April Roundup
Welcome to my April Roundup! Hope you all had a good month. Thank you to the new subscribers - I really appreciate you joining me and this journey! Speaking of this journey, more steps were taken this month. I’ll start with non-writing news first…
Spring eventually sprung (though is seems to be unspringing now here), and I went out with my family to enjoy the flowers at some nearby gardens. There were swathes of bluebells in woodland, organised rainbow-rows of tulips and others, but this statue was the sight I deemed photo-worthy.
A few days later we went to a very different exhibition of colour, magic, art in many forms. Disney100 at the ExCel in London was a real jolt of inspiration and reflection.
I was initially attracted to the exhibition because of the Star Wars and Marvel film artefacts and other props on display, knowing I’d also enjoy the non-recently-bought Disney stuff. In the end it was that stuff that made much more of an impression, as well as the soundtrack and exploration of Disney parks and technological advancement.
The exhibition was broken down into sections, with many things to read and art to marvel at (pun not intended), as well as interactive features like a Rocket Racoon motion capture screen that would mirror your facial expressions. And there were plenty of little stations to listen to too.
I’m so much more informed now about the inspiring tale of Walt Disney and the company as a whole: Mickey’s origins on a disappointed train ride. The decision to bring music to fairy-tale shorts, then colour, feature-length, live action, etc. It was somewhat magical, very well laid out, and reignited or at least helped me remember my love of some of those old animated films that shaped my storytelling, like Cars.
I found out the voice of young Simba was Randy from Home Improvement! No wonder both properties were so influential to my storytelling and humour growing up. There were also props from things I didn’t expect, like Lost or High School Musical.
That’s probably enough Disney photos. But that’s not enough Star Wars! On the 24th, I attended a very interesting talk on The History and Politics of Star Wars by Dr. Chris Kempshall, hosted by the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research. You should all check out his book on the topic here, all about the real-world political and military inspirations and parallels with Star Wars. Plus, Chris has an official DK history of the Empire book coming out, Rise and Fall. Definitely check both out - Chris is a Star Wars fan and historian local to me!
On the 25th, I was up in Oxfordshire at North Leigh Roman Villa for my volunteer training day. As someone who spends a lot of time writing at a desk, it was nice to be able (in multiple meanings of the word) to talk to people about my writing, introducing myself and why I’m so passionate about the site. I wrote more about the site in my last roundup.
Anyway, I learnt more about the site (I spent the past weekend going through hundreds of Google drive resources), especially about the conservation that’s been done and what needs doing - I never realised the cost of archaeology, especially for a charity like English Heritage! I also got to meet the lovely staff I’d been in contact with (again mentioned last month), plus found a fellow DanTDM fan, who knew what I was talking about when I mentioned novelising his videos! It felt great to be a part of something, a knowledgeable and kind group of people that are all interested in the same obscure stuff I am.
Speaking of charity, a friend of mine is running 52km on the 27th of May for Moving on Durham, a UK homeless charity, and I’d be very grateful for any support you can throw her way.
Moving On Durham is a charity that provides vital support and housing to young people in the North East of England. According to Centrepoint, 1 in 52 young people were homeless or at risk of being homeless last year, so I have decided to do 52km from the middle of the North Pennines to Durham.
Please consider donating here.
We finished off the month yesterday with a trip to Chiddingstone Castle. I hadn’t been in quite a while, but remembered the Egyptian collection there as at the time I was reading Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles trilogy and knew what all the gods, amulets, shabti and jars were. They’re all still there, along with more artefacts from the times of my stories that I had to snap. I won’t bombard you with those, but I did like this guy in the Buddhist collection:
Writing Update
Quite a lot writing news this month!
Something exciting came out of literally nowhere. Now, when you search my name on Google, the sixth result lists me as ‘Award-winning TV Script writer of Sci-fi’. And that’s because I entered Coverfly’s The Script Lab Free Screenplay contest, and my The Watchers script I wrote last year is a quarterfinalist, earning top 35%, 25% and 15% accolades, of all 136,000 scripts on the site! I’ll keep you all updated!
I was featured again on Marc Guggenheim’s newsletter, with another answer to a question from me, this time about a comic short he wrote about Clone Captain Rex.
Which segues nicely to saying I’ve sent off what will be my second piece of published writing! And I’ve worked with another writer I really admire on a pitch for a third! My writing should be out in the world in June and August respectively. I can’t wait to properly announce these soon.
This month I also entered literary agency Peters, Fraser and Dunlop’s mentorship programme, where you’re paired with an agent for 12-months’ development and representation! I entered the completed interlude parts of my WIP novel that I’ve been going on about in this newsletter since the beginning. But this was the first time I had to write a proper query for it. With everything I’ve learnt from other authors and agents, it came together much quicker and felt pretty solid. We shall see.
Speaking of the novel, with everything else going on, it’s been on quite a hiatus. I’ve done a little research though which’ll help move the (long) gem short story forward, like some mystic Delphi prophecy laid things out for me. In fact, there was an actual prophecy, vague enough that it’ll propel things forward from Rome more towards India where the gem will eventually end up. I’m excited to launch back into it, but I’m going to be busy and then away most of May, then there’s MCM comic con, and maybe one of those archaeological opportunities - tune in next month to hear about all of that.
I have carried on with my comics education, watching through the videos from a creator I met last year, Matt Garvey. That should prepare me for about a month’s time when I’ll try and move forward with the project.
As you’ll have seen in your inboxes, I’ve also been enjoying putting all my Star Wars book and ancient site knowledge to the page - or rather, email draft. I hope you’ve been enjoying them too.
The last bit of news is that April 24th marked nine years since I self-published my first book at the age of twelve. That also marked three years since I started releasing the omnibus volumes collecting all 22 books in that universe in chronological order. Time flies.
This month's books
This segment showcases the new additions to my research and fiction collections.
The highlight from this delivery was the first issue of Ethan Sack’s Jango Fett series. A Jango Fett graphic novel was one of the first Star Wars books that I owned, so it’s great to have a series in the new canon.
This book is a fine edition to my collection. Inkstone Books provide a very good service, and this special edition of the latest Star Wars novel has a golden Jedi Order emblem on the hardcover front, as well as Yoda-green sprayed edges.
I might have a case of Megalithomania myself with how much I write about the Neolithic in my fiction. The middle book features many photos of a model recreation of ancient Rome that will help a lot with the next part of the novel. Those who read my January Roundup will know I saw quite a lot of Pictish art that month. Guess I don’t need to read that third book as I found the Picts, but it’ll all help with my planned fourth novel.
That's the end of this roundup. There was again quite a lot to share this month. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this email.
Please share this with your friends and family and ask them to subscribe - that would mean the world to me as I do love sharing my various exploits with you all, and would treasure having more people with me on my writing (and life) journey!
Cheers,
Harvey