My blog on many subjects, principally my writing and thoughts. My current project is The Cluster Cycle, published by Roan & Weatherford. Its first two entries are Starborn Vendetta (2023) and Lost Station Circé (2024).
This article contains POTENTIAL OR ACTUAL MASSIVE SPOILERS for the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. Also, shameless plug for my latest novel The Murderer's Lament, a sci-fi murder mystery inspired by Sayers among others.
The Murderer's Lament is out on the 29th of this month, and I'm still in the mindset of thinking about detective stories, which I used as heavy inspiration for this book. One of my favourite writers in the medium is Dorothy L. Sayers, who between 1920 and 1937 wrote stories about the aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey (with a posthumous short story trilogy in 1972). Is she perfect? No, not only because she was a British white woman writing in the interwar period, but because...her murder methods don't always hold up.
I've already done an entire article talking about my journey researching the now-debunked "Status Lymphaticus" as used by Margery Allingham in 1937's Dancers in Mourning. And while I love Sayers dearly for her characters and prose and aspects of her mystery crafting, I know that her murder methods are not being informed by in-depth medical knowledge. This is in contrast with Agatha Christie, who was a trained nurse and knew about poisons, along with doing copious research.
So I'll go down through most of her major works, and see which still hold up and which are just stories to enjoy rather than for a scientifically-compelling mystery. I'll be skipping over some stories like Whose Body? and Five Red Herrings because they're very analogue murder methods, things like getting bashed with a blunt instrument. I'm focusing on the stuff that gets unusual. Going by release order:
*Unnatural Death: One of my favourite stories, but also one that comes under the most fire. In this story, there is a lot of obfuscation, since all the victims seem to die from natural causes. But ultimately, the murder method is an artifically-induced air embolism in a major artery which causes heart failure. While sort of plausible (and I remember a version of this being used in an early NCIS episode), using a syringe to produce this effect has been ruled out as impossible. But it must be noted that there are modern documented cases of accidental air embolisms causing cardiac issues, it's just her described method wouldn't work.
*Strong Poison: So...this one really genuinely doesn't hold up, just saying that right now. The victim falls fatally ill from arsenic poisoning after taking a meal in one house and coffee in another. The meal has surviving elements from all parts except a jam omelette, and the other eater wasn't ill. Turns out, that other diner was immunising himself with small arsenic doses so an otherwise fatal dose didn't matter, aka "mithridatism". This has been categorically proven as impossible, as even in small amounts arsenic would cause health complications over a length of time. While it can work with some toxins, with a heavy metal poison like arsenic, it's a bust.
*Documents in the Case: This is a novel I've already written about, and it was one Sayers co-wrote with Robert Eustace, who in real-life was a doctor. The key point in the story is the difference between natural and artificial muscarine in terms of their chemical structure. The polariscope had only been invented within the last couple of years of the novel's publication, and takes centre stage in a mystery that Sayers wanted to balance scientific advancement with her own theological background. I believe there has been some recent doubt cast on the viability here, but it's still one of the most scientifically sound out of the Lord Peter series.
*Have His Carcass: This is an aspect of the murder that does hold up. The victim's time of death combined with various alibis causes endless headaches. Turns out, in one of the first major fictional uses of this conceit, the victim is a sufferer from either moderate or severe haemophilia, which to greatly simplify is a hereditary condition which in this case means the blood can barely clot, which here is accompanied by other physical symptoms. This holds up, as here it seems like Sayers really did her research about symptoms, severity, and impact on long-term physical health.
*The Nine Tailors: This one is a little odd, because...technically it isn't the most outlandish. A man dies while trapped in a snow-choked belfry during a nine hour bell peal during the New Year. The very, very, very end of the book has Lord Peter realising that the bells are the murderers in a sense, after his own near-death experience with the cacophonous bell sounds. The issue here is that bell sounds alone wouldn't have done that, but the novel covers itself with the additional dialogue: "I don't know what of exactly. Stroke, apoplexy, shock, anything you like." I've had my own unintended experience being right next to a belfry when bells rang, and it does go through you, but I doubt I'd get much worse than tinnitus unless one of the bells actually hit me. If the bells did cause death in this book, it was by triggering off a pre-existing condition.
*Honourable Mentions: The short stories collected in Lord Peter Views the Body and Hangman's Holiday. Not all the more outlandish elements are specifically related to murder, but I thought they were worth mentioning. These include a Sheffield-plated corpse (which was almost a thing and got patented in the USA as part of the funeral industry, but thankfully never actually happened because of inevitable unsightliness of certain parts), a situs invertus twin with some rather unrealistic shenanigans attached, and a woman coming under a doctor's coercive control due to her hypothyroidism.
This was a lot of fun to go through. If you'd like some murder methods where real work was put in for them to work in style, timing and symptoms, then The Murderer's Lament is available for pre-order now in hardcover, and the ebook shall be released on September 29 alongside the hardcover. The paperback edition will be releasing in March 2027.
So...since The Murderer's Lament is releasing in under ten days on September 29, I choose to do something very silly. There's a website called TV Tropes, which lists pieces of fiction with their associated tropes. It's just funny, and I find browsing through it an occasional fun distraction. So I've decided to take TV Tropes by the scuff of the neck and see what tropes I can find that roughly correlate to the three published Cluster Cycle books (links to them here). Let's get started with the page "Queer as Tropes" and see what there is present with a little spoiling as possible.
*"Speculative Fiction LGBT": Obviously! It's sci-fi and literally thousands of lightyears from Earth. Our Victorian stuffiness has pretty much died the death apart from a few weird holdouts.
*"Non-Heteronormative Society": See above.
*"Family of Choice": Not exclusive to queer contexts, but "Lost Station Circé" definitely has a crew as found family. Including squabbles.
*"Preserve Your Gays": Yes, I proudly announce that while there is a lot of death in these books one way or another, the vast majority of the LGBTQIA+ characters featured survive to the end without undue injury or trauma. Not all, apologies, but the vast majority.
*"Manly Gay" and/or "Straight Gay": Multiple. It's a preference, I admit.
*"Bisexual Love Triangle": No spoilers, but it gets messy.
*"Word of Gay": Yes, one of the characters isn't explicitly gay, but I always thought of him as such. But maybe there is some hint there, I don't know.
*I must admit there is "Seme" and "Uke", with a dash of "Depraved Homosexual" for a truly despicable character in Starborn Vendetta.
Now for some of the more general sci-fi tropes. These are much broader, so I've needed to be selective. But also, a writer is never the best judge of what tropes are in their work because they're not usually very aware or what they're putting in. Also tropes are extremely flexible and some would argue not worth considering. But this is my article, so here goes!
*"Melting Pot Sci-fi Setting": The entire series is this, changing from the high society and elite to the scientific bodies to the average working class.
*"Fish People": Say hello to the Kavki! Although they're more amphibian.
*"Intelligent Gerbil": The Feles and Ekri, but it's incredibly insulting to insinuate the resemblance to their face.
*"Mechanical Lifeforms": Enjoy Livesey, a main character of Lost Station Circé.
*"Ultraterrestrials": Humans count as this, it's a running undercurrent within the pentalogy.
