Chris Todd

"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!"
-- Dracula, Bram Stoker

I've always appreciated that bit of writing, both for its surface-level sentiment and its slyly malicious undercurrent. And so it is: Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely. And tip generously, thank you.

My name is Chris Todd, and as you've probably guessed, I'm a writer. Among other things I've written a graphic novel as well as writing for award-winning computer games such as Deus Ex and Freelancer. You can get the whole portfolio thing in the handy link up top there. More recently, I've just finished a long-suffering novel which is currently being shopped around by my agent, hopefully freeing me up to pursue all the other stories that have been dammed up behind that particular project for a few years. But before I get too far into that, let me answer the question that is probably foremost in your mind:

"What's in it for me?"

The blog, I mean. Admittedly, it's de rigeur for most authors to have a blog nowdays, and unlike, say, John Rogers, I don't have hands-on experience with the movie and television industries; I don't have armies of filthy assistants willing to bare their asses (or arses) for me like Warren Ellis; I unfortunately haven't managed the jet-setting copyfighter lifestyle of Cory Doctorow; and I lack the deep knowledge of obscure 20th century literature, a New York Times bestselling book, and the army of adoring goth girls that Neil Gaiman can all claim as his own. So, why should you spend your precious minutes of time here when you could be filling out that TPS report?

Think of me as your tour guide to the Island of Misfit Toys and its peculiar wonders. I love pop culture, all kinds of pop culture. Anything that tells a story no matter where and when it comes from, and frankly the more challenging it is to find and experience that story, the more badly I want it and the harder I'll work to find it. A glancing mention of some out of print novel being optioned for an upcoming movie that sounds even vaguely intriguing will send me off on a manic hunt not just for that novel, but also for the leaked screenplay, other films by the rumored director (which may only be available with English subtitles on a DVD from Finland), and the text to the rare 1914 Russian play that inspired the book. And what I love even more than finding these things is telling other people about them. I'm terrible about keeping secrets -- I get so excited by things which are good that I just can't wait to tell everyone else. So that's what you'll get, the world of the unknown and the underappreciated, a whole subculture of stories that really aren't all that secret, but only waiting for the right people to find and enjoy them.

Some of what I mention you might already have heard of; some of it will undoubtedly be new. There's a good chance that you won't even like a lot of it. And hey, that's fine. It's all in the spirit of good fun, and my interests are both wide and deep enough that I'm sure at least something on here will be new and surprising to you, and nothing could make me happier.

So there'll be a lot of that, mostly books and movies and television and comics, with the occasional foray into other media. And since I'm a writer, this will provide a convenient place for some bits of experimental writing, possibly a blogged novella or similar things. But basically it's just a way for me to share the things that I think are cool with anyone who happens to pass by and take an interest. You'll get the idea as we go along.

There you have it. If you're scrolling down from the top, you've reached the end -- or the beginning, all depending on your point of view.