I was very pleased to hear last night that the excellent Screaming Dreams (who publish the smart Estronomicon e-zine) will be publishing my mini-novella The Vampire Narcissus in the early part of next year as a free downloadable PDF.

The story is set in Renaissance Italy, and on the whole concerns a dark romance between...

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Well, I love writing full stop. But what I really love about my job is when I get the opportunity to visit schools and run workshops and meet children and do readings, and, and...

I've just got in from a day at Woodland Community Primary School, Rochdale. I'll blog in more detail when I've a little more time but I have to say that I loved it. Brilliant children, brilliant teachers, brilliant Head, brilliant school and a brilliant day.

As part of my visit I was truly honoured to officially open their new school library (which is BRILLIANT.) Below is a picture of the plaque. (I never thought I'd have my name - correctly spelled! - on a plaque!)


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Lazy morning today - though we did venture out in the rain to sort the cars out. I do like checking the tyres regularly and looking at the oil and water and stuff. It makes me feel useful and gives me a false illusion of control. And Lord knows how I need that!

I've also been very domestic and made a crumble for pudding, though as usual I left the roast to Lord H. And we've wrapped Christmas up, hurrah! And even done cards. Far fewer than last year, thank the Lord, as I'm culling, m'dears, I'm culling ...

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Writers are a motley bunch. Take a core sample through the Society of Authors and you'll find high-literateurs, cheerful writers of category fiction, self-publishers of exquisite nature books, academics, and authors of joke books for the Christmas market, and that's before you've got your own name-label safely on. We have only a few things in common: bodies the shape you'd expect from working sitting down in reach of the kitchen, a slightly mad look in our eyes from too much time spent alone, a tendency to talk too much when another human being does heave over the horizon, and a tendency not to discuss work in progress.

There are people who assume we're not talking because we don't want our ideas pinched.


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After a wild night it is now a wild day. Rusty, tottering on his 20 year old legs, nearly got blown over but insists on having his early morning walk. A dignified dog dislikes wearing coats but he has one which is only worn in extreme circumstanes like today. The wind howled. He swayed. We made it to the smelling post and weaved our way back. Deaf and nearly blind, that post is his purpose now that his pal, Phoebe, has gone. Little did we realise how much he depended on her.
Five years ago, we had 2 cats and 2 dogs now there's only Rusty.
This afternoon, as I don't have to do my duty, I'm trying to work on a story but the wind and rain outside, strangely distracts. So I read Y'vonne's story and her poem. Very good. Now I will get on with my own. Forget about the weather and it's violent mood.

I've had quite a good time this morning helping to run the Goldenford bookstall at Farnham Maltings - in spite of having to get up at 6am! We sold a copy of Laptop and a copy of The Hit List (the latter to the very lovely stall holders behind us - so thank you for that, Tim & Trudi. Very much appreciated indeed!) Irene also sold some of her collectables, which we were showcasing on the table - so well done, Irene! It was also good fun simply because of the amount of people coming through the doors. Had lots of great conversations, and people were surprisingly willing to chat. Must be Christmas! Arrrggghh, the "C" word - sorry ...

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Back at work today – on a Friday, arrgghhh!! – looking at the last of our website providers and also minuting the Student Induction Group over lunchtime. I hope to goodness they don’t say too much, or at least nothing that’s complicated, as I don’t have the emotional energy for complexity today. It’s been a heck of a busy week.

So much so that when I rushed into the kitchen last night to see if Lord H wanted help with the dinner, I found myself saying, as a kind of automatic work response: can I help you or shall I take a message? He stared at me for a few moments, blinked, and then said in his best, slow baritone, Reeee-laaax. Reee-laax. At which point, I flopped over like a rag doll and rested on the breakfast bar until light dawned in my brain. My, what fun we have in Godalming ...

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PD Publishing have sent me four samples of covers for Maloney’s Law – and the one which you can see if you click onto the full post (link below) is my favourite. I love it! Just how I’ve been imagining Paul all the while I was writing him. I might ask them to fiddle around with the London context, but we’ll see. Anyway, I’m thrilled.

At work, I’ve been in meetings (ones I don’t have to minute, hurrah!) all morning looking at possible new website providers. And there’s another one of these tomorrow, so we can’t make decisions yet. However, I favour the first guys, although the people with the power favour the second guys – even though they’re more expensive. Groan. Anyway, whatever we get will be better than what we have now so in any case we’ll be smiling. And it’ll be much more whizzy. Double hurrah ...

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Got up this morning, had my cup of tea. It was early, very early as usual and trying to be quiet, I came in here, looked at my email and wow! Bewildering Stories have accepted my story! But who could I tell at 5.30am? So I logged into Writewords and told the group. Y'vonne, bless her, sent me her congrats. The day seemed a lot brighter. The sun shone. Wonder what it would be like winning the Booker. Not that's there's a chance. Good thing, really, as my heart wouldn't be able to stand all the excitement.

I’m a great believer in things happening for a reason, but also that certain things come to you when you’re ready for them. In the latter case, I have to include Gene Wolfe. When I was a boy of about ten or eleven, I kept straying across The Shadow of the Torturer but for some reason, it always seemed a bit beyond my reading ability. I’ve recently picked these books up again off Amazon out of sheer curiosity and have been more than pleasantly surprised. They are quite simply amazing and I’ve hardly been able to put the omnibus (Fantasy Masterworks #1 Shadow & Claw) down. So there you go. I’m a brand new fan.

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