Stephen Cole (writer)
Stephen Cole is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999 and as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of List of [Doctor Who audio plays by Big Finish|Doctor Who audio dramas].
In 2013, Ian Fleming Publications announced that Cole would continue the Young Bond series first penned by Charlie Higson, with the addition of four new books to the series. The first of these, Shoot to Kill, was published in the UK in November 2014, where Cole is credited as 'Steve Cole'.
Early life and career
Cole was brought up in rural Bedfordshire and attended the University of East Anglia between 1989 and 1992, where he studied English literature and film studies, graduating with first class honours. After a brief time working in local radio with BBC Radio Bedfordshire he became a junior assistant at BBC Children's Magazines in 1993, and by 1996 he was Group Editor of Pre-School Magazines. In the summer of 1996 he wrote his first children's books: Cars on Mars, Alien Olympics, School on Saturn and Mucky Martians, a collection of pop-up poetry books published by Levinson the following year.At the time, BBC Books had received rights to publish Doctor Who fiction after the release of the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie – and that a new range of Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures would be commissioned. Cole applied for the role of Project Editor of Sci-Fi Titles as he was a fan of the programme, and was successful.
After the first six books in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range were released, Cole also edited the BBC's Short Trips short story collections, for which he began to write under the pseudonyms of "Tara Samms" and "Paul Grice". He also wrote two novels under his friend's name, Michael Collier. He has since published other work under these pen-names, including the 2003 Doctor Who novella Frayed, part of a series published by Telos Publishing Ltd. He has also written several short stories and audio plays for Big Finish Productions.
In addition to the books he also commissioned and abridged stories for inclusion on various Doctor Who talking books and selected TV stories to be released on home video.
Original titles
Worn down by the grind of commissioning and editing 22 80,000 word novels per year as well as producing nonfiction titles, audiobooks and videos, Cole shifted roles in the Children's department to become Special Development Editor in 1999, commissioning and writing children's books tying into series such as Walking With Dinosaurs and Microsoap. He retained responsibility for certain of the Doctor Who novels on a freelance basis before passing them to the care of author-editor Justin Richards.Leaving BBC Worldwide in October 1999 Cole moved to be Managing Editor for Ladybird Books. But while he continued to write TV and film tie-ins he missed involvement with fiction. After a stint as senior editor at Simon and Schuster Children's Books he went freelance in 2002, editing fewer books in favour of writing more of his own. Cole's first original fiction was a series called The Wereling, a trilogy of young adult horror books published by Bloomsbury. He followed this up with a further trilogy detailing the adventures of misfit criminal teen genius Jonah Wish and his friends – Thieves Like Us, Thieves Till We Die and The Bloodline Cipher. He has also written several more Doctor Who titles, including four tying in with the new series.
Cole's most successful titles to date are the Astrosaurs children's books, published under the name Steve Cole. The first two titles were published 3 February 2005. So far there are 22 Astrosaurs books available including a special edition book written especially for World Book Day 2007. Astrosaurs was followed up by the series Cows In Action . There are twelve Cows In Action books published to date. The Astrosaurs spin-off series, Astrosaurs Academy, began in May 2008 and has 8 books to date.
