Project: Torchwood: Jason Arnopp

This past month (June) saw me toying with what to do with the website. I’d been thinking for a while how to bring new life into it, and quite by chance, at the end of the month, I was rewarded with three new writers – Alex Wylie, Matt Rabjohns and Jeff Goddard. Jeff has written for us before in the Fans Fiction section and delivers us yet another Doctor Who story, which you are going to require hankies for. Check out their blurbs on the About Us page – links on the Contents above.

We bid a farewell today – to our wonderfully talented fictional writer, Christopher E. Fain who steps down from writing for us to work on his own projects, and we wish him all the very best for the future. Chris kept us entertained with his writing works ‘Heaven and Nature Sing’ and ‘Tango of the Exiles’, which encapsulated Torchwood with Sherlock and Doctor Who, all rolled into one, and every single story, I couldn’t put down. Lyn was one of my favourites. I hope one day that Chris is able to create more character stories and send one over to us to read and share.

We have so many new reviews to entertain you with. I was going to write one for Un Bore Mercher, but I think I shall wait until Keeping Faith returns this Summer, and post it then. Only fair, really.

It’s bloody good though – the series. Will there be a third, I wonder?

What were your thoughts on the Russell T Davies’ new drama series Years and Years? Check out our thoughts on the series, and feel free to add your own comments below the article. Also, pop on over to our Connections this month and find out just how many cast and crew names you recognise from Years and Years!

Tony has been once again busy with the Big Finish Reviews, and our new reviewers have plenty to say in Who Reviews.

Congratulations as ever to the winners of the recent Soap Awards – especially to our friend Nathan Sussex, who bagged the Soap Villain award for his role as Buster, in Hollyoaks. Will he reprise his role for a return visit?

So, with so much to read this month, I best not keep you.

Croeso i, Issue 71 – WATNOW: From Out of the Rain

Djak

Interviews Taking Confession with Jason Arnopp by Djak Forrest

One of the biggest problems for me as a writer, is to remain focused and not become side tracked and wander onto social media, which is a real pain in the rear sometimes, when you have the inspiration to write but not the motivation to do it. So, imagine my surprise when Jason Arnopp introduced his Sunday Confessions Booth. Suddenly, I found that boost of motivation to begin my research. I began to build on my characters, and locations and all manner of things relating to my story. I looked forward to sharing something of my day gathering data. Scribbles on notepads. Typed up words on screen. A word count!!!

Full of this newfound freedom in my writing, I wanted to thank Jason for this new idea, and to find out where the idea came from, and for how long I may receive his words of encouragement.

Hi Jason, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us.

Jason: You are utterly welcome, Djak!

Sunday Confessions Booth. I like it. In fact, it's done wonders for my procrastinations. I've begun to research for my story. Kickstarting new ideas. I have needed this motivational boost for a hell of a long time.

Where did the idea for the Sunday Confession Booth come from, and what prompted it?

Jason: I liked the idea of something that helped other creative folk, frankly without all that much effort from me. Altruism doesn’t always have to require much sacrifice! Ha. But yeah, specifically, it makes me sad when I see creatives posting about their work online and you can sense they feel no-one cares about what they’re doing.

Nothing kills motivation like the feeling that no-one will know or care, regardless of whether you do nothing this week or make truly Herculean achievements. And so, via my Sunday Confession Booth, every Sunday evening, I ask creatives how much they’ve achieved this week. It’s not necessarily all about quantity of course – if someone’s done nothing this week but come up with one amazing idea, then that’s great. I’m offering no judgement either way. I’m just there to listen, if subscribers decide to write back and tell me about their work.

It's a brilliant idea, I'm glad I signed up to it. Has the response to it been very positive? Have you a ton of emails to send?

Jason: Thanks! I’m really glad it’s been of use to you. And it really feels like it’s useful to plenty of other people too, because very often they do reply and not only tell me about their week, but also tell me how useful the service has already been. Needless to say, you don’t HAVE to reply to the weekly Booth email – I’m sure a fair few people just use it as a benchmark by which to reflect on their week and the things they’ve created. They may well like being held accountable at the end of each week, even if they don’t respond.

