Iain McLaughlin

July 5, 2018

Okay, so this is now public. I've got a story in Unbound: Adventures in Time and Space, a forthcoming Doctor Who anthology. Cold Comfort is written by the fab Claire Bartlett and myself. You can learn more about this book here. I'll give more details - or deets as the younglings say - nearer to release.

June 26, 2018

I have another Commando out... this one is titled The Dark Spitfire and features a gorgeous cover by the legend that is Ian Kennedy.

May 21st, 2018

I haven't updated for a few weeks. That's not because nothing's happening - lots of things are happening - it's just that I can't talk about them yet. I'm doing lots in interesting and exciting projects but now just isn't the time to talk about them. I promise, I'm not sitting here with a cup of tea, a packet of Hobnobs and my feet up on the desk. Well, not all the time anyway.

April 16, 2018

This here book, Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who, is out next month from Kozmic Press. The anthology of essay on the Doctor's friends and companions is raising money for Furkids, Georgia’s largest animal rescue and no-kill shelter. I contributed a chapter on Erimem. You can find more details here.

March 19, 2018

I have another Commando story available. Doctor's Orders is set during the Gulf War. I wanted to do a story that was set away from the usual WW1 or WW2 settings. I also wanted to get another female lead character into an action-based Commando story. Commando is all about the action. As a writer you have to get the character work in there but their selling point is the action so it's always got to be in there. I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. 

March 14, 2018

Available today, my Omega Factor novel, Spider's Web, is published by Big Finish Productions. It's a pleasure to dip back into this series. I remember it from when I was a kid. I really remember it freaking my sister out, which is always a good thing. I hope this story - set during that 1970s series - is as unsettling to some as the series was to me. Also out today from Big Finish is the third series of their contemporary continuation Omega Factor series, which again stars the amazing Louise Jameson. If you don't know this series, it's a kind of proto X-Files with added Edinburgh and has a rather disturbing atmosphere bubbling under. It was really good back in the 70s. The new audios are every bit as good.

February 27, 2018

The Churchill Years Volume Two, which contains Human Conflict written by me, has now been released. It's available from Big Finish's site. The play brings together many of my favourite things - Doctor Who, Winston Churchill, James Bond (ish) and my home town of Dundee. The story has actually made the local press here in Dundee. I'm in the Courier... in Dundee, that's fame.

February 26, 2018

My current reading... PROFESSOR HOWE AND THE TOOTHLESS TRIBE by Christopher Samuel Stone... actually, it's not my current reading because I didn't want to put it down and I just finished it. It's a cracking read, a delicious parody, full of affection for Doctor Who, and full of really sharp humour. There are some delightfully groanworthy puns but some really incisive gags that hit the mark with the fanboy in me. I really like that it hit me with gags of all kinds. I laughed a lot. I'd heartily recommend it and I'm looking forward to the reading the sequels. You can read more here.

February 08, 2018

A couple of years ago, writer Tommy Donbavand was diagnosed with cancer. Tommy is a really good guy who fought the cancer with courage and humour. To give him a help and a smile, a bunch of writers produced the anthology A Target for Tommy. Unfortunately, Tommy has been diagnosed with cancer again. To help out there is another anthology, A Second Target for Tommy. It's full of lovely goodness which every Doctor Who fan is going to love, including some unseen Ninth Doctor script from an early draft of the 50th anniversary story written by Steven Moffatt. The book is for a great cause and is full of work by terrific writers. All proceeds go to help Tommy. Read more about the book and purchase it here.

January 09, 2018

Out today, Ambush in Kenya, a Commando adventure written by me. It's set in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising. Unusually, it was a story that came with a number of requests from the Commando C.O.- but I've always liked stories that arrive with shopping lists attached. In some ways it makes plotting and writing the stories easier when there are things you have to include. They sort of impose a structure on the story. I enjoyed writing this script a lot. Then again, writing Commando is always fun.

December 29, 2017

Over at the Thebes Publishing website you can find a new Erimem short story, Auld Acquaintance, which is set around New Year 2017 and which rather acts as a taster for something that will be happening in the books later in the year. It's always a joy to write for Erimem and her chums. I'm looking forward to my next meeting with her. 

