MARK MORRIS

Now that this month's issue of Doctor Who Magazine has spilled the beans, I'm finally at liberty to announce that I have written a four-part Doctor Who audio drama for Big Finish Productions entitled Village of the Damned. The story is set in the village of Stockbridge, which became the Doctor's home from home in the DWM comic strips of the 80s, and stars Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor and Sarah Sutton as his companion, Nyssa.

There's still quite a bit about this story that I'm not yet allowed to tell you, but what I can reveal is that it's set in a future Stockbridge, and is, to quote Alan Barnes in Doctor Who Magazine "a full-blooded, horror-ish sort of thing, with sinister ravens and zombie cricketers!" (well, they're not exactly 'zombie' cricketers - coming so soon after the release of my Torchwood novel, Bay of the Dead, I don't just want to become known as 'that zombie guy' - but we'll let that pass).

I'm down in London this week for the recording of Village of the Damned, and though details have not yet been revealed, I can tell you that it's got an absolutely stellar cast. I can't wait to hear them all in action, bringing the words of my script to life.

In other news, I've recently sold three new short stories to three different anthologies (more details once contracts are signed), and am currently juggling four projects - the aforementioned Cinema Futura, a long-overdue novella for Earthling Publications, a co-written novel with a very good friend of mine, and a major re-structuring job on a novel that's been sitting patiently in a drawer for about 18 months while I've been frantically scribbling books and scripts for Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Hope to see some of you at the BFS Open Night next week.

Cheers for now.

Just a quick note to let you all know that the next BFS Open Night on Friday 3rd July at The George pub in Fleet Street (that's in London, in case you weren't sure) will have a distinctive Torchwood flavour.

Me and fellow Torchwood novel authors Sarah Pinborough and Guy Adams will be joined by Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures scriptwriter Joe Lidster (whose new Torchwood audio, In The Shadows has just been released) to talk about...erm, Torchwood. The panel will be chaired by Andrew Cartmel, who was script editor on Doctor Who between 1986-89. Should be a fun night.

A week later, on Thursday July 9th, me, Sarah and Guy will be teaming up to promote our Torchwood novels once again, this time at Borders in Leeds. We'll be reading from our books and answering questions from the audience, so if you can't make it to London, why not come along to Leeds and get a book signed. The fun starts at 6:30pm.

Okeley-dokeley, that's pretty much it for now. I'm juggling various projects at the moment, so I'd better get back to work - even though it's Sunday and a beautiful day outside. Bah.

Just a quick one. I've managed to get hold of a couple of dozen Pan paperbacks of my J.M. Morris novel, Fiddleback. If anyone would like a signed copy at half-price (that's £3.50. including p&p), then please drop me a line and I'll sort it out for you.

As you may have seen on the PS Publishing website, I'm currently girding my loins to begin editing Cinema Futura, the official follow-up volume to the highly-popular and award-winning Cinema Macabre. Whereas Cinema Macabre contained 50 essays on horror movies, the new book will contain 50 essays on science-fiction movies, all of which - as with the first volume - will be personally selected by the contributors. Please note, however, that this is an invitation-only anthology, so I'm not looking for spec submissions. There is no definite publication date for Cinema Futura yet, but we're currently looking at late 2010/early 2011.

Cheers for now.

...to everyone who sent me best wishes regarding my son, David, after my last blog. I'm now delighted to report that Dave is fit and healthy, and has had no reoccurence of the rapid heartbeat that was causing us so much concern before his operation.

Every time I update this blog, I always think that I must blog more frequently. My mate Tim Lebbon updates his blog every day or two, and he's always going on about the benefits of blogging little and often rather than doing a big splurge once a month. Maybe he's right, but I find that once I'm entrenched in a project and racing towards a deadline, it's hard to break away. Also, I'm never sure whether regular blog-readers (bleaders?) just want the hard facts - what books I've got coming out, what conventions I'll be at - or whether they like a bit of personal chat along with their news.

I guess there's no definitive answer to that. After all, everyone's different. During a recent drunken discussion, a friend of mine criticised my website because he said (and I quote) 'it's all about you.' Hmm. Personally, though, I like to read a blog in which you find out a little bit about the person writing it. Maybe I ought to put this to the vote. Maybe you 'bleaders' out there should let me know. More news, less chat? Less news, more chat? Or should I just leave things as they are?

Okay, here is the news:

Since my last update I've been working hard on my two back-to-back audio scripts. I still can't say too much about them yet, because they haven't been officially announced, but I can tell you that one of the scripts has been approved by all parties, and will be recorded next week (and I'll be down in London for the recording - really looking forward to that), and the other script - which is longer and more complicated - has just gone through a second draft, which I delivered this morning.

I'm now in the unusual and rather lovely position of having no imminent deadlines for the first time in I don't know how long. This doesn't, however, mean I have nothing to do - no, sir. I've still got 3 short stories to deliver to various markets by the end of June, a novella to complete for a US publisher, a novel to restructure and rewrite, and I'm also about to embark on a major project I'll be co-writing with a very good friend of mine. But the point is, the crushing pressure is off for the time being. I can afford to relax into these projects a bit, think them through properly, take my time with them if I so wish. Of course, I've still got a living to earn, so I'll still be pushing myself to complete my 10k words a week or whatever. But psychologically the next few months should be a little less pressurised.

One other snippet of news: my Torchwood novel, Bay of the Dead, originally scheduled for May, has now been put back by a month to June 4th. Myself and fellow Torchwood authors, Sarah Pinborough and Guy Adams, will be doing some promotional events around the time of publication, though the only one confirmed so far is a panel/signing at Borders, Leeds, at 6:30pm on Thursday 18th June. Hope to see you there.

Finally, just wanted to mention a really good indie horror movie I saw last night called Splinter. It's available on DVD pretty cheaply from Amazon, and is a cracking little film - well shot and well-acted, with a great, original monster. It reminds me a bit of Feast, another excellent indie horror film, which I saw last year. Both movies are about a disparate group of people trapped in an isolated building which is under siege from ravening creatures. The main difference is that Feast is played largely for laughs - and it is genuinely hilarious, albeit hideously gruesome - whereas Splinter is much darker and serious. Both highly recommended, though.

