Update And Info On Release Dates

Sooo, it appears I have reverted to my lazy blog habits that I hoped to break by revamping this website. Tsk. Trouble is, things move so slowly in the world of writing that I’m lucky if I have one new interesting thing to tell you per month. Otherwise I’d be forced to subject you to my rambling opinions on politics, religion, life, the universe and everything. You don’t want that.

Where I’m at: I’m a quarter of the way through The Iron Jackal, but I’ve stopped it for a little bit. I went on holiday for a week, and when I came back I decided I wanted to revise the first quarter of the book and make sure it was all as good as I could get it before I moved on.

I find that the further you get through a series, the more the need for recapping becomes a problem. How much do you need to remind the reader of what happened before? How much do you need to tell new readers to prevent them being lost? The Ketty Jay books are intended to be standalones, but the characters have still changed a lot from book to book, due to the things that have happened to them (otherwise it’d be like a Thundercats episode where everything ends up exactly the same as it began, and we fade out on everyone laughing at Snarf: poor little thing, I bet he was crying inside). Anyway, it’s a tricky balance to strike, so I’m going to do some editorial work on it before I continue.

By the way, this is something I always advise aspiring writers not to do. It’s better to finish the book and then edit it afterwards. But hey, I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years now, and that makes me a cranky old hand at this game; I get to do what I like 😉

I’m in talks with Scholastic about doing another two books for them, which may or may not be a continuation of the Malice and Havoc stories. And speaking of Scholastic, I just got contacted by their US division who look to have resurrected the long-rumoured Pandemonium graphic novel project. We have an artist, Cassandra Diaz, who has a very dreamy, ethereal style that should suit the story nicely. I’ve seen some sample pages and they’re very cool. We also have a new editor with a background in graphic novels who’s working on it closely. So it looks like, after 5-odd years, it’s pushing forward, which I’m very excited about. Told you the writing game was slow!

I’ve had preliminary story meetings about All Fall Down, and we’re going to be getting on with that as soon as everyone gets their heads straight after the film festival in Cannes.

In other news, I bought an iMac and it’s the greatest thing in the world. I am now officially PC-free, which means I don’t have to spend every third Sunday reinstalling Windows. Awesome.

INFORMATION ABOUT RELEASE DATES!!!!

(I put that in bold capitals, see, ’cause I want you to pay attention)

I notice that about 50% of the posts I get on here are asking when a certain book is going to be released in a certain country. Several times I’ve replied, only to have more people ask me the same question again because they haven’t bothered reading the thread before they posted.

So here’s the thing. I’ll update you when I can, but if you want to know release dates, look on Amazon for your particular country.  If the release date is changed in any country but the UK, nobody tells me unless I specifically ask. Usually I find out about it from Amazon myself.

As a general rule, Canada and Australia (and maybe NZ) have the same release dates as the UK. If it’s released in the UK a long time before your country, go buy it from The Book Depository which, since it has free shipping internationally, is probably no more expensive than buying it at home.

Everyone in the US waiting for Havoc, (release date is currently October in the US) just order it from England instead. It’s out now. I’ll make it easy: Click here. It costs six quid, which is about nine dollars. If you don’t have a credit card, ask your parents super nicely if they can buy it for you. There. Done. And while you’re there, you might as well pick up Retribution Falls too 😉

Seriously, you don’t need to wait for publishers in your home country to put out a book these days. When I was a kid it required an Indiana Jones-esque quest to find a book that wasn’t published in my country, or one that was out of print. Nowadays it’s a doddle.

Right, that’s my sales thing done. I’m off to eat Animal Crackers.