I popped over to Solaris HQ last Friday to meet the editorial team and record a podcast interview and a reading.  They inhabit a building which, from the outside, looks just like a large warehouse-like building on an industrial estate in west Oxford.  Ah, but when you get inside…

Well, the huge statue of Judge Dredd versus Judge Death in the lobby gives you a pretty big hint that this is no ordinary place.  And then there’s the vast open-plan room full of dozens of workstations where dozens of computer programmers are beavering away on video games for Rebellion.  And in one corner of this hive of industry there’s the Solaris den, where Jon, Jenni, Ben and David lurk, plotting their nefarious schemes.

I cast pods with David in a soundproofed booth for about half an hour — some fascinating questions, and he’d really done his homework — and then recorded a chapter of The Age Of Zeus.  It’ll all be up on the Solaris website at some point, and I’ll let you know when it is so you can have a listen yourself.  The reading was quite hard work but I enjoyed it.  I did, however, chicken out on doing the accents for the American and Australian characters.  Personally I think I’m pretty good at accents but my wife assures me that I’m not and that every time I try it ends up sounding like I’m trying to impersonate an Asian-born Welshman.

I suppose the trick would be to write an Asian-born Welshman into the next novel.  Then I’d be quids in.