Archive for the ‘ice shock’ Category

Posted on March 4, 2009 - by MG

Ice Shock Cake at Blackwell’s, Oxford

Gorgeous party at Blackwell’s last night to celebrate the publication of ICE SHOCK. Children and adult friends, librarians and publishers my agent and fellow Litopian Richard Howse and the force of nature that is Bill Heine joined me and some wonderfully generous staff at Blackwell’s, Oxford to party.

Regular blog readers, FaceBook and Twitter friends will already be aware of my cake-fixation, so shouldn’t be surprised to see that I took the opportunity for a major baking session. Cup cakes and the biggest, fattest chocolate cake that I know how to make. With a filling made from melting Dairy Milk and Bourneville bars with a bar of unsalted Normandy butter. I had a piece this morning. Damn, it was good! That is the best recipe ever, ever, from a book that deserves its title: The Cake Bible.

Photos are now on Flickr.

Tomorrow, the Official Launch on World Book Day at St Gregory the Great School, Oxford. Where for the first time ever, I will read aloud from ICE SHOCK.

Posted on March 3, 2009 - by MG

ICE SHOCK and doughnuts

ICE SHOCK is out! So just as we did last year, members of the Joshua Files Facebook group met up at Krispy Kreme in Oxford to share a few boxes of doughnuts and chat about the new book.

Two young lads sat down to crack the new code in ICE SHOCK – it’s a clue for the Alternate Reality Game, you know! I had a nice long chat with Jacky Atkinson, one of the organisers of the Kids Lit Quiz.

Then I went home and frosted the big choccy cake that we’re having for the Joshua party at Blackwell’s tomorrow night.

I hope you are all THRILLED by ICE SHOCK. Check out excerpts, downloads and tips about playing the ARG at wonderful TheJoshuaFiles.com.

Posted on February 10, 2009 - by MG

ICE SHOCK – author copies have arrived!

The Joshua Files: Ice Shock

Originally uploaded by mgharris

Squeals of joy. Two boxes arrived – one for me, one of copies to sign for prizes on swapitshop.com.

I played with them, like dolls. I arranged them in little stacks and next to doughnuts and took photos. I didn’t give them a bath or dress them, but I almost hugged them.

Tomorrow I might hug them. I really might.

Posted on January 19, 2009 - by MG

A Joshua-themed writing competition for schools

Very happy today for several reasons.

One is that Scholastic have launched a writing competition for schools, in the magazine Junior Education Plus.

On the website and in the magazine you’ll find the first 600 words of a short story – written by me.

To enter the contest, you then write the ending of the story – in 200 words.

The winner gets a signed copy of INVISIBLE CITY (or I guess you could ask for ICE SHOCK if the winner has it already), plus £150 of books for their school.

The story is brilliantly illustrated by Dave Neale and the online interactive version includes turning pages and cool sound effects!

The story is called ‘Stars Fell On Campeche’ and features Josh when he was younger, playing football at some ancient Mayan ruins where his father worked. It was originally one of four prologues I wrote for the opening of INVISIBLE CITY. (In the end we went with the newspaper article about the strange incident at the museum…) 

And the other reason I’m happy is that the German (Frank Boehmert) and Slovakian (Ivan Stefanek) translators of Joshua are reading ICE SHOCK now, getting ready to translate it. Frank even blogged about ICE SHOCK (vielen Dank, Frank!).

Still reading the brilliant “Black Swan” book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I wrote him a fan email yesterday and he replied right away! (I told him that one day, a character in Joshua will quote him…he wrote back that he’s very intrigued…)

Posted on January 6, 2009 - by MG

Make your own ICE SHOCK trailer! (and some ARG news…)

Well a very Happy New year to everyone on this lovely, crispy-crunchy Twelfth Night!

I thought I’d alert my blog readers to the fact that there’s a new contest at themgharris.com, the official online hangout for fans of The Joshua Files. 

This one is for budding movie-makers – to make a 30-second video for ICE SHOCK.

There are photos, images, hints, tips, sources of royalty-free images and music, plus a couple of plot spoilers for ICE SHOCK, to nudge your creative impulses.

Go on, have a try! You could win one of these:

In other news, I have had a stonkingly good Christmas and New Year with much socialising and partying – but not TOO much. I can’t handle too much – start to crave the peace and quiet of my desk.

But some is good, as is afternoon tea at Huffkins in Burford, a lovely Cotswold village.

Apart from that, I’ve also been working on the ARG (Alternate Reality Game).

I forget – have we said what it’s going to be called yet?

Nope, I don’t believe we have. Well, it’s called THE DESCENDANT, which is the title of the techno-thriller novel I wrote back in 2005, before INVISIBLE CITY. It’s from this manuscript that the backstory of Joshua Files is drawn, as well as the ARG. I originally conceived a sequel, which was to be entitled THE FIFTH CODEX. 

But then it struck me that the hero of THE FIFTH CODEX could be a youngster. And from that, I had the idea to write for children. (That and a reluctant-reader teenage daughter who I longed to see reading…)

At the beginning of THE DESCENDANT two DNA scientists meet to swap secret biological samples. One scientist is murdered and the other goes on the run. Is he the killer? Or is he running from the killer? The story moves from Mexico to Europe and then to Iraq, where a mysterious underground chamber hides an ancient secret about human civilisation.

For the ARG, we introduced a new character, Gabi – the teenage daughter of the murdered scientist. Her father has been killed – but why? And by whom? Like Josh she’s all alone…stressed out…can’t believe what she’s hearing about her father…and increasingly close to danger. And since her Dad was Josh’s godfather, Gabi turns to her old friend in Oxford for help.

Josh is ready and happy to help…but it won’t be long before his life is taken over by the dramatic events at the beginning of ICE SHOCK.

When we launch THE DESCENDANT ARG you’ll be able to watch as Gabi’s story unfolds. Who’ll solve the mystery first – you or Gabi? And will Gabi survive to tell the tale? In a real-time interactive finale you’ll be able to watch and assist as Gabi goes on a midnight run – with her life at stake.

I’m making a 60-second video trailer about THE DESCENDANT for some online retailers who are interested in having a glimpse. Is this the kind of thing you’d like to see here too? Or does it too badly violate the ARG maxim TINAG – This Is Not A Game?

Tell me what you think.