*"An Alien Named Bob": Us poor humans need something else to call our new alien colleagues.
*"Phlebotinum": This isn't hard sci-fi, despite wanting to be at least a little sound. There's gonna be a lot of this here and there.
*"Casual Interstellar Travel": Er...not too casual, but it's definitely a little handwaved. Warp travel. I needed to get characters places in days or weeks rather than centuries.
*"Klingons Love Shakespeare": Cross-cultural exchange happens.
*"Humans through Alien Eyes": Most of The Murderer's Lament is told from the perspective of either an Ekri or a Kavki, so humans are very much the aliens in most instances.
*"We Come In Pease - Shoot to Kill": The implied first contact issue that either kinda happened or almost happened in the Cluster's history.
*"Blue and Orange Morality": There are some plot points in both Starborn Vendetta and The Murderer's Lament focusing on this kind of cultural oddness. Humans included.
*"Animalistic Abomination": Yeah, read Lost Station Circé to find out more!
*"Space Isolation Horror": Again, see above.
*"The Virus": Maybe I should collab with Gareth Powell...
*"Alien Princess": You'll need to read Starborn Vendetta to get this one.
If you want some extra silliness related to the original date announcement, here's my video that I released that at the beginning of this month. It's gonna be a crazy time for me over the next two months. A book release, the next stage of my Open University degree, and...of course...BristolCon 2026. Enjoy!
Another month, another Author Talks episode. This time, I go on for roughly twenty minutes on the subject of the novelisation. After listening to a novelisation of a Paul Temple serial and becoming interested in how it both matched and deviated, I decided to actually dig into it. Here's to novelisations, perhaps the most underappreciated example of the literary art; turning the story of one medium into another.
Third year in a row I've done this. A celebration of the beautiful rainbow of human experience many historians stubbornly insisted didn't exist for some odd reason and they also need therapy. For the month of June, AKA Pride Month, I decided in 2024 to highlight different people during the month's thirty days. I first focused on a mixture of novellists both old and new, then last year on other artistic groups including composers and painters. Now, for my third year, I....couldn't. I couldn't actually get anything together for either historical figures (so tragic) or mythological beings (plenty but oh boy the work). If I were completely on top of things, I would have been doing this. But I've been severely ill, and now I'm literally one day away from publishing this as I write it, so instead I'm going to do something else. Since there are four Sundays in the month this time, I'm going to be publishing a post each month. These posts will be talking about my experiences as I moved into writing queer characters in my own work.
My writing as it stands is stuffed with queer representation. The Cluster Cycle has main characters that are somewhere on the spectrum, my radio play The Angry House has a male lead, and I've written other shorter pieces that feature them. I'm also bisexual in real life, and while I'm prone towards pessimism when it comes to society, I truly feel that we can push back against the absolute BS that's happening in the world right now. We can stop this, if we just stubbornly refuse to be classed as lesser.
The first Sunday of the coming month will also see the release of the second in this year's Author Talks podcast episodes, which means there will be two posts on 7 June. I'm hoping I'll be back on my feet before the end of next week, and that I'll be able to give you some extra bits and pieces through my socials. I might even have an update on my third much-delayed Cluster Cycle book, The Murderer's Lament.
But for now, here's some interesting people I found while drafting my intended list of people to show on my socials for each day of Pride Month.
The Chevalière d'Éon, a member of the French court who lived as a man for the first part of her life, then switched in both dress and gender identity to a woman for the rest of it. A spy, soldier, and successful diplomat who sadly fell foul of the French Revolution, their legacy lives on.
Zhou Wenren (or Zhou Wen or Zhou Ren), the Director of Palace Attendants during the reign of Emperor Jing of China's Han Dynasty. While the information we have is a little spotty and comes from a single source where Zhou Wenren is listed among "Male Favourites" of the Han court, it's recorded that Emperor Jing favoured Zhou Wenren above all other officials around him. And unlike many other imperial lovers, Zhou Wenren managed to live to a cushy retirement under Emperor Wu.
Michael Dillon, a Merchant Navy doctor and later Buddhist monk. While he is more commonly known as the first recorded trans man to undergo phalloplasty, his life is interesting beyond that. From his time in the Merchant Navy during WW2, to his life as a monk under the name Lobzang Jivaka, to his writing on both his own life and his experiences or Tibetan Buddhism, Dillon is a fascinating individual to research.
Philolaus of Corinth, a Corinthian lawmaker who lived during the 700 BCE. Lover of the chariot racer Diocles, the two left Corinth and settled in Thebes, staying together for the rest of their lives. Philolaus is attributed with creating laws in Thebes which allowed two adult men to remain together as a couple beyond the time when pederastic tradition insisted they parted. He can be seen as a proto-gay rights lawmaker, though we must remember the times he lived in.
Historical accounts today and in olden times are chronically underwritten when it comes to women of any kind, let alone those on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Doesn't help that many initial English translators for non-English sources lived during a time of (if possible) even greater discrimination and phobia. But I hope you can look these few up and get some interesting information about them.
So, here's to Pride Month, starting tomorrow. And may we reclaim and enshrine for good the rights that are being slowly stripped back from us by idiotic, short-sighted, and/or prejudiced politicians and lawmakers.
I know, I know, it isn't this huge thing. But this podcast I create, edit publish on YouTube and Spotify is something that has become an interesting exercise as much as a way for me to potentially help publicise myself or vent things. The podcast has changed over time from a complete unscripted flood of words to scripted episodes with more obvious production values.
The thing is, I don't have this series planned out that far by any stretch. Last year's set of eight episodes were pretty ambitious, and I was doing them alongside other real-life stuff including production of 'The Angry House', university work, and real life concerns. This year, university work still takes priority, my own writing work may or may not change course or shift, and I'm definitely heading to BristolCon after a year's needed break.
So until then, I hope you enjoy this playlist that I put together for the podcast. If nothing else, you can see how I went from stumbling first steps to smooth presentation. Find within short story readings, work samples, and general ramblings on a number of topics.
So, recently, I've been thinking about three writers whose personalities and actions are more than reprehensible. Yet they're also important in either the development or the popularisation of certain genre aspects. I don't want to mention them by name, because I feel they get too much exposure as it is. Instead, I'll be using initials taken from their names. It won't fool everyone, but it'll be a way for me to discuss the work without giving undue exposure. It is also a chance for me to talk about something that clicked with me recently; the fact that, long before either I or the general public knew about these authors' undesirable traits, I didn't click fully with their work.
Let's start with N. N is a writer who has an intriguing imagination, and for a time was something of a darling in their genre. Now...things have changed, rightly so. But while I was recommended this writer's work for a long time, the few titles I tried just didn't resonate. The novel "N" just never resonated with me on a basic level. A different novel "AG" was similarly odd, in that everyone praised it but I just didn't like it. I also tried a collaborative novel this writer created with someone else, and again I didn't jibe. A different piece of fiction, C, was interesting to experience once but not something I wanted to return to. To be blunt, there was a background to the writing that felt off. I can't describe it any other way without being more explicit about who the writer is.