And speaking of which, I'm going to see the much lauded Let the Right One In tomorrow. Really looking forward to that. I hope it lives up to the hype.

What is it they say about best laid plans? The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I haven't updated this blog for almost three months now - but I do have a very good reason.

Having enjoyed a couple of weeks off over Christmas, I sat down at my desk on Monday January 5th, ready and eager to knuckle down to some real work again. I had a pretty tight schedule to stick to - two deadlines, one on February 6th, and another on March 31st, to meet - and, as ever, enough projects to keep me occupied for at least the first six months of the year, and I was looking forward to the challenge.

However, all my carefully-laid plans were thrown into chaos by a phone call that afternoon.

For some time my 14 year old son, David, had been experiencing an occasional rapid heartbeat when he played sport. No sickness or dizziness, just a racing heart, which would usually last for a minute or so before settling down. After undergoing various inconclusive tests, plus assurances from the specialist that the problem was not uncommon in teenage boys, it was decided to fit Dave with a heart monitor for the weekend of 2-4 January in the faint hope of getting to the - ahem - heart of the problem.

As luck would have it, on the Saturday morning when Dave was playing badminton, his heart did its jitterbug thing and the monitor was duly returned to the hospital on Monday morning, with the specialist assuring us that he was sure everything would be fine.

As it turned out, however, things were not fine. Instead the monitor readings showed up a 'potentially nasty irregularity' in Dave's heart, as a result of which we were asked to whisk him straight down to the Children's Cardiac Unit at Leeds General Infirmary the minute he got home from school.

For the next ten days Dave stayed in hospital, being constantly monitored and undergoing various tests, including an MRI scan. We were told that the readings had indicated a 5% chance that Dave might have a potentially life-threatening heart condition, and that only an exploratory operation - which was booked in for the following Thursday (January 15th) - would reveal the truth.

We spent those ten days on tenterhooks, unable to settle to anything, and making constant trips to and from Leeds LGI. It was an odd, slightly surreal time, made even more surreal by the fact that Dave wasn't ill at all. He spent those ten days mooching around bored, reading, watching DVDs, playing board games with us when we were there and trying to keep up with schoolwork.

The day of the operation was horrible. We arrived at the hospital at 8a.m. and then sat around for hours, having originally been told that Dave would be taken down to theatre at 9:30. In the end he was taken down at 1:30p.m. and we went down with him, staying by his side until the anaesthetic took effect and he drifted off to sleep.

That was the worst moment, watching him go under. I can only imagine it's a bit like watching someone die, because after shuddering for a few seconds, Dave's body went completely limp, to the extent that the anaesthetist had to put a finger under his chin to stop his jaw from dropping open. Until that moment I had felt reasonably calm, but watching Dave go to sleep brought all the emotion flooding out and for a few minutes I felt shaky, close to tears, and unable to speak.

Nel and I spent the next couple of hours wandering around Leeds, browsing aimlessly in bookshops and drinking coffee, waiting for the phone call from the hospital. We were told that the operation would normally take about 3-4 hours, and that the longer it took the better the news was likely to be, because it would probably mean that the surgeon had found a relatively minor problem (the 95% option) and would fix it straight away. However, if the problem was more serious, then the patient would be taken straight back up to the ward until it was decided - during discussions between patient, parents and surgeon - how best to proceed.

In this instance, therefore, we were happy for the hours to crawl by, but as it turned out, the call from the hospital, to say that Dave was back on the ward, came after 2 hours.

What did this mean? Was 2 hours good or bad? We ran back to the hospital, to find Dave conscious but feeling horribly sick from the anaesthetic and sore from the operation. We then had to wait another hour or so until the surgeon was free to see us. And finally, finally, we got the news we'd been hoping for.

Dave had (and please be aware that I'm eschewing technical terms here in the interests of clarity) a 'misfiring connection', which was causing his heart to go crazy now and again. It's apparently a fairly common problem, pretty minor and easily treatable (the surgeon basically just sent a hot wire up into the target area and burned the bastard out). Dave was allowed home the next day, and was back at school on Monday. He recovered quickly - hell, the two of us even went to see the Buzzcocks together on the Saturday night, two days after the operation - and (touchwood) everything now seems fine. Dave has played plenty of sport in the past six weeks with nary a whisper of a jitterbugging heart. We're fervently hoping that it stays that way.

Deliriously happy though we were, the knock-on effect of all this was that my work schedule was shot to shit. I eventually started a 100-minute audio script (for a project which I'm not allowed to talk about yet, because it has yet to be officially announced) on January 19, instead of January 5, with a contracted delivery date of February 6. Yikes. In the event my deadline was kindly extended to March 1 (and in actual fact, I delivered this morning, 3 days late), albeit with the deadline for a further audio script (again, something I'm not yet allowed to talk about in detail) still set at a very definite March 31, because of immovable recording dates due to actor availability. It's a tight schedule, but I should be able to manage it.

However, the real victims of this 'concertina effect' were peripheral things like this blog, which I literally couldn't find even a spare hour to devote to updating. I'm only managing to do it now because I need at least a slight breather between finishing one project and plunging into the next.

As it goes, I've nothing much to report release-wise. My next book, as I've mentioned previously, will be Torchwood: Bay of the Dead, which is out early in May. Before that, in a couple of weeks time, the audio book of my September 2008 Doctor Who novel, Ghosts of India will be released by BBC Audio, read by the wonderful David Troughton. I've admired the work of David Troughton, who of course is the son of the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, for many years (remember his hilariously edgy performance in the brilliant A Very Peculiar Practice back in the 80s), and so it's an incredible thrill to hear him read the words that I've written.

The only thing left to add for now is that I'll be making a couple of personal appearances over the next two months. This coming Saturday (March 7) at 1p.m., Rob Shearman and I will be talking about writing for Doctor Who at Nottingham Central Library, and then on Sunday April 5 at 4p.m. I'll be appearing at the Hyde Park Picture House in Headingley, Leeds, where I'm being interviewed about writing for Hellboy as part of the Leeds Young Person's Film Festival.

