this out the hard way, when a hooded figure enters her family's Las Vegas home...

That's the premise. Hope it appeals. Key Man currently has a release date of January 18, 2018 via Orbit Books. If you were to pre-order this thing before it even has a cover, then this would set you up among the gods. The gods! So if godly status appeals, you'll find a handful of links at the end of this post.

This year, I've cut right back on social media, mainly to gain work focus. I'm only on Twitter at the weekend, for instance, and now keep my personal Facebook deactivated as default. Really makes a difference and I'm liking it a lot. But while I'm tweeting and posting less, I plan to really make a go of my free e-newsletter, The Necronoppicon. Hopefully I can send one of those out every few weeks from now on. 

Here's the online version of my most recent edition of The Necronoppicon, which went out last Sunday and told subscribers about Key Man first, as well as recommending Netflix documentaries and going into a little more detail about regaining work focus in the social media age. Like the look of it? Hit Subscribe on that page and join us! Add 'tell arnopp at gmail dot com' to your Contacts list, to be sure of receiving each startling missive!

Subscribers will be the first to hear details from me about the movie version of The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, currently in development. Oh, AND when I write the next Necronoppicon newsletter, I'll randomly pick one subscriber to receive a glossy US hardback edition of The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, personally signed to them. Even though me signing a book sadly halves its resale value. Join us!

Goodbye! Don't forget to triple-lock your door.

KEY MAN PRE-ORDER:

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Amazon Canada 

iBooks US | iBooks US | iBooks Canada

Waterstones (with working title!) | Blackwell's (ditto!)

Well now, that was a weird year. Out in the world at large, so many terrible things happened that made you feel as though reality itself was being warped by some sadistic overlord.

In terms of worldwide events, 2016 was the worst year in living memory. In terms of my career as an author, however, it was the best.

Hello, cognitive dissonance. But if it's all the same to you, I'm going to focus solely on the professional stuff here, as I cast a glance back over 2016. This is, after all, mainly a blog about writing - and there are enough hardcore doomsayers out there across social media, saying all that doom without seemingly giving much thought to the potential mental states of their readership.

My debut 'solo' novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks clawed its way out through Orbit Books' rib cage in March. It's the story of an arrogant celebrity journalist who sets out to debunk the supernatural and ends up dead. So Orbit and I thought it only right and respectful to throw a wake for Jack at Orbit Towers in Central London. You can see snippets of my heartfelt eulogy in the video below...

So that was surreal. I also interviewed one of my own fictional characters from the book, Alistair Sparks, in a two-part audio interview (hear them both here), which was even more surreal. 

Even before the novel was released, the support was amazing. I mean, seriously. The mighty Christopher Brookmyre, Robin Ince, Andy Nyman, MR Carey, Jenny Colgan, David Schneider, Sarah Lotz, RTE 2FM's Rick O'Shea, Radio 1's Daniel P Carter, John Higgs, Cat Vincent, Andrew O'Neill, Rob Boffard, Rebecca Levene, Lisa Jewell, Chuck Wendig, Paul Tremblay, Amazon UK and the iBooks store were among the very first to get behind Sparks, which was incredible. And then, two months after the book's release, I received a voicemail message from Alan Moore (Alan Moore!), who also gave me and Orbit some blurbage including the tremendous phrase 'A magnificent millennial nightmare'. I'm still coming to terms with all this, along with other unexpected events like the book being chosen for Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club (thank you librarians, thank you The Reading Agency!) and being nominated for The Guardian's Not The Booker Prize and a Goodreads 2016 Award.

So many other celebs, authors, bloggers and journalists were incredibly kind and generous to this novel, but I won't list them here for fear of missing people - and well, for fear of this post just becoming one big list. Thank you all. It's honestly been astonishing. One of the very best things about this year, though, has been complete strangers popping up on Twitter and Facebook to tell me how much they liked the book. That's still happening on a regular basis now, which gives me hope that Sparks ​will retain some appeal in 2017. Orbit's US paperback also emerges in April, which will hopefully inject further reanimation fluid into the old devil dog.

I'd also like to thank the sci fi and fantasy community, authors and readers alike, for making me feel so very welcome during my first public appearances as an author, at Edgelit, Nine Worlds, Fantasy At The Court, Fantasycon, the monthly British Science Fiction Association event and the MCM London Comic Con. I gave my first book readings at some of these, which was a new and scary experience. Here I am quacking away on an Edgelit panel alongside the extraordinary Sarah Pinborough (whose new novel Behind Her Eyes is going to blow a million wigs clean off when it emerges January 17!)

That mention of Lady P's novel has reminded me how pitiful my own reading efforts were this year. I don't think I even reached double figures, which is terrible. My only excuse is that publicising Sparks and writing Book Two soaked up way more time than I'd imagined. I will do better in 2017. Right now, I'm reading Sarah Lotz's The White Road, due May 2017. Super-creepy! Loving it.

If you bought The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, ​reviewed it, helped spread the word and/or helped make me feel like I was a proper author at the year's various events, then you have a special place in my black, mutated heart. Releasing your debut (solo) novel to the world, while hoping to lay the foundations for a long term career, that's a frightening business, but each of you made it less so. Thank you.

