JAMES SWALLOW

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Writing

My Top 5 Fictional Espionage Agencies

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Over at Nudge, the website for the NewBooks magazine for readers and book groups, there’s a competition runnign to win one of five copies of my new thriller novel Nomad, and as a run in for that, they asked my to write something about things I enjoy in the spy genre.
 

So, I chose to write a Top 5 of my favourite fictional espionage agencies and what makes each of them so interesting…

Read the piece Here; and feel free to suggest your own Top 5 Spy-Fi organizations in the comments.

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Talking Inspiration with Writing.ie

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Writing.ie is one of Ireland’s foremost resource sites and discussion blogs for authors and readers, and I was very pleased to be asked to write a blog entry for them as part of my ongoing promotional effort for Nomad, my new novel.


They asked me to jot down something about “inspiration” and what came out the other end was an honest ramble through a bit of my own personal backstory and some of the motivation that made me want to write my thriller…

Check out my words Here…

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You Are Hearing Me Talk…to BAFTA Guru

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have been doing a lot over the past few years to make videogames an important part of their organization, and most recently there was a whole day of games-related events as part of the BAFTA Guru program – as the official site Here says, “Guru is bursting with advice from the best creative minds in the industries so whether you’re an actor, a games developer or a cinematographer, we’ve got something for you.”


I was pleased to be part of the Guru Live event last month, where I took part in a panel called “The Storytellers”, along with Meg Jayanth (80 Days) and Rob Yescombe (The Division), hosted by Guy Cocker, where we talked about the various challenges of writing for interactive media. You can click on the panel below or go Here to listen.

 
BAFTA Guru have now put up all the audio recordings from the games day and you can check out the rest of them Here.

You Are Hearing Me Talk…About Star Trek & Videogames

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I’ve been busy on a bunch of writing projects over the past couple of weeks, so I’ve been slack on posting some new bits up here on the blog – to redress that balance, here are some linkys to a few interviews I did last month…


First, check out episode 142 (“Star Trek Vs. Godzilla“) of Trek FM’s Literary Treks books and comics show, where I talk with Dan Gunther and Matt Rushing about my new classic Star Trek novel The Latter Fire. Click here to stream the show.

You can also find me talking about Star Trek, games and a bunch of other stuff on episode 229 of the G & T Show live podcast from the start of the show to the 1:45 mark. Click here to listen.

And lastly, I’m here discussing videogames (specifically the recently released mmo-shooter-rpg hybrid The Division) on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Game On show. Click here to listen.

I Speak Games

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In what has now become something of an annual pre-Christmas tradition, Siobhán Thomas of the London South Bank University – she’s Senior Lecturer and Course Director of the BA (Hons) Game Cultures course there – has wrangled together myself and a group of games writers to talk about what it is we do.

Under the banner of the LSBU and in association with the International Games Developers Association London and The Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, I’ll be joining a bunch of industry veterans to talk about this year’s theme of combining narrative with gameplay; here’s the event blurb…

Playing the Story – how to marry gameplay with narrative without divorcing the player.

With narrative-driven and narrative-heavy games getting 9/10 and 10/10 reviews, has the era of story in games arrived, or is plot still ‘gameplay’s bitch’?

Join Rhianna (Tomb Raider) Pratchett, James (Deus Ex) Swallow, Andrew (Fable: Legends) Walsh, Ed (Brink) Stern and Tom (Subnautica) Jubert for a panel on the tricks, traps and travails of making stories work in games. After the event we’ll be heading over to The Albert Arms pub for further chat and networking.

The panel will take place at the Keyworth Centre, London South Bank University on Wednesday, December 9th from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. Tickets are free but limited in number; to register for one, click Here.

SCI FI Bromley on Saturday

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Ah, Bromley; you might not think it, but this leafy London suburb has always a dash of science fiction running through its streets. HG Wells spent a troubled childhood there before going on to write The Time Machine and War of the Worlds. Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie, lived there in the 50’s. And if you want to stretch the definition, even children’s author and local lass Enid Blyton flirted with SF concepts in some of her novels.

So it’s kinda cool that this Saturday, a couple of time machines (specifically a TARDIS and the one from the 1960’s movie of the same name) will be materializing there, along with me and a bunch of other folks for the inaugural SCI FI Bromley show; there’s also a concert planned for the evening, where the Lewisham Concert Band will play a set of famous SF themes.

The event runs from 11:00am to 6:00pm at the Great Hall in the Bromley Civic Centre.

As well as a display of props, sales stands and cosplay stuff going on, I’ll be there signing books and taking part in Q&A panels with fellow authors Graham Guy and Graham Austin-King at 12:15pm and 3:15pm.

Also appearing at the show are Jami Reid-Quarrell from Doctor Who and Star Wars alumni Nick Joseph, Ted Western, Alan Flyng, Barrie Holland, Laurie Goode, Brian Muir and Stephanie English.

Entry to the show is free and tickets for the concert are £18, with proceeds going to charities Connect and the The National Brain Appeal.

For more information about the event, check out the website Here.