And that's it. Until next time...

Had a great few days at my old mate Tim Lebbon's house the weekend before last. Tim and I are working on a project together, and we had an incredibly productive couple of afternoons in Tim's study, firing ideas at each other. I can't say too much about the project just yet, but it's something we're both really looking forward to getting our teeth in to. We've laid all the groundwork now and the plan is to start the actual writing round about April/May, by which time hopefully our various other commitments will be out of the way.

It wasn't all work at Tim's, though. It was great to spend time with Tim's wife, Tracey, their lovely kids, Ellie and Dan, and their mad dog, Blu. We ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of good wine, which we offset by taking Blu on a couple of woodland walks in absolutely perfect conditions - bright sunlight shining on a glittering frost-covered landscape. Beautiful.

I finished and delivered a commissioned short story this afternoon and am now getting to that stage where my brain is winding down for Christmas. There are cards to write and presents to wrap and the house to clean in time for the arrival of relatives next week.

Before I go, though, I just wanted to share a couple of covers with you. The first is for a new version of my 2005 novella, Stumps, which was originally published in the Cemetery Dance anthology, Fourbodings, edited by Pete Crowther. This new version will be published by Barrington Stoke, who produce books for reluctant readers, and has been reduced from 45,000 to 15,000 words. I'm not sure exactly when it's out, but I think it's around springtime next year.



The second cover is for my Torchwood novel, Bay of the Dead, which will be out in May. Despite spending twenty years ostensibly as a horror writer, I can honestly say that this is the goriest cover I've ever had. I love it!



Merry Christmas!

This last month has been mental! In fact, this entire past year has been mental. I'm sure I've written more words this year than I've written in each of my previous twenty years as a professional writer. I suddenly seem to have hit a stage in my career where I'm being commissioned for books and stories and scripts, and being asked to appear at various events to talk about writing horror and/or Doctor Who and/or Hellboy, all the time. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it, and I find it hard to turn things down, because a) it's money in the bank, and b) the stuff I get offered always sounds so interesting and exciting, but I have to admit there are times when I don't know if I'm coming or going. It doesn't help that I still work two days a week in a bookstore in Leeds. Thing is, I've got so much writing work on that I could give it up. But it brings in a few extra shekels, and I'm superstitiously worried that if I do give it up, suddenly all my writing work will dry up, and I'll be left with nothing.

Anyway, the mental month began in Calgary, Canada, at the World Fantasy Awards. As mentioned before, I was a judge for this year's awards, and I was really looking forward to the Awards Banquet on Sunday to see all our months of toil and discussion finally pay off. I flew out to Canada with fellow Brits and good friends, Steve Volk, Rob Shearman and Graham Joyce, and what wonderful company they were! We didn't stop chatting and laughing and having fun the entire weekend. Once at the hotel, I caught up with plenty of other old friends - Steve Jones, Tony Richards, Ellen Datlow - and made lots of new ones. Special mention should go to fellow Convention attendees and Calgary residents Charles and Kris Prepolec for their friendliness and hospitality during our stay. They bought us drinks and meals and were thoroughly charming company. Lovely people.

At the Awards Banquet, I was particularly delighted to see Rob Shearman pick up the award for his brilliant collection Tiny Deaths. I was familiar with, and a huge admirer of, Rob's Doctor Who scripts for Big Finish and his TV episode Dalek, but I didn't realise he had written any prose until I saw a copy of Tiny Deaths in the bathroom of a friend's house in Manchester late last year. I ordered the book online, read it and thought it was one of the best short story collections I'd come across for years. I then got in touch with the publisher, Comma Books, and urged them to send copies to my fellow Fantasy Award judges. And to my delight, the other judges were as enthusiastic about the book as I was. In fact, one of them, Dennis McKiernan proclaimed it the best short story collection he'd ever read. It was some time after this that Rob and I, thrown together at various Doctor Who events during my 'promotional tour' for Ghosts of India met and quickly became good friends. So when the winner was announced I was doubly delighted. It honestly couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

During my stay in Calgary, and for the past four weeks since my return, I've been hard at work on my Torchwood novel, Bay of the Dead. I'm delighted to report that the book is finished and delivered now, and has been met with enthusiasm by BBC Books. Phew. As soon as the Beeb give the go-ahead, I'll stick a copy of the cover on my website. It's a beauty. Probably the goriest cover I've ever had.

Literally two days after finishing Bay of the Dead I had to get a synopsis in to...erm, well I'm not allowed to talk about that yet. I'd been given two weeks to deliver the synopsis, but the clash of deadlines meant that once the Torchwood book was delivered, I was left with only two days to write it. I therefore spent an incredibly tortuous, stressful couple of days trying to work out a long, complicated plot from beginning to end. I finally managed it, but I was reminded of a section from the book I'm currently reading, A Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook, which chronicles the ups and downs of Davies's writing experience on series four of Doctor Who. It's an incredible, unflinchingly honest book, and if you're even vaguely interested in the writing process I'd recommended it wholeheartedly. There are many sections which struck a chord with me in relation to my own writing experiences, but the one in particular I'm thinking about involved an email exchange between Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, soon to become Doctor Who's new show-runner. During the writing of his series four episode Silence in the Library Moffatt sent an email to Davies, asking, 'Do you ever feel like sticking your head out of the window and shouting at the top of your voice, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!"? To which Davies replies, "ALL the time."

Which, to my mind, pretty much sums up what being a writer is all about.

I've recommended both Tiny Deaths and A Writer's Tale during this blog, but one other book I must mention is William Heaney's (actually a pseudonym for Graham Joyce) novel, Memoirs of a Master Forger. I read most of it in one sitting on the 9-hour overnight flight back from Calgary (I can never sleep on planes - too uncomfortable) and it's fantastic. I love Graham's writing anyway, but this is one of his best. It's poignant, moving, beautifully written and observed, and populated by wonderful characters. I'll be amazed if it doesn't win awards next year. I'll certainly be voting for it.

