Today I have the pleasure of joining in with the run-up to publication celebrations with Graeme Cumming.

Carrion will be published on Saturday!

That’s Entertainment

by Graeme Cumming

As a child, I spent an enormous amount of time in front of a TV screen – which was no mean feat considering there were only three channels and, aside from a brief burst of Watch With Mother in the mornings, they didn’t actually start broadcasting until late afternoon. And we only had a black and white set until I was in my early teens.
Even so, there was plenty for me to get excited about – from Thunderbirds to Tarzan, and Batman (Adam West, of course) to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). There was a lot of variety in it, from the sci-fi to the supernatural, with superheroes, detectives and adventure along the way.
I read as well, and went for books well above the expected reading ages. When I was ten, I read my first Ian Fleming – though only because Roger Moore (my hero from The Saint and The Persuaders!) was about to appear in the film version of Live and Let Die. By the time I was thirteen, I’d read the whole Bond series, and was making steady progress through the works of Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Clive Cussler, as well as a whole range of other authors whose works haven’t stood the test of time.
In my mid-teens, I stumbled across John Gardner, who gave an interesting take on the Cold War, especially in the Herbie Kruger series.
By now, I was writing my own stories, although with no expectations of publication beyond the school magazine. I wrote about all kinds of things, what we’d now consider to be mix of genres – though it didn’t seem to matter much at the time.
John Gardner was a gateway to John Le Carre and spy thrillers became a big part of my reading, until I was introduced to the joys of horror and fantasy – Stephen King and Graham Masterton in particular. But Gardner did something else for me and my approach to writing. An early series he wrote featured a character called Boysie Oakes. On the covers of each book was the phrase: A Boysie Oakes Entertainment.
Even as a teenager, I liked the concept. My creative influences, from TV to books to movies, were wide and varied. But the key ingredient in everything I watched was that it was entertaining, whether it was The Goodies or Star Trek. It didn’t matter to me whether the stories were set in the Wild West, Arthurian times or modern day. Nor did it matter whether the hero was a scruffy cop, a shaolin monk, or a bionic man.
I knew I was never going to write great literature. Frankly, the idea appalled me, because it sounded boring. I wanted readers to come away from the experience excited and wanting more. So, even forty years ago, I made a commitment to myself. I wouldn’t write in a specific genre; I’d write what I enjoyed and crossing a few boundaries wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It has been tempting to include a similar caption under the titles of both my books: A Graeme Cumming Entertainment, but it doesn’t feel right somehow. Even so, it’s what I’m thinking whenever I write.

“You’ll die for that!” one of the guards yelled. He raised his sword, ready to charge. Behind him, the others were preparing to do the same.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
He probably saw the doubt in their eyes before they registered it themselves. It wasn’t enough to feed off yet. But it would be when it turned to fear.
“Have I introduced you to my friends?” He didn’t wait for an answer. The wings were beating before he’d finished speaking.

What do you think?

CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY. WORDS HAVE POWER.

A sheet of black filled his vision as hundreds of birds dived at the cottage, pointed beaks thrust forward. From this angle, he couldn’t see many of them striking it, but the few he did see held nothing back as they hammered into the shutter. The scale of the attack was beyond anything he’d seen or heard of. And bloodied casualties littered the ground: skulls shattered, wings broken, innards spilling from them. The fact that so many of them continued with the onslaught in spite of this filled him with even more dread.

Salin has always wanted an adventure and, when the opportunity presents itself, he grabs it with both hands, taking his friends along for the ride – whether they want to or not.

With strange lands come strange creatures that stand between them and their goal. And that goal is the same for someone else, a man who believes the prize is worth every sacrifice – especially when the sacrifices are made by others.

The future is about to change. But who for?