With skilful storytelling, the authors of the Burn the Sky duology have crafted a captivating narrative that pulls readers into a vibrant world full of excitement and adventure, creating a compelling reading experience.
From piles of rubbish, remarkable things can be created. Entire worlds are imagined. Stories are written. Characters live and breathe in places that began as nothing more than scattered ideas and discarded fragments.
Over the past month I’ve been doing something similar on a much smaller scale.
A stack of weathered old decking boards full of screw holes and years of use, has slowly been turned into the desk where those worlds and stories will be written. Piece by piece the timber was cut down, layered, glued, and shaped into something new.
This post is a small look at that process: how a pile of old boards became the table where the next stories will begin.
Two early-’90s songs, telling the same story in different keys.
Hazard brings the suspicion; Where the Wild Roses Grow brings the aftermath. Together, they suggest a place where innocence doesn’t disappear — it drifts, and the town decides who it belongs to next.
Hazardous was my first screenplay. Written as an opening scene, it withholds answers on purpose. The story isn’t about who did it — it’s about how quickly we decide.
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A KGB defector sits down for an interview.
You expect talk of spies, secrets—something explosive. Instead, he describes something quieter. A process that takes years. One that changes how people think without them realising it.
It doesn’t sound like a thriller. It sounds like science fiction, and a familiar one at that.
This is Stage One.