Some bad and good news to end on. Sadly Humdrumming, who in the past couple of years have published lovely new hardback editions of my first two novels, Toady and Stitch, have gone into receivership. They were planning to reissue my entire backlist, and also to publish a new short story collection from me next Spring, but unfortunately that won't now be happening. It's a real shame that they've gone under. For the couple of years they were around they produced some great-looking books. The good news, however, from my point of view is that the collection they were due to publish, Long Shadows, Nightmare Light has now been bought by Pete Crowther at PS Publishing. PS are currently buying so far in advance that the book probably won't be out for a couple of years, but I can happily wait. It's always a real honour to be published by PS. They are the creme de la creme of independant genre publishing.

Finally and belatedly, I just wanted to say - Obama!! Woo-hoo!! Like everyone else I've spoken to, I'm so happy with the election result. Who knows what the future will hold, but despite the current financial crisis, suddenly the world seems a more optimistic place. Personally I think it was the 'Vote Obama' badges which Steve Volk and I were wearing in Calgary which swung it.

Until next time...

For the past few months I've been working on a couple of projects which I've had to keep under my hat until now. However they've finally both been officially announced, which means that I need keep silent no longer.

First up is my Doctor Who script for Big Finish Productions. As some of you will know (and some of you won't), Big Finish have been producing monthly Doctor Who audio adventures for almost ten years now, utilising past Doctors and companions, and even coming up with a few new companions of their own. They've also branched out into other areas - Sapphire & Steel, Dark Shadows, The Tomorrow People, various Doctor Who spin-offs, the full details of which are available on their website - but their main staple has been their excellent range of monthly, very successful Doctor Who adventures.

And now, finally, I've written one myself, and very proud I am too! A few months ago Big Finish invited me to pitch an idea for a one episode (25-minute) stand alone adventure for the 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) & his companions Ace (Sophie Aldred) & Hex (Philip Olivier), based around the number forty-five. As November 23rd will be Doctor Who's 45th anniversary, the idea was that a CD would be released under the blanket title 'Forty Five', containing four separate 25-minute stories by writers new to the range.

In my two decades as a professional writer, I had never written a script before, but after a few days of prevaricating I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. To cut a long story short, my idea was accepted, I was duly commissioned, and suddenly I found myself working (with a very tight deadline) on my first script, in the full knowledge that it would ultimately be performed by professional actors, recorded in a proper recording studio and released on CD for public consumption.

Gulp.

As it turned out, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the script-writing process. Once I got into the swing of it, I loved the challenge of trying to tell a story purely via dialogue and sound effects, and by the end (though I say so myself) I was pretty damn proud of what I managed to produce.

Script editor Alan Barnes was a great help, offering advice & encouragement along the way, and beautifully ironing out a few of the script's rough edges. My old mate, Paul Magrs, was brilliant too. He's done quite a bit of work with Big Finish, & he kindly sent me a couple of his scripts to read, just so that I could see what they looked like on the page and get the hang of exactly what was required.

Eventually, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing for rewrites, my script ('False Gods') was accepted, and the Friday before last I found myself in the Big Finish studios in London to listen in on the recording.

I must say, it was fantastic to hear actors - to hear an actual Doctor, no less - speaking words that I'd written for them. What really made my day, though, was that the excellent director, Ken Bentley, had successfully managed to secure the services of Benedict Cumberbatch to play the main supporting role of Egyptologist Howard Carter. Benedict Cumberbatch is one of my favourite young actors (he played Stephen Hawking in the award-winning BBC2 drama a few years back, and was the lead in a recent BBC1 thriller series called The Last Enemy; he's also been in the movies Atonement & Starter For Ten) and he was brilliant in the role. What made it even better, though, was that he was also a really nice bloke, warm and friendly and happy to hang around all day, eating trifle and chatting.

All in all, it was a really positive experience, and I can't wait to hear the finished audio, with sound effects and music. The cover is at the bottom of this blog entry, if you want to have a butcher's. Having now lost my scripting virginity, I'm now eager to do more work for Big Finish, and in fact - though I can't say too much at the moment - I am currently talking to them about future projects...so watch this space.

My second big announcement is that I'm writing a Torchwood novel. It's called Bay of the Dead, and is an all-out, no-holds-barred zombie-fest, set in Cardiff. I love the TV series and am thoroughly enjoying writing for Captain Jack & co. The book - along with two others: Into the Silence & The House That Jack Built by friends & fellow horror writers, Sarah Pinborough and Guy Adams - will be out in May next year.

It's late notice, I know, but Tim Lebbon and I will be doing a talk/reading/signing in Sandwell Central Library, near Birmingham, tomorrow at 2:30pm. It should be a fun afternoon, so if any of you can make it along, it would be great to see you there.

Cheers for now.

Twenty years ago today I sold my first novel, Toady, to Piatkus Books. Even now I remember the day so well. I'd spent it round at Nel's (she was then my girlfriend, and is now my wife), working on what was to become my second novel, Stitch. However in truth I was feeling a bit down. Three of the four publishers I'd initially sent Toady to had rejected it, not because they didn't like it, but because they thought it was far too long for a debut novel. The book had taken me over two years to write, and was something like 250,000 words long, and I was beginning to wonder whether I'd wasted my time, whether I'd have been wiser writing two or even three shorter novels over the same period. I arrived back at my flat around 5 or 6pm, to find a letter on the hall table with Piatkus's logo on it. Fearing that it was yet another rejection, I opened the letter and started reading - and suddenly everything went weird and fuzzy. It was a long letter, but Judy Piatkus made it clear in the first couple of sentences that she loved Toady and wanted to buy it. It took me a while before I was able to read on. I was so excited and overwhelmed that I literally couldn't think. Eventually I phoned Nel and read the letter to her, and she screamed in my ear - with joy, I hasten to add. Then she cycled round to my house and we jumped up and down for a while - and no, that's not a euphemism - before phoning a bunch of friends and going down the pub and getting massively pissed.

So...erm...yeah. That's what I was doing twenty years ago today.

