Thursday, May 21, 2009

A New British Edition of Lonely Werewolf Girl

Here's the cover for Piatkus's edition of Lonely Werewolf Girl, due to be released in Britain in October, I think. I like this cover a lot. Meanwhile I'm working away on the sequel, which is due to be released next year.

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse and I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, even though it's a Joss Whedon creation. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best thing ever, but I wasn't really keen on Firefly. Dollhouse started off well though. I thought it was really entertaining, and I still love Eliza Dushku.

Dollhouse was shown on the Sci-Fi channel. I don't think all that many people have that channel in the UK, so I don't know if it will become popular here. Possibly no one I know will watch it.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Plumbing Terror

Two nights ago, at 10 in the evening, I turned on the hot tap in the kitchen. Then it got stuck. It wouldn't go off. Nothing I could do would make the tap turn off.

This was a problem. The hot tap comes from the gas boiler, so the gas was going as well, heating up the water. Which, I could see immediately, would swiftly lead to overheating - gas explosion - entire block of flats destroyed - Millar lost in tragic household accident - Buffy videos scattered over wide area - couldn't find enough of his body to give him a proper burial - identified by dental records - sequel to Lonely Werewolf Girl never completed - weeping crowds at memorial service - and all in all, this was quite worrying.

I couldn't find the stopcock to turn off the water. It did strike me, after a while, to turn the gas off at the mains. Though even that was worrying, and again made me fear for gas explosions. Everything to do with the gas heating boiler makes me think of gas explosions. (In a previous flat, the pilot light used to go off. Pressing the button to light it again, I was always nervous, and expected the worst.)

After the gas was off I called an emergency plumber. I was quite surprised at myself for being organised enough to do this. And, afterwards, rather perturbed at the huge expense. These people don't come cheap. Still, he did arrive, around midnight, and managed to turn the tap off.

All in all, this was an unhappy experience. Have abandoned all thoughts of writing, and will lie on the couch reading comics.

I have new Buffy comics. But I'm not quite satisfied with these. I also have a big bundle of manga, and much of this manga is full of great art, wit, invention, humour and so on. But the Buffy comics… well, they're just comics really. They don't really match up to how great the TV series was, and they're not nearly as entertaining as some of my manga.

Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's latest TV show, is starting in Britain next Tuesday. It stars Eliza Dushku, who was Faith in Buffy. I was a big fan of Faith, so I'm looking forward to watching this.