There are nearly 50 writers contributing to this, all of whom are on Twitter and Facebook and InternationalPigFanciers.com and all the rest, so I imagine many of you will have seen a billion posts on this today - sorry - but all-proceeds-to-charity antho Off The Record 2: At The Movies is out today. According to Luca it clocks in at nearly 120,000 words so it’s a proper e-brick of a thing for a mere couple of quid, and features stories from a raft of awesome writers including but not limited to Steve Mosby, Will Carver, Claire McGowan, Matt Hilton, Helen Fitzgerald, Stav Sherez, Andrez Bergen and some chancer going under the name Sean Cregan. Every story, so the theme goes, has to be the title of a movie, and there’s some cool ones picked.

We got copies to proof-read a few days ago and the stuff I’ve read so far has been absolutely top notch. There’s some really strong work in there. And mine.

My contribution - which will obviously be THE BEST ONE - is The City Of Lost Children (I was tempted by Surf Nazis Must Die but went all serious instead). The opening paragraph is:

It is 11:05. Jenny stands at the junction near the little row of empty cafés. The big clock on the tower across Evergreen Park tells her it is 11:05, and since neither she nor most of the other kids in the City have a watch, she has come to rely on it. As she does at 11:05 every day, in this place without true days, she stands there and watches the ghosts, hoping with all her heart, as she does at 11:05 every day, that this time she will see her parents.

To read the rest, buy the book. Everything it makes after the distributor’s cut goes to two children’s literacy charities. And it’s good. Relentlessly grim, but good.