To bring things right up to date, on Friday I was at the Bath Children's Literature Festival for the second year running. Together with Robert Shearman and Simon Messingham, I was being interviewed about writing for Doctor Who. It was a sell-out event, and massively enjoyable. Just like last year the kids were incredibly excited and enthusiastic and full of love for the programme. What made it even better was that after the event a bunch of us went out for a meal. Our party included Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, and...giant fanfare...Elisabeth Sladen! For those ill-educated louts among you who don't know who Elisabeth Sladen is, she played (and still plays) arguably the Doctor's most popular companion ever, Sarah Jane Smith. I remember seeing Liz's first appearance at my grandma's house back in 1973, when I was ten, so to be sitting next to her at dinner was a huge thrill. And I'm delighted to report that she was lovely and chatty, and that even up close she still looks incredible. I confessed to her that when we were introduced earlier that evening, my instinct was to be terribly unprofessional and just give her a great big hug - whereupon she grinned and gave me a great big hug!

Sometimes this job is just brilliant.

One of the nicest things about no longer being a judge for the World Fantasy Awards is being able to read the books I want to read, and at my own pace. You don't realise what a luxury this is until you have it taken away from you.

After finishing my judgely duties I went off on holiday and took a selection of the books I'd been stockpiling for the past six months. And after gorging myself on nothing but fantasy and horror for the first half of the year, I must admit that there wasn't a single genre book among them.

Maybe it was the sheer freedom of being able to read purely for the enjoyment of it, or perhaps I simply chose well this year, but I must admit that every single book I ended up reading on holiday was superb.

I started off with David Peace's The Damned United, a fictional account of Brian Clough's ill-fated 44-day reign as manager of Leeds United back in the 70s. As a Leeds fan, I guess I had a vested interest in the novel, but David Peace is always worth reading whatever he's writing about. He has a blunt, almost brutal style and his books have a kind of raw, savage poetry to them. I'd recommend them whole-heartedly, but be warned - they're not for the squeamish or faint-hearted.

The next book I read was The Rain Before It Falls by one of my favourite authors, Jonathan Coe. I still regard Coe's What A Carve Up! as his strongest book (and one of my favourite novels of all time), but The Rain Before It Falls is nevertheless a very worthy addition to his output. It's a beautifully structured and heart-rending novel about life and loss and regret.

Next up was Death of a Murderer by another of my favourite authors, Rupert Thomson. I haven't read all of Thomson's books, but I've read enough to know what an incredibly diverse and brilliant writer he is. Death of a Murderer is about a man looking back on his life from a hospital morgue, where he's been assigned to guard the body of Moors Murderer, Myra Hindley. He does this by conversing at length with the 'ghost' of Hindley, who may or may not be a product of his imagination.

All right, it all sounds a bit near to the knuckle, I know, but it's really not. It's thoughtful and poignant, and like all the other books I've talked about - and am going to talk about - in this column, it's incredibly compelling.

However, if I had to give a prize for my favourite book of a fantastic summer's reading, it would have to go to The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's taken me a while to get round to this - my wife, Nel, read it two years ago - but I'm so glad I finally made the effort. It's a wonderful novel. I really can't praise it highly enough. It's incredibly emotional, and gets right to the heart of what it means to be a human being. Again, it's a novel about life and death, about mortality and loss and the passage of time and the human condition. Towards the end it actually made me cry. I had to stop reading for a while because the tears were pouring down my face. But don't let that put you off. Believe me, it's a stunning novel. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best novels I've ever read.

It needed a strong novel to follow such an amazing book, and thankfully David Mitchell provided it with Black Swan Green. I hadn't read anything by Mitchell before, and I'm told that this is his most straight-forward and accessible book. It's about a year in the life of a thirteen year-old in the early 1980s. It's about growing up and coming to terms with life, and I absolutely loved it. It's funny and wry and (that word again) poignant, and so beautifully observed that anyone growing up in or around that time can't fail to recognise a great deal of themselves in the novel.

This weekend it's the British Fantasy Convention, which has been one of my annual highlights for the past twenty years, and this year looks like being as fantastic as ever. It's always brilliant to see so many old and dear friends, none of whom I see anywhere near often enough. I'm particularly excited this year because Christopher Golden is the US Guest of Honour. Chris is a great mate and I can't wait to see him. Because we live on opposite sides of the world, we only manage to get together once every year or so. In fact, the last time I saw Chris was at the World Horror Convention in Toronto eighteen months ago, so FantasyCon this year is going to be really special.

And of course I'll be as busy as ever. I'm on three panels this year, two of which I'm moderating, and will be involved in various book launches - in the role of contributing writer - throughout the weekend. In fact, one of the panels I'm moderating will feature a couple of writers who are making their convention debuts, Joseph D'Lacey and Bill Hussey, both of whose first novels have recently been published by a relatively new horror publisher, Bloody Books.

Keeping with this column's general theme of great reading, as soon as I heard Joe & Bill were to be on one of my panels, I went out and bought copies of both of their novels. I've now read Joe's novel, Meat, and I'm delighted to report that it's one of the best horror debuts I've read in a long time. Despite its lurid cover, which I must admit led me to believe that it was going to be just another unimaginatively gory stalk & slash fest, Meat is a thoughtful and incisive comment on the horrors of factory farming and the meat processing industry. It makes its points clearly and decisively, and yet the novel never comes across as preachy or crusade-led. Indeed the story is utterly absorbing, the characters vivid and the style strong and assured. I for one will definitely be looking forward to more of Joe's work in the future, and I'm also looking forward to meeting him personally in a few days' time.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I've only just started Bill Hussey's novel, Through A Glass, Darkly, and so don't feel qualified to comment on it just yet. Fifty or so pages in, I'm enjoying it so far, though. With my old mates Tim Lebbon & Sarah Pinborough making up the quintet it should be a fun and interesting panel.

Before I go, here's the cover of one of the books being launched at FantasyCon this weekend. We Fade To Grey is an excellent anthology of novellas by some of the best new writers in the genre. It's edited by the irrepressible Gary McMahon and published by Pendragon Press. I've provided the Introduction.