Now let's move on the next author, K. K created a very popular series that I admit was one of my early reads, something that got me into long-form stories. I experienced the first few through audiobooks with a narration that was incredible. Then I read the remaining parts of the series myself. I won't deny, it was a fun ride, and it's become apocalyptically popular. But the more I went on, the more I realised that early love for it was rooted more in the narrator's performance in the audiobook than the books themselves. Something about the writing just didn't resonate. Were they a factor in my early reading journey? Yes. Would I read K's work again? No, before I fully realised what kind of person K was, I had tried other pieces of fiction they had created, and it didn't resonate. It just seemed so...pedestrian. There wasn't a spark, a feeling of "this writing has depth".
Next and finally we reach L. L is something of a genre codifier for certain aspects of horror (yes, I'm partly spoiling here, but this one's also the oldest author and long dead). This writer had...issues. A lot of issues. Many of them extreme by the standards of their time, let alone ours. And before I knew about them, when I first encountered their writing in an abridged and somewhat sanitised form, I thought "Well I like the ideas, but this writer desperately needed a copyeditor because this prose is all over the place." As I got access to their uncensored work, and better understood where the otherwise compelling content came from, I realised that many of the aspects that are beloved are tied to that writer's now-unacceptable opinions and prejudices.
Now, because I've been comparatively oblique when talking about these writers, you may think I'm ashamed to have had them in my reading life. And that's not true. They were steps in my reading and writing journey for one reason or another, be it a style I didn't jibe with or a motivator to raise my reading ability after many long years of it being subpar due to my dyslexia.
With hindsight (title drop), I see that my instinctive initial feelings about all these writers was perhaps reflective of what they were like as people, and how they very much do not align with my beliefs. It's a strange kind of "I wondered why so-and-so didn't linger or click with me". I've had other similar reactions to certain actors, certain films, certain games. Just an instinctive repulsion. With hindsight, I can say to myself "oh yeah, so and so wasn't a nice person" or "yeah, that figures, the one who wrote this was horrible actually". But that leads to the dangerous habit of claiming foreknowledge or greater media literacy than you actually have.
This is just one person's tale of how, long before I or other people knew of the nasty deeds or opinions associated with these writers, I read their work. And on some deep level I couldn't then explain or understand, it didn't jibe.
A few days late, but I think it still counts. Last year was...so much. Much more than I had anticipated or intended, and there were things that happened which I needed to...basically...reorient myself to get done. Things were stressful, but things were also interesting and great.
*Handling my personal space: Due to how the world has been trying to destory itself--or rather certain current leaders of nations who should know better or should be committed are trying to destroy everyone else--I've needed to take stock of myself. As someone who spent most of their life in a time of relative peace, recent world events have forced me to adopt a more...stoic attitude. And also an attitude where, for the sake of my mental health, I actively adjust my social feeds to exclude the names of certain persons. I still check the news, but now my face isn't being virtually shoved into it.
*The Angry House actually released: This is what turned this year from the planned complete rest and calm into something of a new experience. The Angry House, an audio drama I wrote based on a short story, won an award in script form and got produced. It's now out in the world, available, and I hope it's been a help to Chris Gregory's Alternative Stories, where it made its debut on their Spex Fic Radio Theatre program. I don't know if there will be any long term stuff that emerges from this, but I know it was a great time and I met some people I'm glad to have met in person and gotten to see in action.
*My family and personal live have been slowly but surely shifting. Some things happend last year that were positive like sorting out some aspect of our living conditions for the long term, others that were less so such as the older of our two dogs passing away. On the whole, I think this year has been one where I've become more sure of myself as a person and as a creator. As I work towards a university degree, an official qualification that will help make me more employable (not guaranteed, but a lot better than nothing), I've also been getting some new mental space unlocked in my head and overcoming some very long-standing hangups regarding aspects of my mental makeup. Not all the way there, but I'm a good chunk.
*I've been expanding my online presence: through YouTube and my revamped Social Media presence, I've been trying to make myself more...available. More...there. More...out there. In this modern world, especially with the cesspool that some parts are becoming, creating a comfortable and personable presence has become very important. So I've got my YouTube channel growing slowly but surely. And my latest project as a gamer and story enjoyer, I've started an edited commentary-style playthough of the Mass Effect trilogy. Lots of shenanigans and thoughts on something that I like, but I won't say hasn't got problems.
So, here's to 2026. Hopefully it's a less horrible year all around. Hopefully I'll have more updates on The Cluster Cycle because my publisher is going through a lot, like everyone sane in the United States right now. And unlike last year, I've booked into this year's BristolCon event. I'll almost certainly have more Author Talks episodes, and I'll hopefully have more fiction and posts and general shenanigans that will keep you informed and entertained.
And so, ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, until next time...see ya.
So...this happened a while ago. Other stuff was going on at the same time, specifically the recent release of The Angry House. But here is something I created not long ago. My look at the development history and timeline for one of my favourite fictional worlds: the land of Ivalice, from the Final Fantasy franchise. Hope you enjoy!
I've got an...odd relationship with how I came to trying out the science fiction works of Polish author Stanislaw Lem. I first became aware of Solaris, principally its two most notable film adaptations from 1972 (Russian, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky) and 2002 (American, directed by Steven Soderbergh). I didn't really get the story through these adaptations. I then found out about a video game called The Invincible, which was apparently an adaptation of Lem's novel of the same name. Having gone through it and now reading the book, it's more of a prequel but the ideas seemed fun. It wasn't until I heard some of an audiobook reading that featured a new translation directly from the Polish that I got it. Then when I learned that The Invincible had a translation by the same person (Bill Johnston), I decided to keep an eye out for it. And eventually, I got a copy.
The premise of The Invincible is fairly simple. The titular ship is sent to investigate the fate of its sibling ship Condor on Regis III, a planet with land dominated by ice and deserts while the ocean is teaming with life. As the crew land and investigate, they find increasingly disturbing signs of something existing on the planet that not only doomed the Condor, but has destroyed all life on land. The unfolding story, told principally through the perspective of the Invincible's navigator Rohan, is by turns fascinating and terrifying.
Fair warning for anyone going into this; The Invincible is HARD science fiction. It likes to explain itself, and grounds itself within the probable. It's also written from a collectivist cultural perspective that is noticeably different from other notable sci-fi works from the time. While Rohan emerges as the 'lead', the omniscient narration focuses far more on the crew as a body. It's also in an older style of writing where you get vast blocks of text and run-on sentences that detail events and paint scenes. That's not to say there aren't many effective moments; exploring the Condor, discovering an unknown structure, the deployment of a large automated weapon, and Rohan's final exploration beyond the ship. It is also a book of its time in that there are no women on board. At all. Zip. Nil. Nada.
Part of the reason I went for this edition and this translator specifically is that his translation of Solaris is really good, and his work shows here too. Johnston worked on the translation in collaboration with Lem's family, and it is the first direct-from-Polish translation as previous versions were translated via German. From my limited experience with Sapkowski's Witcher series, Polish is a tricky language to translate from; while the first two Witcher titles from one translator were eminently readable, all the rest from another are extremely clunky and put me off the entire series. If the Solaris translation had been similarly clunky, I'd have avoided The Invincible. But it isn't.Both Solaris and The Invincible have really good translations that make what are very technically dense books into engaging reads.
