Now Playing: Mudcrutch
I really should have posted an update in May, but there would have been precious little to report other than that I was busy with various projects. I finished and sold an 11,000 word novelette, "Fury", for inclusion in the second volume of Jonathan Strahan's Eclipse series of all-original, non-themed SF anthologies. I signed more than 2000 signature sheets for two different limited editions - Subterranean Press's forthcoming version of my story "The Six Directions of Space", and the Easton Press's leatherbound version of THE PREFECT. I also read and enjoyed the forthcoming Chris Beckett collection THE TURING TEST (Elastic Press) and wrote an introduction for it. Chris's book is is coming out in August, so get your orders in now.
I made tentative inroads on the new book, which has now been scheduled for October 2009, with the UK edition of ZIMA BLUE appearing in the spring. No title as yet, and I'm not telling anyone what it's about just now, other than to say that it will be another standalone.
Now that we're into early June (bloody hell), North American readers should finally be able to get their hands on the ACE edition of THE PREFECT. I'm sorry that it's taken so long, but there really doesn't seem to be anything to be done about the lag for now. Of course, even HOUSE OF SUNS is beginning to feel like old news to me, and it'll be another year again before the US edition appears. Maybe there'll be a chance to narrow the gap with book 9 - we'll see what happens. All of which, of course, assumes that my US publisher will continue to pick up the option on my books - finger crossed, etc, and due thanks to those readers who continue to buy copies.
Little else to report. I finally scored a copy of Mudcrutch, the new album by Tom Petty's first band (before the Heartbreakers), who have now reconvened to splendid effect. I really like Petty's stuff - he's massively underrated. His last solo album, "Highway Companion" has hardly been off my CD player since it came out. Reading: several months worth of old New Yorkers, New Scientists, and Salman Rushdie's first novel.
Still enjoying Doctor Who.