My fellow World Fantasy Award judges and I have now completed our six-monthly task of ploughing through the hundreds, if not thousands, of books and stories published in the genre last year, and after much debate and discussion the list of nominations in the various categories have finally been made public.

And already - perhaps inevitably - people have started to moan and complain and criticise. Here's what author Jeff Vandermeer had to say:

"Locus has posted the list of World Fantasy Award finalists. There are many fine selections here - including much deserved praise for John Klima's efforts - but I can't help but note a lack of daring on the part of the judges. This continues a trend, in my opinion, within core genre, towards the more conservative. Here, for example, is the list of best novels:

Fangland - John Marks (Penguin)
The Gospel of the Knife - Will Shetterly (Tor)
The Servants - Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling)
Territory - Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel - Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

'Territory' is one of my favourites from last year, and I'm happy to see it on the list. I also think the others are solid, solid novels. But I'd put Michael Cisco's 'The Traitor' up against any one of them. Or Ekaterina Sedia's 'A Secret History of Moscow'. Or Hal Duncan's 'Ink'. Or, perhaps most criminally, Dan Simmons' 'The Terror', a novel that in scope and execution dwarfs everything just mentioned. David Anthony Durham's 'Acacia' is missing from the list. Nor does the intricate second volume of Catherynne M Valente's Orphan's Tales, 'In the Cities of Spice and Coin', get any love. Great novels by Daniel Abraham, Nalo Hopkinson, John Crowley and Paul Park also apparently didn't strike the judges the right way. Or Patrick Rothfuss. Just for example.

Granted, the final ballot includes voter choices as well, but the judges have the ability to add a sixth or even seventh choice to a category in cases where they don't agree with those voted-in choices. In the major categories, however, there are only five finalists this year.

Another striking omission is the lack of any content from online sources. With online magazines now providing some of the strongest and most original fiction, this seems somewhat reactionary. Or an oversight.

It's hard to complain when the job of judging is so thankless, but I do find some of these choices puzzling. The great thing, though, is you get to make your own lists. If there's something that I've mentioned or is on the ballot and you haven't read it, pick it up. Let us know what you think of it. Be your own judge."

Now, I'm not generally in the habit of responding to criticism - everyone is entitled to their own opinion, in my view, even if that opinion is wrong - and I'm certainly not going to answer every criticism which will undoubtedly be directed at this year's WFA nominations (not because the nominations are wanting in any way, but simply because everyone's tastes are different), but as Jeff Vandermeer's comments were the first to be brought to my attention, I thought I would offer some response in this instance, at least.

I'm not entirely sure what Mr Vandermeer means when he describes this year's choices as "conservative". I'm sure none of the nominees themselves would regard their work in this way. On the contrary, I think that many of the choices that we've made - The Gospel of the Knife, Tiny Deaths, Five Strokes to Midnight, Cafe Irreal, Ruan Jia and Mikko Kinnunen, for example - might well be considered unexpected in some quarters. And what, may I ask, is particularly daring or innovative about many of the novels that Mr Vandermeer himself champions? For the record, I will state that Dan Simmons' 'The Terror' was my own personal favourite novel of all those I was sent to consider, but for various reasons none of my fellow judges thought the same way, and so that particular novel was rightly vetoed. As for the other titles, I recall simply not being personally enamoured by most of them - not because they were too different or innovative or wacky or daring for me, but merely because they didn't grab me or engage me or impress me enough to encourage me to fight for them to go on the list.

As for Mr Vandermeer's comment that stories from online sources were largely ignored, can I just say that for the six months or so of the judging process my fellow judges and I were receiving literally dozens of packages of books and manuscripts, comprising thousands upon thousands of words, every single day, and we were all absolutely busting a gut to keep up with what editors and writers and publishers had taken the time and trouble to send to us (and all this while trying to make a living too!). Does Mr Vandermeer honestly expect us, therefore, to have expended even more time and energy scouring the internet, seeking out books and stories we hadn't been sent? If online editors and magazines had bothered to print out the stories they had published and had sent them to us, then we would happily have read them. But they didn't, which suggests to me that at the end of the day they perhaps didn't consider a possible WFA nomination worth the minimal time and trouble it would have taken to try and procure one - which is entirely their choice.

When all is said and done, I believe the crux of Mr Vandermeer's criticism is simply that we didn't pick the books and the stories which he wanted us to pick. In short, we didn't pick his favourites. But there's a very simple solution to that, Mr Vandermeer. If you haven't already been a WFA judge, then offer yourself as one for next year. Then you'll get to spend many thousands of hours wading through hundreds of books you don't like in order to find the few that you do.

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.

Blimey, I've been busy this past month!

As well as finishing the (quite extensive) rewrites to my Hellboy novel, The All-Seeing Eye, I've recently embarked on a couple of potentially very exciting projects. One is a long-term project, which I'm working on with a very good friend of mine, but if all goes to plan the other one will be confirmed and contracts drawn up very soon, and will serve to fulfill a long-held ambition of mine. As soon as I'm allowed to, I'll tell you all about it.

In addition to this, I'm still reading as much as I possibly can in my capacity as a judge for this year's World Fantasy Awards. It's a rewarding task, but also an impossible one, trying to select winners in each category from the (literally) hundreds of books and magazines I and my fellow judges have been sent. I've currently got something like 14 two-foot tall piles of unread books on the floor of my study, and only 2 months left before we have to come to a decision. And still more books are arriving each day! Ah well, as I keep telling myself, I can only do my best.

I'm absolutely delighted -- and very proud -- to report that my Doctor Who book, Forever Autumn, has been voted the favourite Doctor Who fiction book of 2007 by readers of Doctor Who Magazine. I've been a massive Doctor Who fan ever since I was terrified by the sight of the Yeti shambling down a Tibetan (well, Welsh) mountainside to attack Det Sen Monastery in 1967, and have been a reader of DWM since issue 1, so this particular honour means a huge amount to me. Readers gave Forever Autumn an average score of 8.17 out of 10. Of course, what this now means is that I'm under extra pressure to repeat the success with my next Who novel, Ghosts of India, which will be out in September.

