Lifetime's ambition fulfilled at long last

Here I am, posing with the evidence of a lifetime's achievement.

I've finally got a book on sale in Asda!

Can you believe that? All these long years of misery spent wandering the aisles of our local store, wondering why one of my titles couldn't be up there with all those others, and hey presto - yesterday, completely out of the blue, I spy a bunch of copies of HUNTER'S MOON. Sitting there, pristine, glimmering under the arclights.

Who says dreams don't come true?

On a slightly less humorous but equally pleasing note, I had a great tip off from BBC Books last week. It sounds as if HUNTER'S MOON has got off to a good start in terms of sales. Early Bookscan fitures put it at number 13 on the list for hardback fiction, and that was after it had only been on sale for three days. There's even a possibilty that some time this week it may crack the top ten.

Hope so, at least.

HUNTER'S MOON also seems to be doing well in the critical stakes. No reviews that I've read are disparaging thus far. Here's a nice quote, which I've extracted (without permission, I hasten to add) from a review posted by FRANK on cathoderaytube.blogspot:

Finch's novel shifts from contemporary, austerity struck UK, and a very grounded reality, to something akin to Blake's 7 with a multi-million pound budget. Indeed, I was happy to recall a particularly fine Robert Holmes episode Gambit while reading this, especially the early chapters when Amy and Rory explore the casinos of LP9.

The plot is straight-forward action adventure using the well-heeled, run-down dirty futurism of Blade Runner and its ilk but it's a high-octane tale, very descriptively written by Finch who clearly relishes in the colour and detail of the worlds and characters he has created. The result is a book that you can absorb yourself in, where the surface and dereliction of Gorgoror becomes a very tangible place, full of danger from disused installations and a variety of nasties. As soon as all the characters reach this desolate place, the novel becomes an exhausting chase, almost like the various levels of a well detailed and immersive video game environment.

I hope that makes it sound enticing to those who haven't yet dipped into it.

In other news this week, non-Who related on this occasion, I've got a 15-minute slot on the Heather Stott show on BBC Radio Manchester this Friday morning, in which to talk about THE DEVIL'S ROCK.

I'm not one to read anything into unnerving dates like Friday 13th (this is actually the same day TDR opens in Cannes, so that's quite cool), but 15 minutes!

I have to talk for 15 minutes?

Is such a thing possible? I guess we'll see on Friday. Those of you who live in the region, please tune in and give me moral support. I haven't got the actual times yet - it'll be mid-morning sometime. Watch this space for further details.

A final word now regarding my MEDI-EVIL trilogy, which prides itself on telling blood-curdling supernatural tales from times thankfully past. A few folks have already picked it up via Kindle. But the entire series is also now available on Smashwords. If you're interested, you can grab it here:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brentwoodpress