Lem's work isn't easily digested or adapted, because he approaches familiar sci-fi concepts (facing the unknown, the limits of humanity) from an unfamiliar angle. I now see why the adaptations of his work don't land; they all miss a key point. The height of human rationalism can appear childish before something that refuses to conform to our anthropomorphic view of reality. But UNLIKE a lot of modern fiction that takes this approach and adds soap opera levels of stupidity and drama, Lem continues to tackle the issue with cold rationalism. The mystery of Regis III is a subject of horror, but also a thought experiment where the participants of the book approach it with rationality and caution, all while their limited view of the world is violently challenged.
This book, specifically this version of the book, is a must-read for any sci-fi fan. Yes, it's of its time in characters and aspects of its representation, and some paragraphs are a slog to get through. But otherwise it's a brilliant exploration of human contact with something truly alien.
It's all in the name. Today is when the eighth and final episode of this year's season of Author Talks releases. It's been a long year for me, and hopefully I'll be able to create something more next year. Also, stuff's been happening, and I go into a rough outline of that in this episode alongside something that just...caught my attention about a certain metal-faced person from a certain French adventure novel. I hope you enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas/Yule/Holiday.
I've been chronicling the progress and development process of The Angry House, a horror audio drama produced by Alternative Stories. I've already talked the OG awards, and a long behind-the-scenes where I detail the cast and recording progress as a log. Now, the climax.
The next major stage of things was selecting which of the many takes would (provisionally at least) form part of the final cut. I was more than prepared for some heated debate over which take was better or worse, and listened to each and made notes on advice from Chris Gregory. I had to bear in mind that these were the raw audio from Studio Orpheus, without sound re-balancing or positional changes or effects or anything. I had to pick from a number of bits and pieces, and sometimes there were sections of a take that didn't quite fit with the rest, so (as previously outlined) there were some bits of takes that sounded better overall and could be spliced into the whole.
When it came time for us to actually decide, I had listened through the lot and I was prepared for some measure of combat. As it turned out, only one of the takes had any kind of contention around its suitability, but Chris decided to go with my option as a working basis and see how it meshed with the rest of things as a whole. His choice...seemed off to me, which was the best metric I could give for many things. That it was 'right' or was 'off' when it came to both the emotional resonance and the flow from one scene to the next. As to the other takes, we were in united agreement over which whole takes to use, and which bits to splice in where needed.
I also learned something interesting about my writing while talking with Chris. If you read the dialogue just bald, without actors or characterisation or atmosphere, it can seem quite shallow. But because of the scenarios I've created, because of who the characters are in the context of the story, they're actually quite deep and challenging. One bit in particular, where the actor for lead character Harry Wells, Charlie Richards, had a long sentence that needed to be said quickly and with emotion after flipping immediately from a barely-controlled calm. We needed SIX TAKES to get anywhere near right. That kind of thing, a scene turning on a dime more than once, or character interactions that make things so powerful, are the place where my lines were challenging for the actors. And engaging, I hope and believe. They certainly seemed to be having a great time.
The next stage was listening to the final assembly to make sure the takes that we agreed upon were. And when you're listening back with cleaned-up audio and some added directionality, it really adds something. It wasn't the final product, but it was quite a thing. Helped by the fact that part of why I was listening through was not only to judge the takes, but to find any issues. And...there were a couple. But I'm not calling out anyone, these will happen to the most highfalutin production houses and Chris Gregory is a very busy man. It's just...don't go in expecting perfect and then getting mad about it. It doesn't help anyone and only causes problems further down the line.
To quote Chris Gregory following my initial feedback: "Well this went well!" Agreed, and relatable.
But when the final edit came in...oh boy. I think it's enough of a compliment to say that after the initial check of the redone end-to-end reel, I listen again and...just forget I was listening to an in-progress thing. The scenes flowed together well, and it just sounded like a radio play you'd hear on BBC Radio 4 or 4Extra.
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The Angry House is set for release during December 2025 on these podcast platforms; Spec Fic Radio Theatre, Alternative Stories and Fake Realities, and Pen to Print Write On! Audio.
Enjoy a Christmas time spook fest. Are you prepared to join our characters in entering 'The Angry House'?"
At the invitation of Alternative Stories's Chris Gregory, I've created this behind-the-scenes article-come-production diary for 'The Angry House', an audio play in the horror genre that I wrote for the Pen to Print Awards. You've got the opening section of this story from several months ago, when The Angry House won their Audio Play Competition, with the most significant part of the award being that the play would be produced by Alternative Stories, an audio production company that you may know for Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy project. I was sort of acting as an assistant for Chris, as well as having input as the original play's writer. I initially thought "eh, split into two articles", then I decided "nah, do a longer article after it's been recorded". That recording date was Monday 20th October 2025.
One thing that I was expecting, but turned out to be both more or less harrowing overall, was the edits that came after the script won the award. Just because it won doesn't mean it was perfect. For one thing, because of the script's inspirations in late 19th to early 20th Century pieces, I needed to update the language to be less formal and--by modern standards--stilted. After that came scheduling meetings, and after that a full hour and a half dedicated to just going through the script with Chris, reading through it, checking for anything I'd missed on a first pass, trimming out some bits that were maybe a bit too 90s. Because the play is set in 1999.
After that, there was the casting, and on my end that included listening to reels as they came in and once everyone had auditioned who would audition, it was time to make the choice. Two of the actors were the only ones to audition for those parts, and thank goodness because they were very good for those roles. The other two were a choice between four or five a piece, and it was a bit of a process narrowing it down to the final choice. We only needed four actors for the roles, as I'd deliberately wrote it to be a small cast, and I was able to get two of the actors to double up roles.
Then, on this last Monday, there was the table read. For those who've seen behind-the-scenes stuff from television or film productions, a table read is basically a run-through of the script so people can get a feel for it. In this case, it was a virtual table-read with some scenes done out of order to accommodate for one member of cast that needed to head off in a hurry. It was also a little longer than expected, as I had added some extra bits at Chris's suggestion for one of the cast members who initially had just one scene. Oh yes, the cast. What a cast it is, all Alternative Studios alumni and with notable CVs in their own right. The recordings well done by the time this goes up so I don't think it should be a bother to reveal them. The cast is;
*Charlie Richards as Harry Wells -- An actor who among other things worked on Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy as Ren Dex, and also appeared in a recent production of The Play That Goes Wrong.
*Marie-Claire Wood as Agnes Wells -- An actor with range, with credits across multiple Alternative Story productions, feature films, television and classical theatre.
*David Monteith as Gerald Fairly -- A voice and mo-cap actor who has done extensive voice-over work across podcast, films and video games. To some he is Minister Rizet from Emily Inkpen's Wasteland, to others Neueirus from Metaphor re Fantazio or a number of voices in Baldur's Gate 3.
*Sarah Golding as Samantha Gregory -- Creator of Quirky Voices, a versatile actress with too many credits to roll off. Just...so many.
