Five ways my book plans collapse upon contact with the real world - A Metaphorical Disaster Movie

At this stage, I've written a lot of novels, and started even more than that. Every single one started with a plan of some form - sometimes a couple of ideas scribbled on a pad, other times thousands of words of ideas, followed by a chapter-by-chapter outline and then individual scene breakdowns within those chapters.

But either way, the plans always come a little unstuck when exposed to the writing process. As I've been doing a lot of first drafting lately, so spending a heaping helping of my time dealing with plans not corresponding to prose.

So, to inform and reassure anyone in a similar place, I've broken my Plan Vs Reality problems into an internet-friendly Buzzfeed-style five-point list. Yes, only a thin membrane separates some of these feelings, but I've spent enough time staring at my plans in despair to know they're all distinct. If you've experienced all five of these, you can award yourself a prize when you reach the bottom!

I finally read Age of Apocalypse - Was it like a smaller Secret Wars?

Just recently, I crossed another item off my list of stories to read on Marvel Unlimited - I rattled through the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse mini-epic. I don't know what spurred me to go for that precise one, but after the fact, it seems topical - after all, Marvel are about to pull an Age of Apocalypse on their entire universe with the mega-massive Secret Wars event.

That's before we get to next year's X-Men: Apocalypse movie, which probably won't adapt this storyline but might, and recent DC event Convergence, also an AoA-style move, albeit shorter.

So it seemed a good time to talk about it, maybe discuss how these new events are using (or abusing) the legacy of Age of Apocalypse. Spoilers follow for twenty-year-old X-Men comics!

Hobson & Choi YouTube cameo round-up! See me abandon a copy of the book in a streetside shed!

A few weeks back, myself and Julianne Benford of This Fleeting Dream went on a wee walkabout around the Little Free Libraries of Walthamstow. These are basically tiny birdhouse-type mini-sheds, painted attractively and filled with books on a take-one-leave-one basis.

Obviously, it seemed a missed opportunity not to leave my one remaining copy of The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf (the first in my Hobson & Choi crime series) there, as well as various other books from around the house.

Julianne has made a video of this adventure, including the magic moment I placed the book in the tiny wooden house, which you can view right below...

And while I'm embedding videos, here's another one by writer friend and upcoming booktuber Claire Rousseau, in which she talks about various books in terms of coffee, including the Hobson & Choi titles.

Well, the second one does have a coffee cup on the cover and it's right there in the main thumbnail of the vid, which I think means it wins the whole thing.

If that isn't enough H&C YouTube action for you, you can revisit my second Blog Tour round-up post, which includes embedded video reviews of both books by The Book Moo!

Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the serialisation value of superhero movies

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now all over the place, and I saw it on the opening Friday. The many solo film stars of the Marvel movies re-unite to take on an evil robot, ruptures form among the team and I'll refrain from over-describing the film as some people might still be avoiding spoilers.

It was good, though - not as no-reservations excellent as the first Avengers movie, due to Ultron not being quite as memorable as Loki and the sheer volume of characters taking away from focus. Sill, among the upper echelons of Marvel movies and successfully kept me invested in the whole Marvel monolith.

Anyway, this isn't going to be a straight review of the movie as there are plenty of those on the internet. The release of Avengers II served as a kinda peak point of a few months where I've been consuming a load of superhero media. Between DC's FlArrow shows, Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil and Agent Carter, that's a whole lotta tights and tights-related material.

And that's without even counting Walking Dead and Constantine.

Point being: I love serialised fiction across all mediums, but it kinda started with comics. So I've been thinking a lot about how this stuff translates because... much as I've liked many superhero movies, I feel like TV might be the ultimate medium for them.

I Was A Pre-Teen Book Prize Judge - Nick's Mind-Boggling Confessions!!!

My Mum swiped this large cardboard star from the local WH Smiths.

Many years ago, when I was about ten or eleven, I wrote a review of a book. If you follow this website, you know I often review, but on this occasion, I was critiquing to win the chance to judge the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Books Prize.

This was an award for children's books with a gimmick - the judges were all aged between ten and twelve, so had authentic young-person opinions. I entered, using Microsoft Publisher to put an attractive border on my review and the title in bendy WordArt at the top of the page. The book in question was Redwall by Brian Jacques - a book which I already listed as big in my influences a few months back - and thanks to my advanced critical faculties, not to mention an amazing pun about walls painted red, I won!

Which meant I got to judge the prize, read a stack of books and enjoy more media attention than my tiny mind was ready for. Keep reading to discover how that went and see some frankly horrifying pictures of pre-teen Nick Bryan. I was cleaning out my old bedroom at my parents' house the other day, you see, and stumbled upon a whole trove of this stuff.

Be Warned: there will be spoilers for the outcome of the 1995 Mind-Boggling Books Award.

Ultimate Spider-Man - A Potentially Pre-Emptive Eulogy

Last week, the Ultimate Spider-Man comic seemed to come to an end. It's hard to be certain, as Marvel Comics are being very cagey about the future of their publishing line, but based on some heartfelt words from series writer Brian Michael Bendis on his Tumblr, it looks like we've reached the end of that book in its current form.

The character may carry on, but sounds like either he'll no longer be written by Bendis or the set-up will be radically changed. Either way, I was inspired to produce some words, as this was a comic that meant a lot to me over the years.

Since I've Found Serenity - Thoughts on first watching Firefly in 2015

You can't take the sky from me... *sob*

As mentioned on my Twitter, I've recently watched popular Joss Whedon-helmed TV show Firefly and movie follow-up Serenity for the first time ever. I have no real excuse for this - I believe I have lived with copies of the DVD for at least six years now.

For the unacquainted, Firefly is often described as a "space western". It revolves around the ramshackle spaceship Serenity, whose crew are living under the radar for various reasons, surviving on snatched jobs from various employers. Thanks to this off-the-grid ethos, their missions mostly end up unsavoury - theft, smuggling or worse.

Firefly is perhaps even more famous as a great One That Got Away of the modern TV age - despite massive critical and fan love, it lasted one 14-episode season. Whedon had the movie follow-up Serenity to wrap up at least some major plot threads, but for the most part, it died young, its potential unfulfilled, everyone is very sad.

Anyway, despite its massive popularity, I've only just sat down and watched it. I don't think it's that significant whether I think Firefly is good (BRIEF REVIEW: it is very good - unless you hate the sci-fi genre or Whedon's quips-and-sadness writing style, you will probably like it), but I am kinda interested how it looks to a modern TV viewer. Has it informed the landscape? Would it do better nowadays? Other talking points, probably?

And yes, I may mention a few spoilers, but now I've finally watched the thing, there's officially no-one else left to care.