I'll leave you with news of a major Jack Sparks development, which I should be able to announce properly in January. There's now a folder in my Dropbox called Jack Sparks The Movie. The head-spinning events that led to that folder's creation were very much another reason for all my cognitive dissonance in 2016, let me tell you.

Wow! You made it through this thick swamp of self congratulation. Have a fackin' medal.

​2017 will see a reduced social media presence from me, so I'd be delighted if you signed up to my mailing list, to which I plan to send e-missives more regularly from now on. Happy New Year!

Hello to your face!

My novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks has somehow made the semi finals of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2016. Which is astonishing, since this puts it alongside ludicrously stiff competition from books by the top drawer likes of Joe Hill, MR Carey and Paul Tremblay!

It would be amazing for Jack Sparks to reach the finals. So if you're willing to help, and genuinely believe the novel to be the most deserving in this year's Horror category, you can change my life with a couple of clicks! 

CLICK ONE: Straight to the Goodreads Horror voting page

CLICK TWO: Click on the voting button for the novel of your choice!

I believe you have to be a Goodreads member to vote. The deadline is just over 24 hours away at the time of blogging.

If you can indeed help, either by voting, or spreading the word, then you are literally a saint in my eyes. A glittering golden giant of a saint. And that's all there is to it. FAREWELL FOR NOW, you awe-inspiring beauty.

Hooray, I'll be at the MCM London Comic Con tomorrow (Saturday Oct 29th) and will be doing Stuff as follows...

12 midday (Silver Theatre): a panel about horror and dark fantasy, alongside Alison Littlewood, Verity Holloway and moderator Leila Abu El Hawa. It's right up my alley and I hope it's right up yours too. (Sorry, that sounded vaguely impolite.)

1pm-2pm: I'll be signing copies of my novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, possibly while humming Satanic psalms. If such things exist. WHO KNOWS. You can buy the book at Travelling Man's stall at the event, and doing so sets you up among the GODS.

Maybe see you there! And while I've got you, this happened on Wednesday night...

Yes, as promised/threatened, Timebomb trilogy author Scott K Andrews quizzed me at the British Science Fiction Association's monthly event. Thanks very much to the BSFA for inviting us, and to all who came along - I had a great time, even though evil Andrews ambushed me with questions from my own book about interviewing people! What a swine.

I started the event with a five-minute reading from Jack Sparks, which was nice. 

Courtesy of BSFA genius Chad Dixon, you can see the archived Periscope video of our chat here.

You can also hear the audio recording here. 

One last news snippet: my novelette Auto Rewind has made its Kindle debut.  It's all about the 80s, Doctor Who, nostalgia and nail guns. Bye!

Hey! Pull up a chair and listen to me interviewing Alistair Sparks, the brother of the late journalist and author Jack Sparks. 

Since Jack's book The Last Days Of Jack Sparks was published, there's been much speculation and debate surrounding Alistair, who has attracted everything from admiration to scorn. So I wanted to sit down with him in a cafe and ask a few questions. 

This interview is presented in two halves... and you very nearly didn't get to hear the second half at all, because Alistair ultimately didn't want Orbit Books and me to make it available. He made legal threats, while clearly forgetting the terms of the agreement he'd signed before the interview. So The Lost Cut is now available to your ears and I think you'll find it most interesting.

Enjoy! Incidentally, if you haven't read the book yet then don't worry - there'll be nothing to spoiler you here. It doesn't reveal anything that isn't in the prologue...

And there we have it. As I say at the end there, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to Alistair's true character. And of course you'll find more evidence within the pages of The Last Days Of Jack Sparks. Or if you'd like to hear the delightful tones of Alistair Sparks and all the other people in this book via audio, you can check out the splendid audiobook!

Don't forget: on October 26 2016, Timebomb author Scott K Andrews will interview me at the British Science Fiction Association's pre-Halloween meeting in London! The event is open to all and free to enter. Get the details!

In February 2015, I interviewed the mighty Timebomb author Scott K Andrews at the British Science Fiction Association's monthly gathering. Ohhh, how I quizzed the man about his life, his career and his frankly astonishing collection of ancient Egyptian thigh bones. The whole affair looked very much like Chad Dixon's picture above, except the audience presumably experienced it in full colour.

On October 26, mere days before Halloween, the fiendish Mr Andrews will turn the tables on me for the BSFA, and interrogate me all about my life, career and frankly astonishing collection of ancient Egyptian shin bones. The event is completely free to attend - you do not have to be a BSFA member - and the night's schedule runs like this:

6pm
People gather at The Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8ND. These people can drink some booze, if they like, to steel themselves for what is to come.

7pm
Scott starts grilling me in the upstairs room of the pub. There is no mercy. A reading from Jack Sparks may also be involved.

8pm
Q&A with the audience.

8.15pm
Book raffle, in which you can "win a selection of SF novels for just £1 for 5 tickets", according to the BSFA. I'll be happy to sign copies of my novel The Last Days Of Jack Sparks too, if you like. I may also bring a few copies along to sell if the interest is there (tweet me!)

All in all, I can't think of a better way to welcome the infernal majesty of Halloween 2016 into our lives, can you? Well, can you? Hmmm? I doubt you can, so diarise it.

​See you there!  Here's the BSFA's event page, just in case you think I've made the whole blessed thing up. 

​And if you can't make the event in person, check out Chad Dixon's Twitter feed - he'll hopefully be live-streaming the whole affair!