A Wake - October 2025
BOO! Happy Halloween! This month was a game of two halves, but I can’t believe we’re into the last sixth of the year. Time is fleeting so let’s dive in!
Things I did
I spent the first two weeks of this month sharing some photos from my Rome trip, twenty photos a day. I themed the posts with twenty one pilot’s latest album Breach. So, here’s my Breach Rome, plus a bonus Ostia post.
City Walls: This one was pretty self explanatory.
RAWFEAR: Seemed like a good match for the Colosseum and Circus. Could’ve been the Palatine Hill too.
Drum Show: Also could’ve matched the shows at those venues, but also matched my long awestruck exploration of the Palatine Hill.
Garbage: The choice of this one wasn’t a commentary on the Vatican Museums, just a little bit of what it felt like to be amongst the endless crowd-queue.
The Contract: Inscriptions, including curses! And the Ara Pacis, Augustus’s temple of peace, at the end.
Downstairs: Underground. Mostly Mithraea but snaps from all over, tombs, churches…
Robot Voices: It was the lyrics in this one… lines on the floor, fancy = mosaics at Ostia.
Center Mass: This song seemed to work for the famous Boxer bronze with copper details. Plus other sculptures!
Cottonwood: The ‘look back in time’ lyric of this one conjured the feeling of standing in ancient painted rooms.
One Way: The song’s about flying, so I went with winged things in this one, finishing with the Castel Sant’Angelo… and a nighttime visit to a museum.
Days Lie Dormant: The mentions of the city in this song pointed me towards a selection of city sights, from the Pantheon to St. Peter’s and plenty of ruins and signs of the times.
Tally: Mentions of sales and discounts matched the amazingly intact Trajan’s Market. Plus the monumental Baths of Caracalla!
Intentions: Last but not least, the Forum (plus a few surroundings!). I actually stuck with the intentions of these posts, and visiting the site twice, to really soak it up for my writing.
And the bonus twenty Ostia photos I posted a month after visiting, here.
Just about recovered from that trip, I headed to London on the 3rd. I popped in the BFI to see their mini Ridley Scott exhibition, which had some classic posters, fascinating storyboards, a wall of clapperboards and a couple of costumes, like the above from The Martian.
But I was in London that day for a Liang Lawrence concert! And what a show it was, such a lovely crowd for the biggest show of her first headline tour - and extra special for me as the venue, EartH, was where I went for my first screen-related event after finishing my MetFilm course in May 2023.
The next evening, I was a guest on What Does Star Wars Mean To You? It was so lovely chatting with hosts Dave and Elora, though I was a bit nervous and of course thought of so much more to say afterwards! My first interview though - pretty special!
That’s their latest episode, well worth a listen to give some context to what I had to say as well… and where they introduce me at the end! Make sure to follow their podcast to hear my episode as soon as it drops!
A couple of days later I visited The Old Auction House in Tunbridge Wells for a local filmmaker mixer. I met so many great people in the space, from organisation leaders to producers to the sound guy who managed the playback system at the press events for the international release of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones DVDs!
The filmmaking learning continued as I attended a two-hour workshop with Louisa Connolly-Burnham about short films! Many notes were taken!
Now we moved to the second half of the month I talked about. I worked four days for Panini at MCM comic con! The Thursday we brought things from their office to the ExCel and set up all the stock. I’ve never seen never mind handled so many graphic novels! My three Panini bosses, plus the other four that joined us two each on the Sat and Sunday, were all fantastic to work with, and just chat everything geeky. It was so much fun - and every customer was always so nice. My English Heritage volunteering really helped me recommend books, make conversation and make sales!
But I had plenty of breaks to sneak off, to grab some new things and get some more signed (slowly filling up Star Wars and Stars and Sabers’ incredible anthologies!). Meeting creatives old and new, catching great panels and just receiving advice, support and recognition from the variety of people in this community is always the boost I need! I could write pages.
Another highlight was Sarah Miles moderating a Star Wars author panel with Cavan Scott, Adam Christopher and George Mann. The last time I met those literary gents, I was at the start of this journey at Star Wars Celebration 2023. Cav pointing me to his newsletter set in motion everything you read today! And all their insights and advice really rubbed off on me. Two and a half years. Full circle.
My MCM instagram post has some more photos of other things I got signed, like the previously mentioned anthologies. Chatting to Sarwat Chadda (who gave me the incredible anecdote how he wrote his short story over a weekend after a communication failure) and T.L. Huchu.
On the 28th, I had the pleasure of seeing the new documentary film Depeche Mode: M at the Lewes Depot. And yesterday I had a fantastic call with some Greenwich uni film student friends, helping on another short!
Things I wrote
This newsletter…
This month heralded the return of A Long Time Ago... Christie wrote a great piece about Star Wars parks and books and Big Ben!
A Long Time Ago… with Christie of Snip & Co
I also soft launched my short film, A Wake! I created this casting call with a secret message (hint, bold), and tried to more organically share the word on a new dedicated instagram account while we still zero in on a filming date. We have a location!
That image above links to the post with more context in the caption. Please share it and the account far and wide!
This month did mark another exciting first. My first blurb for a book! Jendia Gammon of Stars and Sabers publishing very kindly sent me an advance reading copy of newsletter guest P.A. Cornell’s Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl, as well as other ARCS! I had to a give a byline. I hope my words will help get as many people as possible to read the brilliant novella:
Check out this link to see what many more established people think about the book, and see the beautiful cover revealed today!
I also collaborated with Blenheim Palace on a press release for our North Leigh Roman Villa Minecraft Reconstruction Competition. The winner’s been announced, and here’s some screenshots from our top four entries:
It was movingly rewarding to watch through every entry, from the winner’s perfect recreation to some charming entries from children working together. To see how a single sentence idea has come to life, affected other lives… and the Minecraft of it all brought me back to childhood days.
Many more exciting things to come to do with this competition! Stay tuned.
We’ve also been working on the Steam page for the video game I’m lead writer on, The Diamond Adventures. In the meantime, a Halloween teaser was just released:
Things I gained
A big comics delivery this month! All the usual series progressing nicely! Plus the brand new Black, White and Red Boba Fett and a pre-Force Awakens miniseries!
Keeping with the galaxy far, far away - I’m always grateful that Station Books stock the Inkstone novel special editions for me! This Bad Batch novel has the group’s helmets on the edge, and a lovely foil ship and hyperspace starscape on the cover. I also picked up an Odes of Horace this month.
Here’s my MCM new stuff haul. I’ve been waiting to grab Rachael Smith and Paul Cornell’s Who Killed Nessie? and after learning about (and selling out of it!) at the Panini booth, I couldn’t resist Spider-Man Life Story to get signed by Chip Zdarsky!
Alison Sampson gave me that lovely print when we talked about my architecture one page comic. I also couldn’t resist the colourful sprayed edge signed edition of Among the Burning Flowers from Forbidden Planet, nor those two for £12 paperbacks from Del Rey!
Thank you so much for reading!
Excelsior!