Noughties


When we were kids, my brother and I tried our hand at a number of different professions. We ran a Boglin protection agency which, despite our best intentions, quickly became an excuse to shoot imaginary mercenaries in their imaginary faces as the helpless rubber gremlins looked on. For a while we were wrestlers, but no matter how many Speedo sponsored pay-per-view events we organised, we just couldn't attract an audience. Our singing career also went tits up, as the world just wasn't ready for our dub-step, country hybrid.

For a while we fancied ourselves as authors. We tended to ape the format of the Point Horrors that were all the rage, but occasionally we would branch out with topics that felt closer to home, such as cyborg cowboys and time travelling zombies. Unlike our other early ventures, this one endured.

I would take pride in creating a gruesome font cover for my pulp horrors, usually featuring a mixture of blood, axes and teen-hunting corpses. Once I had finished my masterpiece, I'd invariably lose interest in the actual story writing, rarely churning out more than a couple of pages before calling it quits. Cemetery Attack was the high point of my literary career, but for my brother Ben it was just the start. I stopped at the cover, but he kept writing and I'm happy to say that his continued efforts have paid off.

Ben's debut novel - Noughties - is out today in the UK, to follow in the US and Canada in the autumn. Seeing his name and face in the national newspapers has been rather strange, and the thought of his book being in the shops has me so excited that I have literally shit myself. We'll be down in London for the next two days to attend the launch, drink free wine and attempt to get as many 3DS streetpass hits as possible.

Although he didn't consult me on the cover design, I'd like to think that I've had some kind of influence on his writing. I was excited to count no less than two video game references in Noughties, including a mention of everyone's favourite big eared boy, Alex Kidd. I consider this a personal victory, being that Ben hasn't been a gamer for over a decade and I thought my attempts to re-educate him had fallen on deaf ears.

Today, I'm even prouder than usual to be his big brother. I'm greatly looking forward to raising a glass to his continued success, and am happy to see that of all our childhood professions, he chose the best.

Comments

  1. Joe Byron Smith3 February 2012 at 08:11

    Was your brother on Radio 4 today?? I heard an author talking about his book which matches the description given by amazon. Just looked it up, I think it was him! Sounded very interesting.

    Aside from that i could have actually done with some Boglin protection when i was younger. I remember there was this horrible kid across the road who used to steal them off me. Oh how i hated him! iv actually still got loads of boglins somewhere in my parents house lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. toomanywires5 February 2012 at 02:16

      Yes, that would have been him. He was talking to Mariella Frostrup.

      Ha, he sounds like an arese! Unfortunately our boglins were subject to a cull a few years back, where my mum emptied out our old toy cupboard without asking us. We have yet to forgive her

      Delete
  2. superfriar193 February 2012 at 08:17

    just bought one. i read the description on amazon and it sounds awesome. that's so cool that he got published. congrats!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. toomanywires5 February 2012 at 02:17

      Cheers! Much apprciated, though unfortunately I get zero commission :(

      Delete
  3. Daydream Drooler3 February 2012 at 08:27

    tell your bro I said congrats, I'm currently working on publishing a series of short stories on the kindle... first to get them edited... ugh! lol
    I actually saw you tweet about this a few days ago and checked it out on amazon, I wanted to buy it but I wanted to kindle version but I dont have a kindle yet. either I'll wait till its in the US or I get a kindle.... for some reason I dont like buying books off the internet, its either bookstore or ebook version. I know, I'm weird, lol
    anyway, congrats again and consider one copy sold to me

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. toomanywires5 February 2012 at 02:19

      Thanks, will do.

      Good luck with the short stories. Any common theme, or are they all about different things?

      Delete
    2. Daydream Drooler5 February 2012 at 02:30

      It's all set in one world, there are two main characters that the story follows throughout every story but each story picks up on a different character just to show whats going on and how everyone got to where their going. I'm pretty excited to get it published, gonna write to the editor today and hopefully send him the first story, by the end of the month it should hit amazon. I'm gonna be tweeting about it like crazy, lol

      Delete
    3. toomanywires7 February 2012 at 18:53

      Sounds exciting. I'd give it a read, only I don't have a Kindle!

      Btw, what's the process of getting it on Amazon like? Do they evaluate entries for quality & content, are there any costs involved etc?

      Delete
  4. Killa_Assassin114 February 2012 at 11:52

    Thats awesome dude. Big congrats to your bro. I dont read as much as I used to these days but I will give it a look when it comes to the States!

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    Replies
    1. toomanywires5 February 2012 at 02:22

      Thanks! I rarely read these days either. At least not fiction (I do read a lot of history). Of course I made an exception for Ben's book, and I'm still slowly making my way through A Song of Fire & Ice, but I much prefer the VG experience to a book.

      Delete

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