Being Creative

Uncannycon 2024 and other delights

The lowdown from this weekend's paranormal event, plus Acolyte-inspired covers, talking Doctor Who and a lovely gift!

Cavan Scott

12 Dec 2024 • 8 min read

Hello there!

My newsletter is one day later than planned, mainly as I was pushing to hit my kid's book deadline and get the manuscript out the door. It went off late last night, which is a big relief!

I always forget how shattered I feel the day after a big push, but thankfully I only have a couple of meetings today, so I can largely recover. I've also just discovered that Legend is on Disney+ so I am fighting the urge to curl up and watch that in the glow of the Christmas tree!

Note to self: plan decompression days after the end of a big project in 2025 rather than just jumping from one thing to another.

Anyway, onto today's newsletter! Here's what we have in store!

UNCANNYCON 2024

I had a brilliant time at Uncannycon at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday. I was there with my daughter Chloe, who shares my love for Danny Robins' Uncanny podcast, which investigates ghostly, cryptid and UFO encounters.

A highlight was meeting the primary Uncanny crew, Danny himself along with parapsychologists Ciarán O'Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow.

What followed was a fascinating day of talks and panels including appearances from some of the eye-witnesses featured in the podcast, TV show and Danny's excellent book Into the Uncanny, plus a raft of experts in all things spooktastic, culminating in the live recording of the Christmas special which stars Evelyn and special guest Reece Shearsmith in front of an audience of 2,000 Uncanny fans.

Forgive the fuzzy photos! We were in the back stalls of the simply stunning Royal Festival Hall

So many moments have stayed with me, including something one of the witnesses said about her own ghostly encounter as a child. It's inspired an entirely new take on one of my main characters in a project I'm planning to start in the new year.

I love it when that happens. The notes are now all tucked away in the official project notebook ready to expand over the next few weeks.

The day also saw my daughter and I popping out for a spot of dinner before sessions, where Chloe managed to capture a special moment, which she edited into the following video. Enjoy!

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NEW FEAR OF THE JEDI VARIANT REVEAL

Marvel has revealed the Black History Month variant of Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #1 with a stunning Mateus Manhanni cover that will please fans of the Acolyte!

Talk to your friendly neighbourhood comic shop to get those Fear of the Jedi #1 pre-orders in!

NEW INTERVIEW - TALKING DOCTOR WHO: THE SHINING MAN

I don't get much chance to talk about my Doctor Who days, so it was a lot of fun to dip back into the TARDIS to discuss my Twelfth Doctor novel, The Shining Man, with old pal Kenny Smith on the Power of 3 podcast.

I've always been gutted that we never got audiobooks of these particular releases, so it was marvellous to hear a couple of the passages read so well in the podcast too!

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS!

It's Q&A time!

WEDDING BELLS?

First up, is the wonderfully named SaberSavvy who DM'd me to ask:

Cavan! I've just got to Kradon's cameo in Tempest Runner and loved his conversation with Tey about Matty and Vildar, but I have one burning question. Kradon seemed to call Vildar Tey's husband?!

DID TEY AND VILDAR GET CANONICALLY MARRIED??? DID YOU ACTUALLY DO IT???

(Yes)

ROLL THE DICE!

Joe G used my Ask Me Anything form to ask:

Did you play any role-playing games when you were younger? Did it help you become the writer you are today?

Hey Joe,

I dabbled with D&D at school, but I was never much of a role-player although I've been getting into it more in recent years and am in the process of setting up a group with George Mann to play more.

I did, however, play a heap of Fighting Fantasy books when I was a kid, which I guess are role-playing adjacent and definitely impacted my love of writing horror for younger readers.

*Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension from* *Damien's great piece about the books*

I remember sending some of the illustrations from those books to my Lucasfilm editor when we were working on the Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny adventure books and she freaked. Her exact phrase was:

"Those are for KIDS?? What is wrong with you Brits?"

*Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension*

Britain in the 70s and 80s: when TV, comics and books sought to traumatise kiddies at every turn and it was WONDERFUL!

AUDIO DRAMA INVOLVEMENT

Ronja asked on Bluesky:

I was just wondering how involved you are in the production of an audiodrama like Tempest Runner/Breaker? Do you have any say in who the voice actors are or a hand in directing? I am entirely new to this 🫡😅

Hi Ronja!

In the case of the Star Wars audio, we don't have much to do with the casting, primarily because Penguin Random House Audio has such a great rep company already on the books. Of course, a lot of the cast of Tempest Runner returned for this one so I was already writing for their voices!

As the writer, you provide notes on voices in the script, but it's usually the director who casts along with the producers—a process I always enjoyed when I was producing audios for Big Finish Productions.

NOVEL GENRES ON MY WISHLIST

Olly Grant asked:

If you could write a novel in any genre you haven’t tackled yet, what would it be?

Ooh, interesting question, Olly!

Well, I've dipped my toe in crime writing with my two Sherlock Holmes novels The Patchwork Devil and Cry of the Innocents, but I would love to try something in the cosy crime genre as it's a real not-at-all guilty pleasure of mine.

And, thinking about Fighting Fantasy, I've never actually written something that is out-and-out of epic fantasy. That would be a lot of fun!

Faithful subscribers, what genre would YOU like to see me tackle? Let me know in the comments!

More questions next week, but in the meantime, don’t forget you can ask me your questions by replying to this mail, leaving your query in the comments or using my handy ASK ME ANYTHING form.

THINGS THAT GIVE ME JOY

THE TEA & SANCTUARY PODCAST ADVENT CALENDAR

Need some peace and joy in your festive season? Then subscribe to the Tea & Sanctuary podcast advent calendar where the lovely Emma Newman shares something that has delighted her over the last year.

It's a warm hug for your ears and makes me smile so much.

PUNCH IT CHEWIE PRESS

I also wanted to say a big thank you to Punch It Chewie Press for sending me a lovely care package, just in time for Christmas.

Knowing that I collect pins, the wonderful folk behind the Punch It Chewie store sent me some gems for my ever-growing collection, including a sensational Darth Bane pin in both full glittering colour and a limited edition pewter edition.

Also included in the box was my boy Stellan Gios, Boba Fett and Punch It Chewie's 2024 SDCC exclusive based on the droid corner box art from the original Marvel run.

And they topped everything off with a lanyard inspired on the Luke Skywalker corner box art too! That's going to be my 2025 convention lanyard of choice!

Thank you SO much Punch It Chewie Press! I really appreciated the gift! May the Force be with you and yours this holiday season!