Finally, I just wanted to tell you about a Night of Horror, which will take place at Borders, Leeds, on Thursday June 12th at 7pm. I'll be there, along with Ramsey Campbell, Conrad Williams and Adam Nevill. We'll all be reading from our latest works and answering questions from the audience. Should be a great night, so I hope to see you there!

Until next time...

New horror anthology The British Invasion is now available to pre-order from the Cemetery Dance website, a link for which you can find on my Links page. Apparently copies are selling out fast, so if I were you I'd order sooner rather than later. The gorgeous cover by Les Edwards is featured below. My own contribution to the anthology is a 10,000 word story called Puppies For Sale.

The first five months of 2008 has brought three deadlines, two of which I've now managed to fulfill - and a couple of weeks ahead of schedule too.

I delivered my new Doctor Who book, Ghosts of India, on April 1st, and have just delivered a 15,000 word version of my 2005 novella, Stumps, (which first appeared in the Cemetery Dance anthology, Fourbodings, edited by Pete Crowther) to Barrington Stoke. Barrington Stoke are a publisher who publish books for 'reluctant readers', and my previous book with them was The Dogs, which came out in 2001.

Now that Stumps has been delivered, I'll be spending the next few weeks doing re-writes to my Hellboy novel, The All-Seeing Eye, and then will be writing a long (50,000 word) novella called It Sustains for Earthling Publications in the States. I've also got a new short story collection called Long Shadows, Nightmare Light coming out from Humdrumming in September, so I need to write some new stories for that.

And once that little lot's out of the way, I'll be turning my attention to a new horror novel, which I've actually been working on, on and off, for the past couple of years. Most of the book's already written, but it needs quite a bit of re-working and re-writing to turn it into exactly the kind of book I want it to be. I'm hoping to have a new revamped version of the novel available to deliver to my agent by October or November. Now that horror is on the rise as a genre again, there are already a couple of publishers showing interest - so fingers crossed.

Before I go, I just want to mention alt.fiction, which is being held at the Assembly Rooms in Derby next Saturday (26th). Basically alt.fiction is a one-day celebration of the horror, fantasy and science-fiction genres. There'll be panels, readings and signings, and a chance for fans to meet and chat with many of the best genre writers in the UK in very informal surroundings. Together with Simon Clark, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough and Conrad Williams, I'll be appearing on the Horror panel at 4pm in the Reception Suite. Other writers scheduled to attend include Graham Joyce, Brian Lumley, Eric Brown, Charlie Stross, Ramsey Campbell, Mike Carey, Michael Marshall Smith, Justina Robson and many more.

Hope to see you there!

I'm writing this less than an hour after writing the last sentence of my new Doctor Who book, Ghosts of India. Hurrah! It's always a great feeling to finish a book. My official deadline is on Monday, so I'll now spend the next few days reading through the manuscript & giving the text a final edit & polish before I submit it next week.

And appropriately enough, the BBC have now officially approved and released the covers of the three September Who novels for everyone to coo over. I'm delighted with mine. Here it is:

I'm proud and delighted to announce that I have been asked to be one of the panel of five judges for this year's World Fantasy Awards. Of course, I realise that this involves a massive amount of work (my old mate Tim Lebbon did this job a few years ago, and tells me that on one particular day he received 97 books!), but it is also a huge privilege and an exciting challenge.

My fellow judges are Peter Coleborn, Robert Hoge, Dennis L. McKiernan and Steve Pasechnick, and as a panel we have to come up with nominees for Best Novel, Best Collection, Best Anthology, Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Artist...etc etc. To do this, obviously, we have to read as much fantasy & horror fiction that was published in 2007 as we possibly can: a massive undertaking, which, at times, admittedly seems an incredibly daunting, if not impossible, task - especially considering the fact that I still have to fit my own work (four impending deadlines), my part time job and my family life into that equation.

But hey, at the end of the day I figure I can only do my best. I'll read what I can in the time available and I'll make my judgements based on that. And at least, instead of succumbing to the temptation of flopping down in front of the TV on an evening, I'm now doing what I keep telling myself I should do more of, which is finding a quiet corner of the house and spending a few hours reading. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do read quite a bit anyway - probably around forty or so books a year, which is certainly far more than the national average. But there are so many good books out there, so many books I want to read, that I always feel as though I could and should read more.

Well, now I've got the opportunity. And so far I'm really enjoying the experience and trying not to let the pressure of it get to me.

Speaking of deadlines, I'm less than three weeks away from the deadline for my new Doctor Who novel, Ghosts of India. It's been going well - I think - and at 38,000 words with around 12,000 to go, I'm nicely on schedule. It's fun, but a bit strange, writing scenes which involve conversations between Gandhi and the Doctor's new companion, Donna (as played by Catherine Tate). At the outset I had no idea how this relationship in particular would pan out, but it's not been anywhere near as problematical as I anticipated - in fact the scenes, and the conversations, between them have flowed quite naturally. I only hope that readers think I've done both characters justice when the book is published in September.

I've now seen the cover for the book, and it's fab, and as soon as the BBC officially give the go ahead, I'll post it up here for you all to ogle at and coo over. I've also seen the cover for my forthcoming Hellboy novel, The All-Seeing Eye, which is a beautiful piece of original artwork from Mike Mignola. Again, as soon as I'm allowed to, I'll post the cover on the website.

Right, better go. Doctor Who and a vast pile of reading await me.

Until next time...

As it has now been officially announced in Doctor Who Magazine issue 392, out this week, I'm finally at liberty to tell you that I have been commissioned to write another in the BBC's hugely successful Doctor Who book range!
The new novel will be entitled Ghosts of India, and will be published in September. I'm incredibly excited to be writing another Who book so soon after Forever Autumn. I had a fantastic time last year, and met some brilliant people who have since become very good friends, and can't wait to do it all again this year.
Here's the official BBC blurb:
India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos - a country torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent events.
Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city is rife with tales of 'half-made men', who roam the streets at night and steal people away. These creatures, it is said, are as white as salt and have only shadows where their eyes should be.
With help from India's great spiritual leader, Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi, the Doctor and Donna set out to investigate these rumours.
But what is the real truth behind the 'half-made men'? Why is Gandhi's role in history under threat? And has an ancient, all-powerful god of destruction really come back to wreak vengeance upon the earth?