The table read went surprisingly well, and it was still a little odd hearing my words out loud from someone's lips other than mine. Or with the cast of actors I've got as simulacra in my head to bring them to life. I was braced for rough reads, fumbles, awkward moments. There weren't many, just a couple of edits that needed to be made; one based on a suggestion, and one that was a genuine mistake. There was also the question of accent, which was mostly RP (received pronunciation), but there was one Devon accent needed and some question about the kind of RP to be used. I also had to account for the fact that the actors were doing it virtually over a Zoom meetings call, so...not ideal. It wasn't a studio environment with specially-designed microphones and a sound-proof space. There were also a couple of casual interactions that were just funny and broke the ice a bit.
With that cast, and joined by the production crew including Chris and myself, we gathered together at Orpheus Studios in London. After, of course, slightly losing my way. Cities always do that, it's always one door further back or further on than I think it must be. The rest of this article is more in the line of a journal or diary. So...enjoy.
(The events of the day during recording start at time codes.)
Cast and Crew at Tea
10:30-ish; At the studio. At this moment, the actors are warming up. The likes of "pepperoni macaroni" and lip burbles are emanating from the green room. I struggle not to burst into unseemly fits of laughter. The sound engineer Richard Campbell is setting up, and the studio is preparing to enter into the realm of "oh help I'm really going to be listening to my dialogue being recorded". The set-up is a large soundproof room with four mics and two booths. The first scene recorded is Scene 3, with Charlie and David. Marie-Claire is a little late, due to other commitments. Edits were required due to some issues related to repetition of some phrases or some odd wording.
11:02: Marie-Claire has manifested during the second take. The takes are going quite well so far, with some adjustments and talk with the actors to get the right tone for scenes. After a time between scenes where we chatted in the green room, we dived into the first scene. Some stumbles, but otherwise some good chemistry appearing to help get the scene on point with the different character interactions. Always important. Golding also doubled-up the voice of another bit part, which was a huge help. After the scene was completed, we completed some isolated parts for a smaller part that book-ended some scenes. Genuinely moving.
12:15: The beginning of another session with lots of stuff. A scene with a lot of dialogue, including some bits of humour that I was afraid would sound better on the page. Turns out, they sound great. It sounds strange in a way, without the sound effects or anything else, but there is a feeling of it coming together. Also, some questions about pronunciations. And then....LUNCH! (or rather, lunch, which wasn't that great in my case, because eating out for me is like spinning a semi-rigged roulette wheel)
Sound engineer Richard "Orpheus" Campbell. Image courtesy of Chris Gregory, Alternative Stories.
14:11: Back onto scene recording, an emotional scene now and struggling to keep my head straight after the phenomenon of lunch. This one needed some more fine tuning for the script, specifically some word choices so that the actors could have the dialogue flow better. This bit is really showing how much smaller inflections and additions from the actors can make the scene fully come alive. Also the scene in particular is a pretty pivotal and emotional one, so we needed to do an extra take to get as much of it down as possible. And then David had to do some extra bits for a smaller part.
15:24: Next was a very long two-hander between Sarah and Charlie. It's a long and narratively-important scene, and also one with some pretty intense content. Sarah is a great actress, and Charlie was coping very well with a pretty chunky sequence. And yet more pronunciation. Also some small adjustments needed, one in particular at Charlie's suggestion. It's the one that went the best at the table read last Monday, so as expected this went fairly smoothly.
16:24: After a tea break once the scene was completed, we headed into another scene that was a three-hander. It seemed to go fine overall, although the names of some of the characters did somehow derail a performance or two--plus the banter--into the cursed realm of She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named-Ever-More. Overall, it's been going well. Only two scenes left to go; the two final ones obviously.
16:44: The penultimate scene, which has a prolonged period of one person both narrating a scene and being part of it, and this one went so incredibly smoothly. The only one that didn't need three takes, only two. And this was the one scene at the table read we didn't have the time and facilities to go through in full. Moving forward, we hit the final scene, where all the actors came together to perform in one crescendo. We were all feeling a little tired and quite relieved. I got the chance to set the opening fear factor of the scene (on a scale of 1 to 10, a solid 6). The first run went well, although there was some adjustment to tone and wording needed. That seems to be the running theme. Once the big scene was completed, and a b-roll for the final section was recorded, we moved onto Charlie's final narration. He got it first take essentially, but we took a second for the sake of safety.
Recording wrapped up bang on 17:30.
There was of course a nice post-wrapping meet-up at a local pub, where I spent some time with them hearing stories and enjoying the vibes, but I'm not usually someone who stays out late. And I needed food. So I regretfully bowed out, but not because I didn't want to stick around despite being with this small collection of people since around 10 AM that day. It's no exaggeration to say I loved my time during this recording, working with these actors, and I look forward to both the rest of the production cycle, and potentially working with these cast and crew on something again. If the opportunity ever arises.
Lessons I've learned during this session that I shall take forward.
*I have an ear for general mood, but Chris beats me hands down when it comes to particular inflections and line-to-line needs.
*I have a knack of creating complicated sentences and long stretches of dialogue that can easily trip actors up, but that they also love getting used to.
*I must prepare to clarify pronunciations for words that I might think "Really? That needed clarification?"
*Editing on the fly is a necessity up to even this stage when everything's recorded.
*Adlibs aren't dead, and in fact can and will pop up in unexpected places to often enlivening effect.
*Actors in the green room and the pub, and the recording box, have a filthy sense of humour. More please.
*It's never one and done, even if the first take was so good it might as well be. A second is always taken. Sometimes it can run to 4+, or bits of a scene may be re-recorded in isolation.
*Having visited London three times in ten months for various reason, I'm decided: I don't like London that much compared to Oxford or Bristol. I just don't vibe with it.
*I really love being part of a diverse group of people, be that based on ethnicity, background or sexuality.
Thanks to everyone. And here's to the next phase, for all of us.
Cast and writer after recording; 17:40, 20 October 2025, Orpheus Studio in London. From left to right; Sarah Golding, David Monteith, Thomas Wrightson (me), Charlie Richards, Marie-Claire Wood. Image courtesy of Chris Gregory, Alternative Stories.
This is gonna be a short, sharp, sweet post. Next week will be a long and involved post on the production to date of my audio play 'The Angry House'. So this week, I'm posting a little early today (as I need to travel down) with some stuff that may tide readers over if they would like to read until next week, when stuff will really be happening.
Another month, another episode of my podcast. Or rather, a new episode, and a video that came about in--no joke--less than a week.
First, after much research and slight hair-tearing, an episode on the origins and modern version of Sinbad. I go into the character's origins, the whole issue of being bundled in with the Thousand and One Nights, some prominent portrayals in the 20th Century and how they compare to the original tales, and why Sinbad as we know him is anything but the original that entertained audiences since the 14th Century.
Second, a video that I published on Friday. In it, I take a retrospective look at a Final Fantasy project that's close to my heart ans one of my early inspirations. My very first Final Fantasy game experience at that: Fabula Nova Crystallis. I look at its representative titles, how the notorious mythos was supposed to work, and generally do the rounds of analysis and nostalgic but not rose-tinted retrospection.
