MARK MORRIS

Hi all

I'm getting ready to head off on a much-needed holiday, but before I do I thought I'd let you know that I'll be out and about in September, promoting my new Doctor Who book, Ghosts of India, which is released on September 4th.

So far the following signing/events dates are confirmed:

Saturday September 6th -- 10th Planet, Barking & Forbidden Planet, London. Simon Messingham and I will be signing at both these venues on this day, times to be confirmed.

Saturday September 13th -- Headingley Library, Leeds (2.30-3.30 pm). Mark Michalowski and myself will be doing an 'event' (not sure what this will entail at present) & signing copies of our new Who books -- and presumably whatever else people want to bring along.

Friday September 19th-Sunday September 21st -- British Fantasy Convention, Britannia Hotel, Nottingham. As is traditional, I'll be in attendance at FantasyCon for the whole weekend, and I believe I've been pencilled in to take part in a 'Doctor Who' panel this year, though a final programme of events has still to be confirmed.

Friday September 26th -- Bath Festival of Children's Literature. Paul Magrs, Simon Messingham and I will be taking part in a 'Writing Doctor Who' panel in the Guildhall, Bath, at 6.45-7.45 pm. We did the Bath Festival last year and it was fantastic, so I'm hoping this year's event will be equally as enjoyable. Also in attendance on the day will be Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Nicholas Briggs (the voice of the Daleks & Cybermen) & Steve Tribe (commissioning editor of the Torchwood range of novels for BBC Books).

Finally, just to go back to FantasyCon for a moment, The 2nd Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, in which I have a story entitled Bad Call, will be launched at this year's Convention. If you're not going to be at the Convention to buy a copy signed by many of the contributors, you can order one from the Humdrumming website. Here's the cover:

The family Morris all went to see Toby Hadoke's Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf at the Little Theatre in Hebden Bridge on Friday. For those who don't know, Moths... is basically a stand-up comedy show, in which Toby talks about life, culture, politics and the human condition in general, and relates it all to his long-term love of Doctor Who. It's a brilliant show - poignant, bitingly witty and very, very funny. Even Nel and the kids - who like Doctor Who but don't know it inside out like I do - loved it. Afterwards we met Toby and had a chat with him, and he's a lovely guy. If you get chance to catch Moths... then I recommend you do so. You won't regret it.

Sticking with Doctor Who, I've spent this past month working on two Who-related projects, which I'm not allowed to talk about, because they haven't been officially announced yet. All I'll say is that one is finished, and was great fun to work on, and the other is still at the synopsis stage. As soon as I'm allowed to talk about them, I will.

Finally, here's the cover for my forthcoming Hellboy novel, The All-Seeing Eye. It's a real thrill to think that Mike Mignola has done a piece of Hellboy artwork based on my ideas. The novel is out in October, but is already available to pre-order on Amazon.

Cheers for now.