Welcome to my
online journal...

My name is Alexander Gordon Smith, and I'm the author of various books including The Inventors series and the brand new Furnace series.

This is my blog, and is where I talk about books, writing and, well, probably other stuff too...

Down in the Dungeons

Yesterday Jamie and I had a fantastic time in London. Faber asked us to come down and film a video for a website called meettheauthor.co.uk. It's a fabulous site, with hundreds of authors talking about their books and inspirations, and we were thrilled at being asked to become a part of it! We went down by train, practicing what we were going to say in between watching episodes of Lost on the laptop.

Now, if you've watched the video of our outtakes where we were making the Gordyland introduction, you'll know that Jamie and I are both a little scatterbrained when it comes to performing in front of the camera, and yesterday was no different. We both forgot our lines and mumbled and muttered and burst out laughing throughout our minute-long video. But the very nice guy who was filming us seemed to think it was great! He said that the site was all about honesty, and seeing authors exactly the way they are, which I think is a brilliant idea. And as Jamie and I are both giggly and scatterbrained, that's how you'll see us!
The good thing about this was that we finished the video in one take, which meant we had a whole day to spend in London. After saying hello to the lovely people at Faber, which is always exciting, we decided to go see the decidedly less lovely people at the London Dungeons. Its a very, very creepy place with lots of blood and guts (not to mention rude innuendos from the actors who guide you around), but it was so much fun. You find out all about the plague and the fire of london and Jack the Ripper – all in extremely gory detail! We had such a laugh there, and I even had a couple of inspirations for book ideas while sailing down the fake river to Tower Bridge to be hanged.
Afterwards we went up onto the Tower Bridge, which was compensation for Jamie because I didn't fancy going on the Wheel of Death (also known as the London Eye). The views from the bridge were superb, but it is only about half the size of the Eye so I guess we'll have to do it one day...
I do love going down to London with Jamie, it's such great fun. We'll have to do it more often! Anyway, I'll let you know when that video is up!

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