Fun fact, this was going to be a blog post, then I realised it would make a good episode of Author Talks, and decided to combine it with a short story reading. Specifically a reading of "The Cleaner" (with some on-the-fly amendments for grammar and flow). Otherwise, enjoy this episode which also features updates, and my experience with how video game music helps me write.
Note: This is the script for a video which you will find at the bottom of the post. Hope you enjoy one or the other, or both.
Bionicle has been on my mind recently. Why? Well, not just because of the Lego group recently cancelling a fan-made video game project dubbed Masks of Power after eight years of tacit acquiescence. It’s because Bionicle was a formative part of why I became what I am; an author, trying to get into the market alongside all the other things I’m doing. Including living a ‘normal’ life.
I first encountered Bionicle in 2003 through the Lego Catalogue, where I was absolutely terrified by the Rahkshi. I ended up getting my first set in 2004. I forget whether it was one of the Vahki, or the Toa set for Nuju. Either way, I got submerged into the world of Bionicle. I was already into Lego, through things like Alpha Team and the various more generic Lego bits we had at home. But Bionicle was different, and I found it had a story which pulled me in hard. Even after I stopped getting sets in 2007, I still followed the story until its original finale in 2010. And I bought the movies. All four of them. For better, and in the last case...for worse.
The Bionicle fan community is, I believe, unique within Lego’s corpus. It’s going strong to this very day, and the Bionicle Media Project is continuing its dedicated work preserving what might otherwise become lost media. This includes comics, books, web games, video commercials, even restoring some long-lost cancelled projects.
So, how can I best show my own love for this series, as Bionicle is on a lot of people’s minds at the moment? Well, I guess I could talk about the movies that helped me love this series, as the original trilogy remains some of my favourite set of films, even after twenty years. Even after everything else I’ve watched. I’ve absorbed countless pieces of other media, including the more dubious video game titles, but the movies are some of the most easily accessible. I’ve got the DVDs still, so I might as well go back and look over each of them. And find out why I still like them, even though they’re technically aimed at...a far younger audience than I.
Bionicle: The Mask of Light from 2003 tells...half of the story of that year’s released sets. There is a lot of extra stuff that isn’t covered, and while you can follow along, there are some casual details in dialogue that non-fans won’t get. I don’t think it’s an issue in this case. Also fun fact, I first watched this film in 2004, so when I heard the village leaders or Turaga being referred to using the names of the Metru Nui Toa, I...think my brain had a minor freeze. Because... Wait, what, Vakama? Nokama?! What’s going on, what happened!?
Partly due to how much it cuts, and party due to its intended audience, I’ve got to say it isn’t the best piece of Bionicle media in my opinion. A lot of my feelings of good towards it are rooted in nostalgia from when I first watched it. I had literally never seen anything like it; the corruptive Rahkshi, the scheming Makuta, the odd couple dynamic of Jalla and Takua, the internal conflicts of the Toa. All fairly standard, but delivered with real confidence. But that’s not to say there isn’t worth here outside of nostalgia.
I think one of the best plot threads in this movie is with the Fire Toa Tahu. He is painted as powerful, but arrogant and stubborn. When he is poisoned by one of the Rahkshi, slowly falling to its corruption, it forces the Toa to come together regardless of any differences they might have had before, especially Gali, Toa of Water. It shows the theme of unity which is present in...pretty much every piece of this series’ media. There is also Takua’s slow acceptance of his role as the titular mask’s herald, and it has a climax which is genuinely moving even if it dances around some heavier stuff.
And as for the production value? It’s really good for a first time, although it really shows its age in some of its composition and overall quality. This is a movie made with love. The animation feels solid, connected, you can believe the different characters are interacting with each other even if it’s entirely CGI. And Nathan Furst’s musical score ties it together beautifully. It may be a synthesised orchestra, but boy does it have some oomph.
So the first movie isn’t the best. It’s probably the weakest of the original trilogy. But it’s also got the heart and soul which would stand this universe in good stead going forward. And it shows what the original trilogy would do best; nice characters, great animation, and peak atmosphere.
Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui, released in 2004, is a prequel to the original that follows six Matoran as they are chosen to inherit the mantle of Toa and defend their city from an insidious conspiracy that sees them branded as criminals. Honestly, the story has aged too well for its own good in these times. A state police that oppresses more than it aids, secretive operatives who disappear people, a charismatic leader few seem able to overcome.
I’m not sure I enjoyed it as much as I do now partly because its themes weren’t as relevant to me back in 2004 compared to 2025. Also the characters’ struggles didn’t hit me as much as they do now. The story is all about rivalry, self-doubt, discovering yourself separate from other people’s expectations. Due to these, and the overarching theme of a city being overtaken by an unseen shadow, the tone is a lot darker than the previous film. There’s also a greater sense of kinetic flow, with more movement and action, which really brings characters to life.
Something that I fear must be mentioned is that is feels as if Bionicle 2 some parts either weren’t adjusted for rewrites, or some bits were cut. There were some cut moments from the first movie too, but here it feels more obvious. It suffers from the same issue as Mask of Light, in that it cuts about a third of the 2004 storyline, a whole initial threat from a sentient plant called the Morbuzakh. There’s also some clear asset reuse with a few characters that really breaks the flow.
But that doesn’t make this a weak movie. In fact, I think it’s my favourite out of the original trilogy today. My favourite part of it is Vakama’s struggle with self-belief, needing to mostly rely on his wits rather than his Toa powers to get himself and his fellows out of trouble. He really comes across as someone who had a role thrust on him, feels he should follow a set pattern, and isn’t doing very well. The performances really sell each of the characters, to the point that the voice work feels better than the first, even if it’s on a similar level. Similarly improved is the animation and overall production, and Furst once again delivers an entertaining musical score.
All of this comes together to make Bionicle 2 a fascinating entry, if a slightly uneven one. It’s my favourite out of the original trilogy, and features some real strides forward in terms of characters and plot. If it had been given more time, had a little more content, it could well be considered a classic outside the fandom. Honestly it feels like this entire trilogy is in a battle between runtime and content.
2005’s Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows, while a sequel in name, is technically an interqual, taking place during the last few events of Bionicle 2. I’m not sure what I expected initially going into this, but I knew the story would be darker. That was the whole marketing behind this year, we were going into dark and edgy territory. The quest of the Toa Metru to retrieve the Matoran, only to be mutated into half-beast forms by the occupying Visorak army, is still surprisingly compelling.
For one thing, the overarching atmosphere really carries the increased personal stakes, and given the age range this was being aimed at, its themes of struggling with personal growth and feeling foreign in your own skin are quite pertinent. Even more so if the viewer were grappling with something like gender identity. This was the first time I felt real stakes, and also the first time that sudden death was so openly and bluntly portrayed. It also feels the most complete out of the trilogy, like very little if anything had to be cut before release.
There is a slight artificiality with how Vakama has gone from anxious to arrogant, but it’s not too much of a leap that I don’t buy it entirely. The rest of the character dynamics are retained, and it fits the overall theme. And whatever anyone else says, Roodaka is one of the most intimidating villains in the series, and probably helped establish some of my tastes with villainy in general. Secretive, manipulative, apparently soft, but fully capable of destruction when provoked.