The response has been so positive that I’m rarely going to be able to reply to people if they reply to the email. But no matter how big the list gets I will read every single message.

Will it not take you away from your own writings if there's a lot of people signing up for this? Are you going to find time to write? Or is this also helping you?

Jason: Well, let’s see: the only scary variable would be if I end up with literally thousands of people, all writing to tell me about their working week. That could take a while to read through, but I’m up for it. I’m reasonably good with time management and there’s always time to write.

How long will the Booth last for? Does each person who signs up have a limited time to receive emails, or will this continue for as long as it needs to take?

Jason: I don’t see why Jason Arnopp’s Sunday Confession Booth shouldn’t continue for as long as subscribers find it useful. As with any list, if people tire of it and unsubscribe, that will send a clear message to me. The only other issue I can foresee, is if the list gets so big that I can’t afford to run it any more. Mailing lists can get surprisingly expensive. If we reach that stage, then perhaps Patreon might help, who knows?

It's not just boosts of motivation emailed on a Sunday though is it - you also allow people to email you back regarding the story they're writing. Not just a word count but also everything about how they're doing with their story apart from one specific thing. Has this specific thing affected your writing in the past?

Jason: Ah yes – the one rule of the booth is that writers must never tell me any specifics about anything they’re working on. The reason is that I might be working on a similar story, and then it all gets messy and the person might think I’ve stolen their idea or something like that. So, purely to keep everything nice and clean and easy, story specifics are banned from the Booth.

Do you feel that more known writers should take up this opportunity of setting up Confession Booths in the future, in a way of connecting with their writing fans?

Jason: I do not. Because I’d much prefer everyone signs up to my Booth!

I'm hoping I will have some form of a word count on Sunday, but I'm not entirely sure, as much of my writing seems to be on paper written with a pen. I'm researching. I'm enjoying myself and it's fun.

Jason: Excellent! Writing really should be fun. And yeah, Joe Hill swears by writing the first draft in long-hand. I’ve tried it before and liked it, although it does add to the time required. Might give it a shot again myself…

Thank you so much for this short but absolutely sweet Confessions Booth chat, Jason.

Jason: No, thank YOU, I insist! Oh, we could go on all day.

If you fancy joining Jason’s Mailing List, then head on over to Facebook or Twitter, and sign up by following the link http://www.jasonarnopp.com/confess.html

Sunday, 9 April 2017

The Whoniverse Round-Up April

April 2017

John Barrowman at 50!

Yes folks, John Barrowman, if you don’t currently follow him on social media, turned 50 this month (March), and proudly showed off his George Clooney hair colour. For a while now, we’ve been told by John that without the dye, he’s completely white, and for much of the time, before his next dyeing session, we do see the inch thick length of white hair about his forehead – and if we’re truly honest with ourselves, many of us are no different when it comes down to it. However, in a man like John Barrowman, the epitome of all that is fun, and acting like a Big Kid, the last thing you want to see on him is an entire scalp of white hair.

Yes, Barrowman revealed his whole greyness to the fans on social media, the week of his birthday celebrations – because just like our royal Queen – John was enjoying the run up to his birthday as much as the BIG DAY!

For many of us who have been used to him as naturally dark for Captain Jack and Malcolm Merlyn, seeing the complete head of white, was one hell of a shock, and we prayed it wouldn’t be a permanent thing. It also worried us that if John is accepting of the grey, then perhaps he was also going to grow up, and that was something we couldn’t accept, at all.

See, mad cap humour, pranks and foolishness doesn’t look right with greying hair, and on John, it most definitely (IMO) didn’t suit him. And perhaps in the Palm Springs sunshine, the tanned face and the white hair, aged him still further. I’ve not followed John throughout his stage career, only picking up on his career from Doctor Who and a small episode of My Family, and Desperate Housewives, John will only ever be Captain Jack Harkness to me, or Malcolm Merlyn as he is these days, with dark hair and his whole persona as the immortal good/bad guy.

I know at some point in the future, John may well adopt the greying hair as gracefully as a grown up, which again bothers me, because for those of us who still wish to retain the Big Kid image, it would be sad if we too had to grow up – so please John, don’t grow up just yet, give it at least another 20 years, eh?