I'd also like to wish each and every one of us all the happiest, most prosperous and most successful 2018. A Happy New Year to everyone when it comes.

November 26, 2017

Writing a book and seeing it published is quite a feeling. I remember vividly the buzz I got from holding a copy of my first book. Twenty books later I still get the same sense of excitement. These days, not every book goes through the traditional route of publishing and self-publishing is now a very respectable way of getting your book to the public. I am doing some editing for Tay Books, which helps people self-publish their books to the highest possible professional standards. Are you looking to get your book out there? Who knows? We might wind up working together.

November 2, 2017

As winter arrives and the weather turns cold here in Scotland, it feels apt that the next Commando I wrote is set in the icy north of Canada with a dip into a real bit of history - the British plan to build an artificial iceberg made of pykrete, a mixture of ice and wood pulp that's as solid as concrete. It was a genuine idea that was really looked into. The artificial iceberg would have acted as a sort of aircraft carrier, hosting squadrons of Spitfires in the North Atlantic. It's the sort of the I can help wishing had actually been built.

October 27, 2017

Here's a little book I did for Black & White Publishing. I have a fair bit of history with the Broons and Oor Wullie. When I was a kid we always went to my grandparents' house on a Sunday. When it rained, us kids were shoved into the house's hall to play or read or whatever and we often read the Broons and Oor Wullie books which my grandfather - our Papa - collected. Since then my sister has collected the books and in 2005-2006 I handled the pages for the Sunday Post newspaper, occasionally writing scripts when needed. Since I went freelance I've written for the characters as well. I'm hugely fond of them and am delighted to have a connection to these Scottish icons. This book is full of art by the legendary Dudley Watkins and is on sale now, I think.

October 15, 2017

I'm back in the land of Erimem next year, writing the novella, The Egyptian Falcon, which is set in 1940s Hollywood. Later in the year I also have the Erimem novel, The Final Frontier, which may sound a bit Star Trek-y... the reason being that it's a full on space opera novel. Space battles, alien races, galactic war... with a bunch of characters in the middle of it, most of whom admit they love Star Trek and love that they're getting to live it.

October 08, 2017

Well, lookee here, I have another Commando story published. This one started life in my head way back in about 2013 when I was actually working on the editorial staff of Commando. However, I never got the chance to write it at the time. But I have now... it's meant to be a bit Jack Higgins or Alistair Maclean. It's a thriller that starts during WW2 and finishes with the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Target: Armageddon was good fun to do, I must admit.

October 04, 2017

A collection of scripts from Imagination Theatre's Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio series will be released to go alongside the ongoing MX Sherlock Holmes anthologies. They're for the good cause of the repair and upkeep of Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's former homes. None of the writers or actors involved are picking up a penny for this. Everything is going to the good cause. It's being crowdfunded through Kickstarter. You can read more about it here. The story Claire and I contributed is The Beast of Hyndford, which may just have won an award at the Moondance International Film Festival. Did I never mention that before? I'm so modest, you see... 

September 14, 2017

OUT! is now out! My new Young Adult book is published by Badger Learning. It's a tale of a teenage girl coming out to her family and dealing with the repercussions. 

You can learn more about OUT! and the other titles in this terrific series here at Badger Learning's site. They've got got great books and some really talented authors working for them - oh, and me.

From the intro page of the book...

This diary belongs to Jacqueline Harrison Jax
(nobody calls me Jacqueline and lives)
P.S. If you are reading this and you are not me, you’re in trouble. I know who you are and I know where you live…

September 7, 2017

I've got another Commando out today. This one's a WW2 espionage tale. One of my favourite TV shows from the late 70s/early 80s was Secret Army. I dipped into the atmosphere of that when I was thinking about some Commando plots... Fatherland more action based than Secret Army was but that show was a big influence on me when I was plotting and trying to come up with the atmosphere of this story.

September 4, 2017

The latest Erimem novel, Three Faces of Helena, is now available. It's written by me - even though it wasn't meant to be. This book ties up the backstory of Helena and features legendary explorer Allan Quatermain. It's available in hardback, paperback and large print format from Thebes Publishing.