As to the production, I think the animation is the best of the movies so far, there’s real weight to things. And while the musical score isn’t as strong as its two predecessors, the voice work has absolutely taken a step up yet again. Alessandro Juliani is almost literally slaying as Vakama, and Kathleen Barr helping make Roodaka even more intimidating than she already is.
I’m not sure I’d consider Web of Shadows my favourite today, but it certainly was way back when. Maybe because the themes resonated more. And it’s still a great gateway into Bionicle along with the other two movies. It’s got maybe the best story out of the three, strong production, stellar performances, and it also closes out the movie trilogy’s story in a satisfying way. If you only watched the movies, you would get a complete story.
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Bionicle: The Legend Reborn adapts the 2009 storyline—sort of—and acts as an attempted soft reboot of the series. Different studio, different cast, different world. I wish I could say I got this footage from my own DVD copy, but I got rid of that ages ago as I held no value for it, so the footage here is taken from the Bionicle Media Project. Mostly because...oh boy.
The story follows Mata Nui incarnated as a Toa-like being, arriving on the world of Bara Magna and becoming entangled in both a search to reclaim his people from his arch enemy, and an ongoing conflict between surviving pockets of civilisation on the desolate planet.
I’m sorry to say it all feels very....meh. It’s not that the story is terrible, but how it’s delivered in the movie feels borderline bowdlerised. The 2009 comics portray a brutal world beset by gladiatorial conflicts over resources, an entire tribe who regressed to an animalistic state, outlaws who prey on travellers. It’s not a happy place, and the background lore reflects that. But you wouldn’t know it from the movie. It feels very kiddy, and not in a good way. And many of the characters’ personalities bear little resemblance to how they appear in other media, or are reduced to bit-players when they had a sizeable presence in Mata Nui’s journey.
Another huge issue is the casting. The original trilogy used a cast from across the Commonwealth—Canadian, Australian, British—and most if not all of the cast had a background in theatre as well as voiceover. It leant a distinct tone to the movies. For The Legend Reborn, the cast uses more mainstream American voices for many parts, including Lieutenant Worf himself Michael Dorn as Mata Nui. And I’m sorry to say this, I think Dorn was hideously miscast. I just can’t take him or most of the rest of the cast seriously. That, combined with animation that feels disconnected from itself across any scene with character interplay, and an extremely subpar musical score that I’m only using in this video under protest, conspire to rob this movie of any atmosphere of mysticism and otherness the main trilogy had in spades.
It doesn’t help this film was intended as the first of a trilogy following the soft reboot storyline, except the line ended in 2010. They did wrap up the story through other media, but this movie ends the original continuity’s cinematic legacy on one of the most pathetic whimpers imaginable.
Oh yes, and a quite touch upon the 2016 creation. Bionicle underwent a reboot in the mid-2010s, and...it didn’t sell. It was retired after less than two years. Lego seems to have tried recapturing the spirit of the original with an animated series released on Netflix, titled Bionicle: The Journey to One. But it suffers from the same issues as The Legend Reborn, only worse. And...oh boy, I was not feeling the story in the slightest. I just cannot recommend.
Image source: CGI commercial for the 2003 Bionicle video game
A last point to talk of is how the films adapted the Lego figures themselves. There are whole documentary pieces from the development teams on how they turned these figures into CGI characters. I don’t envy the production crews the task of translating the designs between two wildly different mediums.
Technically The Legend Reborn is the most faithful to the sets, practically recreating them part for part while giving them greater movement. The irony is that this faithfulness turns them from actual characters into...toys. The original trilogy took creative license with the models to give them distinct body types, strong facial expressions, even elements such as hair and cloth analogues. It leant each of the models a realness.
And the 2016 series just look like a weird hybrid between static models and free-flow, with zero creative license.
Bionicle is a great story, a decade-long saga of unity, duty, and destiny. Of hope, despair, and perseverance. Of searching, sacrifice, and solidarity. And even if they’re not perfect, the original trilogy captures that atmosphere to a tee. It’s a shame the fourth movie is such an outlier and more an archival curiosity than anything recommendable, and that the reboot television series falls so flat. That still leaves you with three movies of a descent length that will be a fun watch.
I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the production crew, actors and many others who got the original trilogy to happen. They created something truly special. And I think the last word belongs Vakama.
New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered. This is the way of the Bionicle.
"Nobody's perfect." It's a very common phrase. It's a joke, an excuse, a trope and a cliché. But it's also an unfortunate, literal fact. Personally, I dislike perfection. I think of it only as an unobtainable abstract. Leaders creating a "perfect" society, creatives striving for that "perfect" project, people trying to lead "perfect" lives. Aiming for perfection is an easy recipe for inferiority complexes.
At the same time, maybe try not to make colossal mistakes which undermine what you're trying to do. Let's start this off with what triggered these thoughts. The use of the word "female" as a noun. It's actively insulting, especially today, and it makes reading some pieces of fiction more difficult unless you put in a metric tone of cultural relativism or some hefty world-building that explains why they aren't using some other noun to describe an entire gender. This is present in Mass Effect because obviously 'woman' can't be applied to non-human non-male members of a society, right? Except when the writers slip and do use that, and wouldn't translation devices approximate for humans so that genders would be described using their own words--and I'll save this for November.
The mainspring is that Emily Inkpen made a point about men who use "female" as a noun. I assume in their everyday speech and writing. She, with impressive restraint, told them to get off her feed and unfollow her as she didn't have the time. I thoroughly understand, using "female" as a noun is just insulting. But then, a penny dropped. I have read some older literature, and as was raised during a recent discussion for an in-progress project related to this event here, I let some of my archaic inspiration leak into how the characters were talking. And I checked: had I used "female" as a noun? And...well, the results were slightly mixed. More usually I realised I'd been using the word "female" as an adjective, but sometimes it did seemingly slip. I haven't checked to see whether I was doing it to help characterise the person in the writing, but regardless the point stands.
For those who don't get what I've been going on about, let me define noun and adjective as simply as I can, as I'm by no means an expert in the technical side of language. A noun is a word used to refer to something, that being an object or a named person or a location in a sentence. So "noun went to noun" or "have you seen noun". There is the further distinction between common and proper nouns. For proper nouns, think of all the esoteric terminology in fantasy and sci-fi. Meanwhile, an adjective is a word which defines a noun, so "an adjective noun" or "out with that adjective noun", or even "noun, adjective, did this three times".
This was something else Emily Inkpen brought up on a reply through one of her socials, where she was pretty angry at the people trying to defend the use of "female" as a noun, probably without realising that the examples being used were technically "female" being used as an adjective. As in "a female voice", or a "female creature". In the Cluster Cycle, I was faced with the unenviable task of creating three other distinctly not-human species for humans to interact with, and I didn't want to use the terms "man" and "woman" to refer to their traditional genders. Mostly because to me, those words are strongly linked with the word "human".