I'm brimming over with news at the moment, though frustratingly I've been told to keep quiet until official announcements are made. Hopefully I'll be able to reveal all at some point in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I had a great time at the BFS Open Night at York Brewery last weekend. There was a great turnout, and kudos to Lee Harris, editor of Hub Magazine, for organising it. This was the second such event at York Brewery, and Lee tells me he's hoping that these northern BFS nights will become a regular occurrence. The intention is not to split the BFS membership, but rather to give people who find it hard to get to the quarterly London gatherings a chance to get together with fellow genre enthusiasts. York Brewery is a great setting - the 'function room' beside the bar area is cosy, homely but also just a little bit spooky. Fittingly, given that York is the most haunted city in England, the theme for the evening was ghost stories, and more particularly the public reading thereof. I kicked off proceedings with my story, Coming Home, which was originally published in the anthology Taps and Sighs (Subterranean Press, 2000) and subsequently reprinted in Best New Horror Vol 12. After me came Allison Bird, who was nervous about her first public reading but did a sterling job, a guy called - I think - Peter Roberts (my memory is not what it was), who came all the way from Bristol to read his own hilarious poem about the 'real' tooth fairy, Simon Clark, who read a poem by a bloke called Dylan Thomas (no, I've never heard of him either), Pete Crowther, who read his own story, Cleaning Up, an oldie but a goodie, and finally - the piece de resistance - Ramsey Campbell, who read his brilliant story, Calling Card, which I'm astonished to discover (having just looked it up) is now over quarter of a century old.

Anyhow, all the stories and poems seemed to go down very well with the receptive and appreciative audience, and it was great to catch up with old friends. What was particularly pleasing for me was that my wife, Nel, and my kids, David & Polly, were there, not least because it was the first time the kids had ever heard me read in public.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm the featured author over at the US website Horror World this month (www.horrorworld.org). There's a brand new 7000 word story of mine to read called The All-Nighter, so if you find yourself with half an hour to spare, why not head on over there and let me know what you think.

Finally for now, independent publishers Humdrumming have just issued a new press release about their intentions for 2008, and have asked me whether I'd mind running it on my website. So here it is:

"Independent UK publishers Humdrumming have been steadily gathering a name for themselves over the last three years, publishing attractive books by such respected authors as Mark Morris, Garry Kilworth, Gary Fry, Gary McMahon and James Cooper. As 2008 promises to be their biggest year yet (with new titles from Rhys Hughes, Peter Crowther and Tim Lebbon lying ahead) they have relaunched their website and are offering a sale on a number of their books. There are a handful of titles at only £5 - including their much-lauded First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories - with further books at discount prices, including their expanded reprints of Mark Morris's Toady and Stitch at £10 each (a third off retail). The sale will only last 14 days, so head over to www.humdrumming.co.uk and pick up a bargain! The new site also features an option to join the Humdrumming mailing list. Members will receive early notification of forthcoming titles and occasional special offers, so it's well worth signing up."

I can't believe it's a year since I posted my last Happy New Year message. These past 12 months have flown by. Ulcerated eyeball aside, 2007 turned out to be a very good year for me. I spent the first month of it finishing off my novel, The Deluge, which was subsequently published by Leisure (US) in December. Then, after a great 2-night trip to BBC Wales in Cardiff to see early rough-cuts of the first 3 episodes of series 3 of Doctor Who (where I met 2 fellow writers, Paul Magrs and Mark Michalowski, who have since become great friends), I embarked on my Doctor Who novel, Forever Autumn, which was an absolute joy to write, and which was published in September to generally very good reviews. The rest of the year was spent writing my Hellboy novel, The All-Seeing Eye, which will be published by Dark Horse later this year, preparing the new edition of my second novel, Stitch, which was re-released by Humdrumming in September, and promoting Forever Autumn on a massively enjoyable and successful nationwide signing tour with my fellow Doctor Who authors, the aforementioned Paul and Mark. Half-way through this tour, towards the end of September, I attended the British Fantasy Convention, where I won my first British Fantasy Award for Cinema Macabre, the anthology of horror movies essays which I conceived and edited, and which was published by PS Publishing in 2006.

So what will 2008 bring? Well, work-wise, I'm as madly busy as ever. I delivered Hellboy: The All-Seeing Eye on December 23rd, which as I say will be published later in 2008, and I now have 3 further books to complete and deliver by the end of April. One is a novella for Earthling Publications in the US, entitled It Sustains, one is an adaptation of a previously published novella of mine, Stumps, for Barrington Stoke, who published my novella The Dogs some years ago, and the other one I'm not allowed to talk about until contracts have been signed and an official announcement has been made.

After that little lot is out of the way, I'll be re-writing a novel which has been sitting in my bottom drawer for a year or so, and in which a publisher is currently showing interest, and then will no doubt be preparing the new edition of my 1994 novel, The Secret of Anatomy, which Humdrumming are planning to launch at FantasyCon this year.

I also have various other projects - some concrete, some not - on the boil, news of which will no doubt leak out in the fullness of time.

I'm planning on attending Alt.Fiction in Derby again this year, which takes place in April, FantasyCon in Nottingham in September, and hopefully the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary, Canada, in November.

Before I go, a quick list of my faves of 2007.

Favourite movie (seen in the cinema): This is England

Favourite book (I read 41 books in 2007, so I'm going to choose a few): The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell, Ferocity by Stephen Laws, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and Fangland by John Marks. Look out also for Sarah Pinborough's superb novella, The Language of Dying, which will be published by PS in 2008, and which is easily the best thing she's ever written.

Favourite TV show: Well, it has to be Doctor Who, but I also saw the last 9 episodes of The Sopranos this year, which I thought were absolutely superb. If you've never watched The Sopranos, do yourself a favour and go get the entire 6 series on DVD. It's a masterpiece of the visual medium. An absolute classic series.

OK, better shoot. Off to see I Am Legend tonight.

Cheers for now
Mark