Jack Sparks to become a movie

Jason Arnopp announced this week that Ron Howard wants to make Jack Sparks into a movie, so if you haven’t read the novel yet, then this would be a great time to do so. Jason blogged about this great news here http://www.jasonarnopp.com/blog/ron-howard-wants-to-make-a-jack-sparks-movie as he works on the screenplay for the movie.

Sarah Pinborough

This month we learned that Sarah’s novel Behind Her Eyes, that has been a bedtime story on the radio, is to be made into a film too. Fantastic news!

Eve Pearce

Once again, Eve’s been on our telly, this time as a vampire’s date in a new Virgin Games ad. Eve’s character is shopping for groceries and stands in a queue. The vampire is a young man, who when touching one of the garlic items on the conveyor belt to scan, sees his arm illuminate. He shakes his hand in fear. Eve’s character watches, quite alarmed.

A little later on, back at the vampire’s house, there’s a knock at the door, and Eve’s character enters the room. The young vampire’s hot date! It’s quite funny and sweet all in the same breath.

So that’s it for this month. Take care and see you all back for the next instalment.

Saturday, 30 August 2014

Who Reviews The Gemini Contagion by DJ Forrest

Written by Jason Arnopp

Read by Meera Syal

Produced by BBC

Published by AudioGo Ltd 2011

ISBN: 978 1471 312083

“LISTEN TO ME! LISTEN TO ME!”

If you follow Jason Arnopp on Twitter you’ll know just how scary some of his tweets can be, especially as he’s about to log out of Twitterland for the evening. Those freakishly ‘Beware of what lies beneath the surface’ kind of tweets, some of which really do make you turn around and stare at the empty space behind you, while you’re at the computer - alone!!!

The Gemini Contagion is just as scary.

The story begins in the factory on the planet Vinsk in 2112, where the new anti viral handwash is being boxed up ready to despatch to Earth aboard a cargo ship. Lorraina a young woman is busy checking off a list of products when Magnus tears open one of the boxes containing the handwash and uses some on himself. He teases one of the workers, Ramirez to do the same including Lorraina, but the Welsh woman is not interested. Suddenly the two men begin to react to the handwash by clutching their heads and groaning, hands tensing they begin in unison to scream at Lorraina. LISTEN TO ME! LISTEN TO ME! LISTEN TO ME!

When the Doctor and Amy arrive in the TARDIS, Amy sees the men advancing on the woman and tries to distract them, but Lorraina takes a stumble off the edge and falls to her death.

The all-new anti viral handwash has been laced with Meme Spawn: a sentient micro-organism which makes the user fluent in all languages in the universe. That might be just what every human needs, especially if you’ve not got the TARDIS as your translator. But the Gemini handwash hasn’t been tested on humans, and as the cargo ship hurtles ever closer to the planet Earth, the crew aboard are succumbing to a virus that if the user touches another will spread like wildfire. With the co-ordinates already locked on for Earth, will the Doctor be able to stop the threat, before Amy succumbs to the virus, and if he has to choose which one to save first, will it be his companion or her home planet?

There are various phases of the virus which affect the user. The initial inability to be heard by fellow workers is the most frightening of them all. While they scream to be heard, the only words that make sense are LISTEN TO ME, but in every language of the universe.

As with any story, you need a great narrator and Meera Syal is perfect for this role. Already having appeared in Doctor Who as Nasreen Chaudry in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, Meera is fantastic at the voice play, giving some of the characters a variety of regional accents and some that sound very familiar.

Jason Arnopp aside from putting the wind up you on Twitter is an author and script writer. With a background in journalism Jason has written for magazines such as Heat and Doctor Who Magazine. As well as writing the Gemini Contagion, Jason has also co written UNIT Dominion and Army of Death for Big Finish, an audio drama in 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Arnopp

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Friday, 5 July 2019

Articles Welcome to Issue 71 - WATNOW: From Out of the Rain

Interviews Taking Confession with Jason Arnopp by Djak Forrest

Sunday, 9 April 2017

The Whoniverse Round-Up April

Saturday, 30 August 2014

Who Reviews The Gemini Contagion by DJ Forrest

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