Works
''[Astrosaurs]''
Riddle of the Raptors, published 1 February 2005The Hatching Horror, published 1 February 2005The Seas of Doom, published 5 May 2005The Mind-Swap Menace, published 4 August 2005The Skies of fear, published 5 January 2006The Space Ghosts, published 2 March 2006The Day of the Dino Droids, published 1 June 2006The Terror Bird Trap, published 3 August 2006The Teeth of the T-Rex, published 1 March 2007The Planet of Peril, published 5 April 2007The Star Pirates, published 7 June 2007The Claws of Christmas, published 4 October 2007The Sun Snatchers, published 7 February 2008The Revenge of The Fang, published 7 August 2008The Carnivore Curse, published 1 January 2009The Dreams of Dread published 4 June 2009The Robot Raiders published 28 January 2010The Twist of Time published 29 April 2010The Sabre Tooth Secret published 3 February 2011The Forest of Evil published 4 August 2011Megabookasaurus! published 3 September 2009Earth Attack! published 6 October 2011The T.rex Invasion published 26 April 2012The Castle of Frankensaur published 19 November 2012Astrosaurs vs Cows In Action: The Dinosaur Moo-tants, published 3 October 2013, Note: Steve Cole has also written a series on Tegg's training - see ''Astrosaurs Academy''''Cows in Action''
The Ter-moo-nators, published 3 May 2007The Moo-my's Curse, published 3 May 2007The Roman Moo-stery, published 6 September 2007The Wild West Moo-nster, published 4 January 2008World War Moo, published 7 August 2008Battle for Christ-moos, published 2 October 2008The Pirate Mootiny, published 2 April 2009The Moo-gic of Merlin, published 6 August 2009The Victorian Moo-ders, published 1 January 2010The Moo-Limpics 4 October, published 2010First Cows on the Mooon, published 2 June 2011The Viking Emoo-gency, published 2 February 2012Astrosaurs vs Cows In Action: The Dinosaur Moo-tants, published 3 October 2013,''Astrosaurs Academy">Astrosaurs#Astrosaurs Academy">Astrosaurs Academy''
Destination: Danger! – 1 May 2008Contest Carnage – 1 May 2008Terror Underground – 4 September 2008Jungle Horror – 5 February 2009Deadly Drama- 2 July 2009Christmas Crisis - 1 October 2009Volcano Invaders! - 1 April 2010Space Kidnap - 3 March 2011''The Slime Squad''
The Slime Squad vs The Toxic TeethThe Slime Squad vs The Fearsome FistsThe Slime Squad vs The Cyber PoosThe Slime Squad vs The Supernatural SquidThe Slime Squad vs The Killer SocksThe Slime Squad vs The Last Chance ChickenThe Slime Squad vs The Alligator Army- ''The Slime Squad vs The Conquering Conks''
''The Hunting'', or ''Z'' Trilogy
Z. RexZ. Raptor- ''Z. Apocalypse''
''Tripwire''
Tripwire- ''Tripwire DEATHWING''
Young Adult fiction
''The Wereling'' Trilogy">The Wereling Trilogy">''The Wereling'' Trilogy
The Wereling: Wounded 2003The Wereling II: Prey 2004The Wereling III: Resurrection 2004''Thieves Like Us'' Trilogy
Thieves Like Us 2006The Aztec Code 2007 The Bloodline Cipher 2008''Young James Bond''">Young Bond">''Young James Bond''
Shoot to Kill, 2014Heads You Die, 2016Strike Lightning, 2016Red Nemesis, 2017''[Doctor Who]'' novels
Longest Day, 1998The Taint, 1999Parallel 59, 2000The Ancestor Cell, 2000Vanishing Point, 2001The Shadow in the Glass, 2001Ten Little Aliens, 2002Timeless, 2003Frayed, 2003The Monsters Inside, 2005To the Slaughter, 2005The Feast of the Drowned, 2006The Art of Destruction, 2006Sting of the Zygons, 2007Combat Magicks, 2018Time Lord Victorious: The Knight, The Fool and the Dead, 2020Miscellaneous TV tie-in children's books
The Adventures of Mr. Bean: Bear Essentials 2002The Adventures of Mr. Bean: No Pets! 2002Sea Captain Ned 2004The Thirsty Penguin 2004Josie's Big Jump 2004Works published by Big Finish
Bernice Summerfield novels
''Doctor Who'' plays
The Land of the Dead The Apocalypse Element The Wormery Fitz's Story part of The Company of Friends The Whispering Forest Kiss of Death- ''Masquerade''
Other plays
The Plague Herds of Excelis The Dance of the Dead The Relics of Jegg-Sau Gallifrey: Square One Gallifrey: Spirit Gallifrey: Fractures The Devil in Ms Wildthyme- ''Many Happy Returns''