Happy New Year!
January 29th, 2010Hi folks,
Okay, to start with more apologies - I’ve been meaning to leave something on here for a good while now, but things have just been so hectic. Firstly, we had some pretty serious family health issues not long after my last post and between that and juggling work, days just seemed to pass me by (then weeks and months). We’d only just got over that period, when it was convention season again - and Marie and I trotted off to FantasyCon in Nottingham for the launch of Broken Arrow, then to our first ever World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, California, to launch Hellbound Hearts. We really enjoyed both, made some new friends and came back with some great memories. Before we knew it, Christmas was here. None of this meant that I stopped working, by the way - quite the opposite, in fact. I’ve managed to fit in writing the first draft of the next novel, some shorts and some scripting work. Which brings us pretty much up to date, I think.
Believe it or not, there are two more cons on the horizon - the first of which I’m a guest at, the second I’m on the committee of. The SFX Weekender is just round the corner now, less than a week away - and there looks like being about 2,500 people in attendance. I’ve just heard I’m doing a reading and Q&A session on the Saturday, plus signing stuff, and I’m also on a panel with Paul Cornell, Mark Newton and Jon Oliver, which I’m really looking forward to. You can see who else is going to be there at the website here. Then there’s World Horror down in Brighton, which promises to be the horror con to top them all (see for yourself here). I’m also launching my new novel The Gemini Factor (from Screaming Dreams) there on the Sunday, so it’ll be especially exciting for me that day.
So, what else is on the agenda this year? Well, my short novel Of Darkness and Light is released just in time for Easter and there’s a non-fiction book coming out not long after that (keep checking the journal and the Shadow Writer site for more details about this closer to its release). Plus there are a couple of very special things coming up that I can’t talk about just yet…
In terms of what we’ve been watching movies and TV-wise, we went to see Avatar as a family and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It’s one of those moments you’ll look back on and say, ‘I was there at the birth of a new kind of cinema experience’. It was like being in the movie, and at certain points you could swear some of the characters were sitting in the audience. On TV, we’re gearing up for the start of new seasons of our favourite shows: Supernatural and Lost… sadly the last seasons of both if reports are true (definitely Lost, as it reaches the end of its arc). We also really enjoyed the new Wallanders on BBC1 and have bought a couple of the novels it’s based on - I’ve only dipped in, but they promise to be just as good, if not better.
Looking ahead, I can’t wait for both the remake of Clash of the Titans and Iron Man 2 to hit cinemas - but more on them when I’ve watched ‘em.
Anyway, it’s almost the weekend and I’m taking a couple of well-earned days off. Catch you on the other side of the Weekender when I’ll be reporting back on how it all went and also looking forward to both Valentines and my birthday
Take care of yourselves in the meantime,
Paul.