SYNOPSIS

A COMEDY TALE OF LOVE, LUST, AND DANISH PASTRIES

Headache-stricken graphic designer Ben Tracy faints and falls down the stairs. He’s referred to a neurologist for tests while idiots test his patience all around him.

Between braving the incompetence at work, avoiding strangers in various stages of undress, and simply trying to find his place in the world, Ben messages Louise in the desperate hope she’ll come to her senses and hurry back to him. For now, he’s living with playboy Pete, his best friend since childhood, who somehow lives a far more active social life than him despite having not actually left the house for years.

Fearing that his nagging noggin could well be on course to self-destruct, his future with Louise hanging in the balance, and his workplace nemesis plaguing him at every opportunity, Ben must make peace with his sitcom life if he stands any chance of enjoying the plot before his final credits start to roll.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (QUICK BLURB)

Blake Neale works, rests, and still plays DVDs in Bromley, London.
Wit Tank is his debut novel and he took great joy in writing it.
He hopes you get a similar kick out of reading it.
But please be gentle with him; it’s his first time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (FULL-ON BLURBY BLURB)

Blake Neale is a Londoner with a passion for comedy, creative writing, and visual communication, having become engrossed in TV and radio sitcoms at the early age of four, then tippy-tapping out his own poems, short stories and comedy sketches on a fully-functional “toy” typewriter from the age of six. So to say he was an early adopter of being a geek is something of an understatement, but he likes to think he wore it well.

After completing his degree in Moving Image Design at the world-renowned Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, Blake combined two of his main interests by designing and art-directing promotional trailers and entire brand identities for Comedy Central, where he worked full time for almost 20 years. As well as crafting award-winning graphics, he often contributed to show scripts, scripted channel continuity, and any other creative writing duties whenever the opportunities arose — and often when they didn’t, making the most of his bosses’ open-door policies by sharing his thoughts and suggestions for their as-yet-unfilmed show scripts that they’d kindly let him read.

In addition to assisting with script notes, Blake has script edited two TV sitcom episodes, two radio sitcom pilots, and he once even had a character named after him in an unaired TV pilot by way of appreciation.

During a subsequent two-year stint leading Channel 5’s day-to-day “core” design team, i.e., overseeing and art directing the entire graphical output across all six of their channels for everything that wasn’t a shiny-new 9pm drama, Blake also contributed ideas for show taglines and scripts for promotional trailers. He has also pitched campaign taglines to BET, MTV, and Paramount Network as well as writing editorial blurb for Paramount Comedy’s annual comedy festivals, and interview questions for Comedy Central press junkets — which means he’s technically interviewed Biff from Back to the Future, albeit through someone else’s mouth. But hey, it still counts. Butthead.

Away from the office, Blake has written short stories, short films, sitcom sketches, and poems as well as countless film, TV and gadget reviews, including for the popular but now-defunct Film Focus website. He has also designed a. His self-initiated creative projects have previously featured on the front page of Metro.co.uk, been twice tweeted by the BBC, been covered by NME online, been screened at fan conventions, made it onto the front page of The Poke (the UK’s biggest humour site) and even shown in cinemas as part of film festivals.

He is a lifelong aficionado of bygone TV-and-radio shows — from The Flintstones to Red Dwarf — and he is similarly well-acquainted with a wide range of films, which at least comes in handy far more than his sitcom savviness when he’s downing pints (of fruit cordials) during pub quizzes with his fine fellow fellows, but otherwise yields no real-world benefits beyond being mentioned in blurb like this.

When he’s not busy crafting, laughing, or pub-quizzing, Blake has a gay old time savouring afternoon teas, entertaining at his many candlelight suppers, and playing lightweight “German style” board games. He was once an accomplished gymnast and track-and-field athlete too — which even he finds hard to believe — so he’s not your standard sit-down nerd, though he still draws the line at parties.

Wit Tank is his debut novel and he had an absolute blast writing it. He hopes you enjoy reading it.

LOGOS & PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

• Wit Tank logo – colour / black / white
• Wit Tank logo with subtitle – colour / black / white
  
• Cover art – front / back
• Packshots – 1 / 2 / 3
  
• Author headshot – colour / black & white
  
• Trailers – teaser / theatrical / radio spot
  
• Still image parody posters – Jaws / Trainspotting / Fight Club /
  Doctor Who / Star Trek / The Matrix / Jurassic Park / Cards Against / alcoholic beverages / fried chicken / e-florists / trainers
  
• Still image concept posters – uniform dating / train delay / try something new / imagination / razor / condom /

ALL MATERIALS SHARED ABOVE ARE COPYRIGHT © 2022 BLAKE NEALE AND ARE LICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS CC BY-NC-ND:

• BY: CREDIT MUST BE GIVEN TO THE CREATOR, BLAKE NEALE.
• NC: ONLY NONCOMMERCIAL USES OF THE WORK ARE PERMITTED.
• ND: NO DERIVATIVES OR ADAPTATIONS OF THE WORK ARE PERMITTED.

THIS MEANS YOU CAN FREELY USE THESE PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS IN COMMERCIAL PUBLICATIONS WHEN THEY ACCOMPANY EDITORIAL COMMENTARY, DISCUSSION AND/OR REVIEW, BUT NOT “ON THEIR OWN”, I.E., WITHOUT ANY EDITORIAL CONTEXT, SOLELY FOR PROFIT. (IF IN DOUBT, GIVE BLAKE A SHOUT.)

SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• What are Wit Tank’s main themes?
• How much of Wit Tank is autobiographical?
• How long did it take to bring Wit Tank to fruition?
• What came first, the plot or the characters?
• Did you plan the whole story beforehand or go with the flow?
• Why did you write Wit Tank as a series of emails?
• Do you have any favourite characters in the story?
• What are your narrative highlights and/or standout moments?
• What was the hardest part of writing Wit Tank?
• Was there anything you had to research?
• Do you believe in writer’s block?
• What can we expect to see from you in the future?

CONTACT INFORMATION

For all trade/press/PR enquiries, please email:

WitTankHQ@gmail.com

Or message via WhatsApp:

+44-7931-292-007