Journalism

In a past life, I was a journalist.  A music journalist at first, on rock weekly Kerrang! magazine, then a film/entertainment journalist for the likes of heat, Doctor Who Magazine, Metal Hammer, The Face, The Word and SFX.

I've spent the last decade increasing the amount of fiction writing I do, and lowering the amount of journalism.  Right now, it's 90% fiction, 10% journalism.  Nevertheless, I wanted to devote this section of the site to my journo stuff, as it's been a big part of my life.  If I hadn't done all that living - flying back and forth across the Atlantic for Kerrang! in the '90s - then I almost certainly wouldn't be the scribbler I am now.  All that getting drunk and quacking at bands was character-building, dammit, and that's the excuse I'm sticking to.

In 2001, I wrote a Slipknot biography called Slipknot: Inside The Sickness, Behind The Masks for Random House.  While unofficial, it involved way more exclusive interviews than most unofficial biogs, including lengthy chats with drummer Joey Jordison, producer Ross Robinson and plenty of locals from the band's Des Moines hometown.  It also had an introduction from Ozzy Osbourne and an afterword from Gene Simmons.  It's out of physical print now, but the publisher made it available as an ebook from May 31, 2011.  You can see the Kindle Edition of the book here on Amazon UK.  On that same page, you can get a free sample of the book wirelessly sent to your e-reading device.  Clever.

In July 2011, I started a site called How To Be A Journalist, aiming to offer up information and advice for aspiring journos.  It has an associated Twitter feed at @JournoZone, here.

In August 2011, I published an e-book called How To Interview Ozzy Osbourne, Doctor Who And Everyone Else, which aims to tell aspiring journos everything I know about interviewing folk.  You can read the full blurb for this electronic tome on the How To Be A Journalist site here.

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