Science Faction

I will never learn

I’m going to admit it here first before it’s more widely announced. I am three quarters the way through writing a new book. I have to explain this is a lesson in not learning a lesson.

For the many who don’t know, I have written and published 14 books in the last 30 years, two of those books sold enough to make it financially worthwhile writing and publishing them.

The rest, with varying levels of shame and disappointment, have either done nearly nothing, or just about enough not to be truly embarrassing.

So you might think, with a track record like this, you really would pack it in and get a proper job. I thought I had, my last book, ‘Some Old Bloke’ was published in 2018 and I privately thought that would be my last.

The books are a mixture of comic memoirs and fiction, the biggest selling is The Man in the Rubber Mask which records my experiences making the British TV comedy series, Red Dwarf. I truly don’t know how many copies have been sold but it’s definitely in the hundreds of thousands.

At a close second is ‘The Man on Platform 5’ which was my first and only work of fiction which sold in decent numbers. The film rights to this book were also sold in 1998, for a considerable sum, some might say life changing.

However the film was never made and the script and rights to produce it are languishing in some back room cupboard in Hollywood to this day.

The last 5 books I’ve published have all been launched on Unbound, a kind of kick Starter for Books publisher. https://unbound.com/

This is where I will shortly launch my new book, the idea being that when it reaches 100% of its publication costs, the book is released, everyone who has supported it gets a signed hardback copy and digital version, from there we will see if it’s popular enough to deserve a cheaper, paperback version and audiobook.

I don’t want to say too much about it right now as all will be explained on Unbound, however although it could be loosely classified as science fiction, it is set in the present day, on this planet, at this time.

It does feature 99.9% plausible technology that has very far reaching effects, but this story is mostly told from the point of view of a humble observer.

So that’s it. I haven’t learned, I’m about to do it all again.

Below is a list of the books I’ve published.

The Reconstructed Heart 1993

The Man in the Rubber Mask 1994

Thin He Was and Filthy Haired 1995

Therapy and How to Avoid it 1995

The Man on Platform 5 1998

Punchbag 199

The Scrapheap Book 2001

Sudden Wealth 2001

Brother Nature 2002

Selling Out 2007

News from Gardenia 2011

News from thee Squares 2012

News from the Clouds 2013

The Man in the Rubber Mask (2) 2014

Some Old Bloke 2018