Look at this beautiful piece of art by Faye W., 13, from the UK:

It shows Esme, Jack (and the Chinj!) and Charlie – characters from my debut novel, The Black Tattoo. I’ve just added it to the slideshow at the Black Tat Reader Art Page.

I consider it a huge honour when people use my stories as a starting point for great creative work of their own. And I adore the Chinj’s raised eyebrow! Thank you, Faye.

Still with awesome art, for a guest spot by ace illustrator Phil Harvey check Trapped By Monsters.

OK, as promised, it’s time to announce the winner of the Spinechills / Crawlers Competition, the horror writing contest that’s been running this past month or so based on creatures from CRAWLERS.

Picking a winner was a nightmare. My congratulations and best wishes to runners-up Ajay, Veronica and Ecner for their bloodcurdling and brilliant work, but my favourite was FINE, by Oliver Reid.

Here I am reading it out. Those of a nervous disposition listen at your own risk…

Congratulations, Oliver! Your 5-cd unabridged audiobook of CRAWLERS is on its way to you now. And another big thank you to Holly for running this competition on her awesome blog.

My brilliant mate Katie, who designs and maintains all my websites, is about to head off on maternity leave. Before she does, she’s just completed a mammoth list of updates. If you check out the sites for The Black Tattoo, Tim, Defender of the Earth and Crawlers you’ll find that all broken links have now gone, the links between the sites and the homepage are much clearer and the Reader Quotes, Q&A, Editions Details, Reader Art and Interviews pages are now fully current with all the latest. In addition, to my particular glee and delight, I can now – at last! – also show you THIS:

And THIS:

Congratulations, arm-waving and awed disgust to Welly Woo, creator of these images and the undisputed winner of Round Ten of the Black Tat No Monsters Were Harmed In The Making Of This Website Competition!

As the sinister masterplan has continued, keeping on top of its online element has been no small task – particularly for The WebSpinx who (lately) has kept it all going through a major house move while bringing up a very young child and expecting another. I think my sites for The Black Tattoo, Tim, Defender of the Earth and Crawlers – plus, of course, my homepage – all look awesome, so I hope you’ll join me in raising a virtual glass in salute to Katie and her hard work.

All Hail the Mighty WebSpinx! Here’s wishing you all the best, my dear. And thank you so much. 😀

Sam

Yesterday I did my stuff at St Ivo School, Cambridgeshire. The above headline is no comment on the school or the wonderful welcome I received there: I’m referring to one of the most astonishing pieces of art inspired by my stories that it’s yet been my privilege to see. Feast yer eyes on THIS:

Yes, it’s a recreation of The Gladiator Pits from The Black Tattoo! Close examination of the above pic will reveal fabulous and amazingly life-like clay models of various Hell denizens including Gloag Shargle, Ripitith Gunch, Jocasta, Lord Slint and several Chinj.

These monsterpieces were spawned as the result of a competition amongst St Ivo’s Year 7. Choosing one winner and one runner-up out of all this awesomeness was almost impossible, but I gave first prize to Izzy for her deliciously sinister vision of The Scourge:

The runner-up prize I awarded to Anna, for her endearingly vile Leo the Unspeakable:

That’s some beautifully rendered mandible slime, I think you’ll agree. And the single bloodshot eye is a lovely touch.

I gave three talks, to a total of three hundred students.

The signing at lunchtime seemed pretty popular, and I was delighted to see that my new mutant baby, Crawlers, was the favourite of my three books sales-wise.

A huge and gleeful thank you to everyone I met at St Ivo for a thoroughly brilliant day. 😀

Just a quick post to let you know that The Mighty WebSphinx has come through with some important updates to the website of my debut novel The Black Tattoo. She’s straightened up the Editions and Links pages. No less than eight recent questions and answers have been added to the Black Tat Q&A Page. We’ve also put together a radical new look for the Black Tat Reader Art Page. From now on, any Black Tat-inspired imagery that my readers choose to share with me can be uploaded to my Flickr photostream to appear in this stunning slideshow:

Meanwhile for a slightly obscure early hint about Phase Four of My Sinister Masterplan To Conquer the Universe, click here.

Mwaha. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Check out this stunning piece of Black Tat-inspired art by Kestrel, 13, of Chandler, Arizona:

Isn’t it gorgeous?

When people use my stories as a jumping off point to create special new things of their own, that makes me very happy. If The Black Tattoo or Tim, Defender of the Earth have inspired you, then please follow those links to those books’ Reader Art pages: I’d be honoured and thrilled if you would share your work with me.

As to Crawlers art, it’s early days yet. But tentacles crossed. 😀