Hi Steven,
This might sound a little strange, but really this is the only realistic way of talking to you directly. I have just been away on holiday strangely enough to Greece and took Raw Shark with me, and frankly was astounded. After reading merely the first few pages I knew this was going to be special. To be honest by the time I had reached the end of the first Clio flashback I wanted to turn it into a screenplay. On looking in the book for more information on you and your writing i was devastated to discover that the rights had already been optioned. That made me a very sad panda. However to cut to the chase the more I've read the more i feel you could have been writing a character I have been born to play. My ginger cat Riley sadly died just prior to going on holiday and I had almost the same love/hate relationship with him. The conversations between Eric and Clio remind me greatly of light hearted piss taking sessions i have with my girlfriend to name but 2 examples of the similarity. I wont go into anymore details for fear of giving too much of the plot away but I have sought you out to tell you these things because I feel so passionately about the character. Now I understand how the film industry works and you probably have a big famous name involved to play the lead role so this writing is merely on a wing and a prayer. And my mum always taught me: If you dont ask, you dont get. I'd love to hear from you if you'd like to chat and punt on an unknown for the movie then I think I'm your man. Let me know.
Dave Baynes
Un-space Explorer
dhbaynes@gmail.com

Hey Dave,

Kudos for coming here and asking, sir! My gran taught me the exact same thing. Unfortunately, I'm not your man for this - the film isn't my project and I don't have any say at all on casting etc. Pete Czernin from Blueprint Films told me recently that they're looking to cast names for the lead roles, presumably because having a star or two onboard is the best way to draw down funding and actually get the film made (speaking of which, I'm hearing whispers of a January start, but you didn't hear that from me!).

But I shall try to find out when casting is taking place so that you (and the other folks who have mailed me about this one) can put yourself forward, if you'd still like to. Also, would anyone like me to see if I can get some forum members in as extras? Let me know if you're interested and I'll ask the wonderful Mr C at Blueprint.

S

As an extra?! Is that even possible!!!! Man, I'd love that!!!!!!

Sounds like there's interest in this!
I'll make enquiries and let you know what happens...

S

Dear Steven,
I finished your marvelous book just yesterday and I´m a bit confused about the ending. Okay, I get the connection between Scout and Clio, I understand why the Island is in the conceptual world, but what happens than?
Do Scout and Eric become nothing more than a concept? Because if that is true, that will mean they would be there physicaly and the body of Eric would not be found. (that is if you conect the story to Plato's theory of the world of ideas wich I think is verry applyable to this book).
This is just a thing I don't quite get, do they eventually become nothing more but a memmory, or a concept?
hopes and regrets :P
Paul

Hello Cursor,

It certainly wouldn’t be frowned upon by me! There is already an EP out there called ‘Ludovician’ I think, as –as far as I know – nobody has come after the people who recorded that.

That said, I’m sure there are legal people sitting in drab offices somewhere who might possibly frown upon something this, so I definitely couldn’t say something like – ‘just do it and we won’t tell them, wink, wink’ - to you.

No, I couldn’t say anything like that, could I? Oh no, that would be wrong…

S

Hey Jules,

Thank you!

S

What influenced you to write The Raw Shark Texts??

Hi Steven-

First off, I haven't enjoyed reading a book this much in a very long time. I didn't hold out much hope for modern writers as my nose is usually in the classics ... Salinger, Twain, Bradbury, Fitzgerald. But your book gives me hope, and I'm extremely excited to see what you come up with next. Now for my two questions.

1. What book got you initially interested in writing and who were your favorite authors growing up? As a writer myself, it sounds a bit nerdy admitting this, but I read the Hobbit when I was six, and I knew that is exactly what I wanted to do with my life.

2. I read a couple of pages ago that you had never seen Neverwhere. Have you had a chance to get around to it? If so, what did you think?

First off, this is my first real Message Board membership in a long time, and since the Mark Z. Daneilski(sic?) boards somehow won't let me in, this is the next place to go. I would like to start by saying that I love all literature obscure and "difficult" to read, James Joyce's Ulysses was my first then Finnegans wake, Then. nothing, I was searching for something else, something that no Post modern writer has ever conceived of, House of Leaves was for me, and I enjoy not only Mark's writing but his ideas as well. To cut a long story short, I have just read TRST and enjoyed it(I don't have a copy of my own, so I had to rent one from the Library), so I guess my question is really two in one, first; do you think that post modernism is "dead" or evolving, and secondly if PoMo(as I like to write it) is in a new stage, what would you call it? I always loved "Patar Modernism" but "Patar" doesn't mean anything*, so maybe that's why I like it. :)

PS
I will try to find the "Introduce yourself" board so everyone knows me!

* I thought that Patar ment greater in Greek, but....