Usually down the years with this blog, I have tended to write about exciting developments in my writing career as soon as possible. Partly to show off about them, of course! But also because I enjoy having this blog as a record. I do have a private diary as well, in which I write about what goes on in my life purely for my own personal posterity and interest to look back on. But somehow, having it all here as well, all laid out in neatly ordered little chunks as it develops over time, is also nice to have.
Which is all a very roundabout way of getting to the point and saying that something exciting has happened - or at least, is happening - and I haven't got around to writing about it here yet. I'm not exactly sure why. Possibly because it was a while after I knew it was happening before it was officially announced and I was able to talk about it. A little bit because I have been busy working on a new writing project over the summer. But I think mostly because I simply hadn't got around to summoning the effort to sit down and get back to the blog.
So, here I am!
Late last year, I happened to come into contact with Michael Stevens, the editor of BBC Audiobooks and their official range of Doctor Who releases. It transpired that he had bought, read and enjoyed Pull to Open, and we got to talking about some possible Doctor Who ideas I could perhaps be involved in for the audiobook range. Eventually, Michael decided that it might be nice to put out an audiobook release of Pull to Open.
Everything was agreed, I prepared a suitable abridgement, and earlier this year it was recorded - rather pleasingly, at BBC Audiobooks' studio at Television Centre, the building where back in April 1963 Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson had sat down and created the basic format of Doctor Who together in the first place. I was going to go along to the recording, which would have been very exciting, but sadly the practicalities of it all didn't work out in the end. Probably just as well for them - the last thing they needed was me hanging around getting in the way!
But it's all been successfully recorded, and is due to be released this November. The reading is by Christopher Naylor, well-known to Doctor Who fans as the actor who these days plays Harry Sullivan in Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio dramas, in place of the late Ian Marter. There won't be a physical release of Pull to Open - it's rather long, and would take up a fair few CDs! - but there is still a 'cover' for promotional and online shopping purposes, which I'm pleased to say has been adapted by the original team behind the Ten Acre version, Stuart Manning and Andrew Orton. But now with the official Doctor Who logo and the BBC blocks on it!
Yes, to paraphrase the wonderful Completely Useless Encyclopedia, I am now officially Worthy Of The Diamond Logo! And because of the unique way in which BBC Audiobooks works, a Penguin author, too... The audiobook went on pre-sale a few weeks ago and since then it's been bobbing about in the audiobook bestseller charts on Amazon in the "Film History & Criticism" section. Which it isn't either of, of course - but I'm not complaining!
