Dreadfully exciting, no? I have noooo idea if or when it’ll be released in other territories though, including the UK. Does anyone know of a US equivalent of Bookdepository.com that does free international shipping for my poor beleaguered countryfolk?

Also, I’m in the home stretch on Silver, and it’s minus six billion outside which means my hands have frozen into frosty claws.

That is all.

The hawk-eyed among you, or those who spend every free moment on Amazon googling my name (bless your little hearts), might have spotted the curious fact that, like, there’s this book out by me that I’ve barely even mentioned. Well, here’s the lowdown: I wrote PALE a while ago for an imprint called Barrington Stoke, who produce books targeted at reluctant and struggling readers or kids with dyslexia. I haven’t really talked about it much because I thought it was mainly going to be sold to schools and such, and also because I didn’t want it  to be confused with my usual output, since it’s a very different kind of book. But since it’s out there in the big wide world now, it’s time for Pale to take a bow.

Now listen y’all. This book was written for a specialist market. It’s very short, and the language and story are much, much simpler than the books you’re used to reading from me. If you’re curious, or if you’re a completist, or if there’s someone you know who’s a struggling reader and might like this sorta thing, then by all means pick it up; it’s a creepy little sci-fi tale that may tickle your fancy. But if you’re expecting something in the vein of Malice or Alaizabel, you’ll be disappointed. I wouldn’t want anyone spending their hard-earned readies and then being gutted because of the content.

Currently dividing my time between Silver, which is getting near done, and Secret Movie Project no.30300256. Next on the slate is Ketty Jay 4. That’s 2012 taken care of, then…

Happy New Year!

Interesting post here about golems in YA literature from JWeekly.com, which gives a nice little shout out to Vago from Storm Thief. I want the golem in that picture.

General news: been working on one of my secret movie projects for a while, tap-tapping along with Silver, rather disappointed that it gets dark by 5 now although it does make me feel better about wrapping up in an impenetrable mound of blankies with a tiny hole for my eyes.

And for those who are interested, I’m playing bass on track 4. Ahem.

As always, release dates should be the same in Australia, Canada, and anywhere else that still pays lip service to the Queen Any other countries, including the US, I just don’t know so pleeeease don’t ask. I’ll tell you when I find out.

Movie news, for those who’ve been asking: there is none.

Release date for Pandemonium has been pushed back to February in the US.

Currently I’m working on Silver, which is rolling along nicely and is already racking up quite a bodycount. I’m also working on a movie which I’m very bouncy excited about but it’s really too early to talk about it much.

In other news, I just ate a biscuit.

Stay tuned!

Go compete!

Check out the Guardian article here.

And the home site here.

I offer a general round of applause to all involved *clappity clappity*

I recently did an interview with SF website SFFWorld.com, which you can find here if you want to kill a couple of minutes at work/school/while taking a break from gold farming on WoW.

I’ve started work on my next book, with the working title of Silver. It’s a YA sci-fi horror. And that’s all I’m telling you for the moment, except that its vibe harks back to the skin-crawling megadark of The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray, which should tickle a few whiskers ;) Currently it’s slated for release in May 2013, which is quite a while off due to various publishing arrangements, but hopefully the US and UK will get it at the same time instead of six months apart. Anyway, you’ll have Pandemonium to keep you warm in 2012, and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that you’ll get the fourth Ketty Jay book in early 2013. Yes, your maths are right, that would be before Silver comes out, even though I’ll be writing it afterwards. I know, I amaze myself sometimes…

And better still, the whole graphic novel is full colour like this. I’ve seen some of Cassandra’s finished interior art and it’s utterly brilliant. It’s due to be released IN THE US ONLY on New Year’s Day. Contrary to the usual way of things with my books, the States will be getting it first, as this is a project done with the American arm of Scholastic. Other countries (including Britain) will get it later as individual publishers make their own arrangements. I’ll let you know about release dates when I do. Meantime, you can preorder it from Amazon US here.

Also, I’ve finally delivered the final final copyedited final version of The Iron Jackal, finally. It’s in the bag and set for Oct 20th in the UK. Don’t know for the States or other countries yet, as they have to cut their own deals: again, I’ll let you know when I do.

My next book is going to be another YA one before I do the 4th Ketty Jay. I’ll be able to tell you a bit about it very soon, am just waiting on the okay from Scholastic before I get into it; but I am fairly jigging with excitement. It WON’T be another Malice book, however: it’ll be a standalone. The will-he-won’t-he saga of Malice 3 has dragged on a long time now, for which I apologise. The delay was because of business decisions between the various arms of Scholastic that I can’t really go into, and all that took ages to sort out, and it’s still not entirely done. There still may or may not be another one further down the line, but it probably won’t be for a while if so.

More soon…