August 31, 2017

Over at Imagination Theatre's Youtube channel you can listen to Curse of the Mummy, a Hammer-esque horror I wrote with the splendid Claire Bartlett. There's one very obvious Doctor Who gag and you can play the game of "Which Hammer stalwart did they have in mind when they wrote this character?" Just imagine it was being made around 1971 or 72, and then wonder who Hammer would have cast.

August 30, 2017

The first of my Commando scripts is now available. It's not the first thing I've written for Commando. I worked on the staff there from late 2013- early 2014 and wrote some short text stories for the back cover flaps, but this is the first full-length Commando script I've written. I have to say it's a real joy to write these stories. They're roughly the length of a movie script and you've got 135-140 pics to tell that story in. I also remember my grandfather - my old Papa - reading Commando, sitting in a deckchair in his garden back when I was a kid. I hope Papa would have approved of The Battle to Britain.

July 21st, 2107

So here's a thing. I've written a novel based on The Omega Factor for Big Finish. It's called Spider's Web and you'll be able to get your hands on it in February of 2018. The novel is set during the 1970s series. All I'm saying is that I've tried to make it feel like an episode of the show, and root it in that 1979 world. Beyond that... ask me later. And if you haven't seen The Omega Factor, go and find it on DVD and listen to Big Finish's audio revival which is also excellent.

July 17, 2017

So, this is the new face of the Doctor. To quote the Ninth Doctor... FANTASTIC!

Jodie Whittaker is a terrific actress. Anybody who's seen her in anything will tell you that, I(f she didn't break your heart in Broadchurch, you probably don't have a heart. 

Some people don't like the idea of a female Doctor. Personally, I think it's great. I had been hoping for Hayley Atwill. The Doctor has changed height, he's changed hair colour, he's changed from top to toe. I don't see any downsides to this - and I think it'll be a big boost for the show. The Doctor will always be the Doctor. She's going to be great.

July 7, 2017

Before Imagination Theatre closed its doors I had written a script for their Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio series which was never produced. The episode, The Strange Case, is a two-hander focusing on just Holmes and Watson. It has now been produced and is available on Imagination Theatre's youtube page. Imagination Theatre has been an important part of my life for a long time now. I was saddened when they closed up shop, though at 90 or 91 the owner, the legend that is Jim French had more than earned his retirement after spending seven decades making radio, the last twenty something of those making radio drama with Imagination Theatre. I hope the company has a future of some kind. Radio drama is beginning to thrive again. Jim French, Larry Albert and Sable Jak at Imagination Theatre fought hard to keep radio drama alive during rough times for the medium. They deserve to be at the heart of its revival.

June 16, 2017

Okay, so this little beauty seems to have been announced today. It's a collection of tales told by characters from the Holmes canon other than Dr Watson. There are some really great writers in this book - as well as me. My story  is called The Unfortunate Guest and is told by... oh, just grab the book and you'll find out whose telling the tale. There are more details of the book here.

May 7, 2017

A couple of people have been in contact asking about the future of Kerides the Thinker, the show Claire and I did regularly for Imagination Theatre. With IT closing its doors, it seemed that Kerides may have solved his last case. That's not the way of it. One way or another we will be returning to Kerides. We may do it as a novel or a collection of short stories, we might just release the scripts that were written or plotted but never recorded or... well, if there's an 'or' I'll let you know. Bottom line, though, is that we'll be coming back to Kerides one way or another. And a huge thank you to those who have been in touch about the series. We really appreciate it.

March 04, 2017

So, it's time for a new Doctor Who... everybody has their favourites and their opinions on this. Paul Bettany has always been somebody I would love to see as the Doctor in my fantasy world where budgets and schedules don't matter but right now I think it's time for a more diverse choice so my pick would be Hayley Atwell. (I found that pic on Facebook and if feels right - and major kudos to whoever Photoshopped it together.) She has the same kind of sparkle about her that David Tennant and Matt Smith have. She can do drama, she's funny and she's smart. I think she's perfect for it. Adrian Lester would be a good pick too. Whoever it is, the new Doctor needs to be somebody who can engage existing or lapsed fans, and attract new generations of kids... because there will be generations who say "That's MY Doctor." Whoever blags the gig... good luck, be brilliant.