Posted in: Comics | Tagged: jack gatland, tony lee

Tony Lee Has Spent Lockdown Writing Crime Novels As Jack Gatland

Published Sat, 06 Mar 2021 12:50:28 -0600

What has comic book and screenwriter Tony Lee been doing lockdown? Well, apparently he has been inventing a brand new character – for himself. He writes on Facebook;

So as my literary agent is now speaking to audio book companies about this, and these meetings would probably go better if a particular fact was more public, I have a little announcement. I've been living a little bit of a lie recently.

Some of you already know this, but as TV and film work was placed on hold over 2020, I had a long chat with a few friends including Andy Briggs and Barry Hutchison

in the summer about other avenues to keep my creative juices flowing. And, since then I've been writing procedural crime novels under the name Jack Gatland.

So far I've released three (and a boxset) through Hooded Man Publishing, and book four is out in April.

And honestly, it's the most inspiring work I've done for a long time, and it's something that's really helped me regain my love of prose writing. I've had a ton of procedural crime pitches and stories that haven't gone anywhere over the years, and I've reconfigured several of them to fit this series. In addition, I have an amazing copy editor, a brilliant team of beta readers and I'm releasing books that 'Tony Lee' wouldn't, which is incredibly freeing.

And, I have a few more 'Detective Inspector Declan Walsh' books left in me, before I stop. Anyway, this isn't a selling post, but I wanted to announce this because it's been hard living this double life. Pen names are important for a variety of reasons, but mine was only to adjust an Amazon algorithm, and I've hated fooling readers who have come on board, emailing 'Jack' about my books.

So hello. I'm Jack. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too, Jack. Now under what name will you be managing the comics guests at London Film And Comic Con in… checks the date… July? Really?

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!