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1. What's been the most defining moment in your career so far? That's a tricky one. My career has encom- passed so many different disciplines that I am going to cheat! Job satisfaction: In my Lloyd's days, helping bring home a banker kidnapped in Brazil in 1978. Dream satisfaction: Meeting Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, and being hired. Production satisfaction: Walking onto the set of Crossbow, the first series I came up with and produced. Seventy-two episodes, about William Tell. Financial satisfaction: Arranging the $250 million buyout of Hallmark Channel Interna- tional in 2004, later sold to NBC. Creative satisfaction: Seeing Fall Out, my first book, in a shop. Foot-in-mouth satisfaction: Mistaking Steven Spielberg for the chauffeur and asking him to take his feet off my desk. He had the last laugh. Six months later, queueing outside the Beverly Hills Hotel, he leaned over and asked if he could give me a lift, and whether he should wear his chauffeur's hat. 2. As a creative, how do you navigate the world and speed of social media? Some would say the words 'social media' and 'creative' are mutually exclusive. If I am honest, my wife Kirsten navigates those treacherous waters. If I paddled them alone, my comments would sink me into pira- nha-filled currents. 3. Do you consider artificial intelligence a threat to your career, or an opportunity? AI is a massive help with data and with speeding up a search, but you have to check. At times, it can be a very convincing fibber. It can also replace a lot of tedious work on simple contracts, business letters and corrections in grammar and spelling. From a creative point of view it can only replicate, reposition, reimagine or reinvent what already exists. It cannot create from scratch. The books are all mine. So, for now, it is my friend. 4. How do you stay motivated and inspired, especially during tough times or when the work feels hard? If you are not motivated, don't be a writer. It's that simple. You must have discipline. But don't confuse discipline with routine. If I really don't feel fully motivated, or life gets in the way of writing, I am happy to let it go for a few days. Not for long. When I am in front of my screen I always write, even if the Muse has not kissed me that day and what I am churning out is rubbish. The next day, when I cringe at the work, there may be a nugget worth saving. You cannot pick a diamond in the rough from a blank page. 5. How do you balance your creative instincts with the expectations of your audience or collaborators? For me, creative instinct is the creative self. If what I write enthrals, amuses, or even at times educates me, I am confident it will do the same for my readers. Collaborators are another matter. I don't have any in the conventional sense. I suppose reference books are my collaborators. From a book, or from a person, I will take a note that makes the story truer. I will not take one that only makes it safer. 6. How do you approach a new project? Do you have a specific process or routine you follow? I always start with the MacGuffin, as Hitch- cock called it. For me it is a nugget I have uncovered from history, the kernel I wrap a story around. I take a fact, move that fact to the next level of highly probable, then again to fairly likely, and keep adding layers until I have woven a seamless path from fact to complete fiction. 7. Can you let us in on some of the future projects, works? My books always use an aspect of mov- ie-making as the way in, then lead to a crime and a reveal that have nothing to do with movies. I still like to lift the kimono a little on the industry while readers come along for the ride, and to take them to places they have never been. I have been lucky enough to visit over 120 countries. Three are already out: Fall Out, The Bastion and Sunset Circus. A reader can start with any of them. The Bastion is the one set in Malta, in the tunnels under Valletta. The next one opens on the murder of a crew member. After the shoot he had taken some R&R, driven his quad bike and a drone camera into the outback, and stumbled on a set built in the middle of nowhere. From there the plot runs through Coober Pedy, the underground opal town in South Australia, and the wild shores of Tasmania, and ends with a US president's visit to Pyongyang. Another, also finished, runs from the 1755 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Lisbon to a modern white-hydrogen plant in Timbuktu and a devastating choice for the White House. All six are written. I hope to see the next two out around the end of the year, and I am editing the sixth for next spring. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 NOVEMBER 2026 Art Miriam Galea's Ghadajjar Ghajnejja: Ebbs and Flows ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON BY LAURA CALLEJA suggestions by email lcalleja@mediatoday.com.mt The Q & A MARK GRENSIDE 7 questions for... Extra round If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self before you started writing, what would it be? I'm not sure I would give any advice other than gain experience in as many things as possible. Remain curious. My books are steeped in real experi- ences as well as fiction. I'm not sure as a young man I could have written what I have! So gather memories to turn into fiction. Mark Grenside spent years as a Lloyd's of London kidnap, ransom and product extortion insurance broker before joining Jim Henson and The Muppets. He went on to create and produce numerous films and TV series. He also writes the humorous And Another Thing blog at www. andanotherthing.com, which has subscribers in more than 40 countries. PAGES 2-3 PAGE 3 Culture TOI TOI presents Collar: Three collars, endless possibilities MaltaToday is supported by Arts Council Malta Some would say the words 'social media' and 'creative' are mutually exclusive. If I am honest, my wife Kirsten navigates those treacherous waters. If I paddled them alone, my comments would sink me into piranha-filled currents