Most people seemed to get the joke earlier in the week – that I wrote this month’s 12STORIES story about myself, and dressed it up as a distressing, crazed fan-related incident – but I think I loaded it with a few too many details for some folks, and quite a few people got in touch to ask if my family and I were okay.
I just wanted to set the record straight: though there are some elements of truth in my story AN APOLOGY, most of it is total fiction.
TRUE:
- I did know someone called Gordon from Coventry – we worked together for a number of years and he was an all round good chap
- I did do an event in Coventry with Wayne Simmons which, by a freakish coincidence, took place exactly 10 years ago today
- A close friend of mine did get married in Cornwall at short notice this month, and my wife and I (along with two of our daughters) did go along and made a short holiday of it
- I did have a fan track me down by using the WHOIS information on an old website (and I have marked everything private now) – he phoned to complain that I hadn’t released AUTUMN: DISINTEGRATION after promising it was coming for years. In the story, ‘Gordon’ had a similar, completely justifiable complaint to make about THE SPACES BETWEEN books, which are more than a decade overdue (but which I WILL write one day)
- July’s half-written 12STORIES entry really is going to be called CANNON FODDER
- The EDEN PROJECT really is an incredible place, and it’s a prime location for a future story (photo added below as proof we were there).
FALSE:
- Everything else!
I’m genuinely sorry if the story upset you. I was hoping the last few lines would give the game away, but I hadn’t counted on people not getting that far before they got worried and got in touch. On a very serious note, I’m really touched by your concern. AN APOLOGY went a little bit viral (by my standards) on Tuesday night, so thank you all for taking the time to read it.