Now, to deliberately use "female" as a noun is insulting and degrading. One might use it in a character's dialogue to signal as such. One shouldn't use it willy-nilly in their own speech, or their prose description, or whatever else. So when I came across those points, I felt more than a little embarrassed. I'll have to be extra careful going forward, because I know I might end up slipping again. I might write something unintentionally insulting and belittling. And today, with many people on a hair trigger, I need to be more aware of that.
I can take a small comfort in the fact that when double-checking, I found that I generally used both "male" and "female" as adjectives, which seems acceptable. I don't know if there's been any update on that, because not only are cultural taboos changing at lightspeed these days, but English is an inherently difficult language because it's both extremely gendered and gender-neutral enough that it causes problems. It's not like French, German, Japanese, Chinese, and dozens of other languages where gender is baked into words and grammar.
All I can do is remember that before it became an excuse and a cliché, the phrase "Nobody's perfect" had a real meaning. And while I can't be perfect, I can try not to be an insensitive author.
So, on Thursday 24 July 2025, I attended my very first awards ceremony; the Pen to Print Awards 2025. It took place in the Learning Centre in Barking, a town on the outskirts of London. And I had enough fun there that I feel the need to dedicate this week's blogpost to it. I'll recall as much as I can, but apologies if I forget some names.
A small introduction may be warranted. Pen to Print is a publicly-funded initiative which effectively sponsors writers and creatives who are residents of the UK. Their goal is to foster and expose new talent, be that in poetry or prose, accepting fiction and opinion pieces for their magazine, and of course hosting their awards for competitions they run. They have been going for close to a decade at this point, and their awards are varied and offer genuine exposure. The full list of winners and runners-up can be found here on Pen to Print's Instagram. This post is more of an emotive impression from an audience member.
The event that I attended on Thursday took place in a medium-sized conference room on the building's second floor, and while it was very hot, it was nice meeting fellow writers and publishers, and talking shop about aspects of publishing and writing. I was sure it would be an enjoyable evening regardless of what happened regarding me personally. At 7 PM, the ceremony started, with an opening speech from the main organizer Lena Smith, and from the sitting mayor of Barking and Daganham, Princess Bright. The first event was a special "Staff Writing/Poetry Award" as the organizers of the event weren't allowed to participate but it was felt that something should be done for them. The winner was Mazedda Bellevue for "Seasons Of Life", with the runner-up being Samiul Kayes for "Echoes Of Gaza". For the major awards after this, many of them were announced in a semi-joking manner using a golden envelope. It brought a chuckle to everyone, considering how meme-worthy the Oscars have become.
Then came two Speech And Drama performances on either side of the second award, which I'll get to at the end of this piece. Basically, we were given the performances, which were basically a monologue of sorts with some mild dramatization, then we were given paper slips to vote on which we preferred between Liyana Abhram's poem "A Walk In The Woods", and the monologue "News from France" by Julian Walker. Both were lots of fun to listen to. Next was the "Michael Feld Award", named for a local notary and patron of the arts, which was aimed at supporting the work of young people. There were two nominees; Key Stage 2 student Sanjana Arunkumar with "Rumble And Grumble" (which was a fun and funny little skit) and Key Stage 3 student Lurmaya Mathews with the poem "Chaos" (a visceral dramatization of what felt like a massive anxiety attack). "Chaos" proved the overall winner.
Then came the intermission, with snacks and drinks and talk. After that, and some minor drama with the mislaying of the voting bag, we were able to cast our votes. Liyana Abhram proved the winner, with a narrow margin that required a recount to make sure of the result. Then came the "Adventurous Voices" competition, which was split across three age groups and featured writing on a particular theme. There were nearly a dozen entrants who got some form of recognition on that stage. The winners in this category Daisy Higgins with "Elara And The Enchanted Rainforest!" in the Primary School category, Musfira Sharif for "Who Am I?" in the Secondary School category, and Patrick Blosse for "Off The Beaten Path" in the Adult category. All great pieces to hear.
For most of these that weren't orated on the platform, we got an audio sample of the winning pieces, which was more than incredible to listen to. The "Portry" award was given to Gillian Davies with "When The Streetlights Blinked To Life", a piece that can best be described as a nostalgic trip through pre-internet teenage urban life. Truly nostalgic. For the "Short Story" award, the winner was Lianne Warr with "Mouse", and...wow. The sample for that was positively chilling to listen to.
Closing out the ceremony was the Book Challenge awards. Basically a challenge to write a full novel in twelve months, with further mentoring and consultation as part of the prize. As it was ongoing, they instead had finalists appear, giving them awards for their efforts. The finalists were The Revenge Pact by Yana Yanovic, Misery Loves Company by Gulnaz Abdullah, Vigilantes Anonymous by Nick Burdett, The Fisherman's Daughter by Lee James Broadwood, and Elderwood by Ruth Frendo. There were no samples, but it was a nice way to round things off with the awards. The ceremony closed at around 9 PM with a final message from Saima Ashraf, including a poetic message relating to the current times of discord and fear being fostered by authorities the world over.
But, and I've saved this for last not to deprive anyone else of their deserved recognition, I was also the recipient of an award. All the way back in March, I submitted an audio play I'd created, "The Angry House", to their Audio Play Competition, which was being done in association with Alternative Stories. You may know them for Emily Inkpen's Dex Legacy series alongside other creations. It was just something I threw together in a brief amount of time, and I'll probably be able to share more about it later. But, in a moment that left me genuinely speechless, I won their award. And part of the prize is that "The Angry House" is going to be produced as a full audio play. The interval and the immediate aftermath before I returned to my hotel was both strange and...oddly euphoric. The nitty-gritty business aspect of what comes next starts after today, but for now I feel like I've arrived in a sense.
This is still a start, but a start is better than nothing. And it's likely the same for everyone else who has gotten exposure and validation through these awards.
This is overwhelming in and of itself, and it's taken me till today for it to truly sink in and for me to find the words to express it. There's nothing like the thrill of getting your first award, especially when you're sure you won't get it. I just froze momentarily when the words "Thomas Wrightson for The Angry House" were read out by Councillor Bright, and I had a photo taken with the award and the mayor. And then, remaining on stage by choice, I heard an audio sample created by Chris Gregory and Emily Inkpen of Alternative Stories, demonstrating a part of what would eventually become...a thing that everyone can listen to. It's an indescribable sensation, hearing your words for the first time being spoken by someone other than you. I imagine that's also how many of the other winners felt.
It may be a ways to go there if you live in distant parts like I do, but it's also worth it if you can. It's a fun event, with a chance to hear great pieces of work across a variety of genres, and perhaps begin either your journey outright, or the next part of it. Here's to the future, whatever that may hold. And congratulations and best to all those who submitted, and all those who have seen this recognition on an evening I won't soon forget.
So. This was a topic that came to mind due to the...everything that's happening. This episode of my one-person podcast looks at a phenomenon that's been going on for the last several decades; turning what are actually truly terrible times for everyone involved into visual appealing masterworks that I'm sure everyone would be totally happy living in to get that fashion. So sit back, grab a cool drink depending on where you are, and hopefully find something to enjoy or even laugh at in this one person's scripted rant.
YouTube and Spotify links are below (as hyperlinks because this blog can't handle links properly).
