Philip Henry Writer of Irish Horror

Did I get the The Dead Room finished? No, I didn't. But I did get a lot done and I feel confident it will be done by the end of May. This story just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I have a feeling this might end up being my longest book to date, and maybe my best.

I continue to approach film producers who won't even read my script. :-)

I think that's it... told you it would be brief. Hopefully more to tell next month.

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31st March 2012

Just barely in time to review March because... there isn't much to tell.

I'm going to really knuckle down and try to finish this year's novel, The Dead Room. I'm probably three-quarters done and I always write the last quarter very quickly - I just need to sit down and do it! Lately there just always seems to be something else to do, but I think I've cleared the decks now, so here's the challenge: finish it before the end of April. Check the next update to see if I succeeded.

My Ivory Summer has been entered for a couple of awards so that means more waiting. I'll let you know what happens with them, but don't hold your breath; it'll probably be months before anyone gets back to me.

I've written another short film script which I hope to shoot in May. More details on that at Coral Moon so if you're a thesp, head on over - we still need some actors.

Vampire Dawn is still selling well on Kindle and the other two parts of the trilogy are beginning to sell too. Keep spreading the word Kindlers - I appreciate it.

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27th February 2012

I'm going to try to do one of these every month - if there's anything to tell you - so here's February!

The big disappointment is that, Ghosthaven, my pilot for a TV show was sent back by the BBC. It's not all doom and gloom as they were quite positive in the notes they gave me. The only real criticism was that the hero wasn't 'fleshed-out' enough. It's such a shame you can't have a one-to-one with them about these notes, or I could have told them I did it on purpose - I wanted to reveal a little more about him every week rather than do it all in one clumsy dump in the first episode. I might try a couple of other avenues (Channel 4, Sky) before totally giving up on this, and if worst comes to worst, I'll just write it up as a novel (because I think it is a cracking idea).

As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part. I've delivered the new draft of Vampire Dawn to Northern Ireland Screen and I'm now waiting to hear what they think of it. I've made some pretty big changes, but I think it helps and makes it feel more like a movie. I'm also waiting to hear whether they're going to give us some money to make our next short film. Hopefully we'll be shooting in April, but we need to know soon if we're going to have some money behind us or be doing it on a shoestring like before. Either way, it WILL be getting made.

Dated & Working Late will be showing at the Film Devour Short Film Festival on 7th March at the Black Box, Belfast. Doors open at 7.30pm so come along and support local film-making.

Kindle editions of Vampire Dawn are still selling well, with over a hundred digital copies sold this month so far through Amazon.com. This is the first time a single title has got into triple figures. Thanks to everyone for buying and spreading the word!

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19th January 2012

First post of the new year!

I had a great meeting today at Northern Ireland Screen about the Vampire Dawn script. I'm pleased to say this was HELPFUL! I've got so many terrible notes on scripts in the past it was nice to meet someone who knew what he was talking about and was able to look at the script with fresh eyes. I've already got some great ideas for the next draft. I'll meet NIS again when that's done, and if everyone's happy the script is in good shape, then we move forward.

The Andy Porter Retrospective is back on! This was the night of shorts that had to be postponed from last November and is now showing at the Portrush Playhouse on 7th February. All the films showing that night, including two of mine - Dated and Working Late - and the premiere of the long-awaited new short from the Benson Brothers, Tosser, are made by or star people from the North Coast so come along, it's free in!

Another big thanks to all Kindle users! The digital versions of all my books are selling well, but Vampire Dawn is selling in mad numbers! Since I haven't done any additional publicity or advertising for the Kindle editions, I can only assume this is due to good word of mouth. So thanks to everyone spreading the word.

There are also a couple of other potentially exciting things on the book and TV front, but I don't want to say anything yet in case I jinx them. I'll let you know if they come to anything.

Finally, thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback so far on My Ivory Summer. I was worried about straying too far out of my genre with this book, but it seems people are loving it. I always really appreciate reader reviews on Amazon - this isn't just to feed my ego; the more reviews a book gets, the more Amazon will promote it in their emails, so even if it's only a line or two, it helps a lot. Cheers!

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