The Ghost of Christmas Past

Has finally been laid to rest. Confused? Well don't be.

Today I finished writing Christmas Past, the exclusive short story that will appear at the back of Human Nature, my next novel from Abaddon Books. It's a traditional festive tale of murder, mystery and mayhem and features, of course, dandy agent of the Crown, Ulysses Quicksilver.

And what's even more exciting is the fact that Human Nature can now go off to the printers and be out in time for a Pax Britannia book-signing at the Forbidden Planet store in London. I will of course update you regarding this event, via this blog, as and when I details have been finalised.

So, watch this space.

News from Abaddon

The front page of the Abaddon Books website has been updated and features both Human Nature and Evolution Expects.

There's also exciting news from the Abaddon blog that 12 titles have already been commissioned for release next year, which is four more than this year!

So, if you're a fan of The Afterblight Chronicles, Tomes of the Dead, Twilight of Kerberos or Pax Britannia, 2009 is the year you've been waiting for!

Doctor Who Day at Ealing Library

Just to remind you... I will be at Ealing Central Library tomorrow, Saturday 22 November, taking part in their Doctor Who Day, selling and signing copies of my Doctor Who Decide Your Destiny book The Horror of Howling Hill.

(Did you know, over 100,000 Doctor Who Decide Your Destiny titles have been sold so far?)

I will also have copies of my new Christmas book What is Myrrh Anyway? available to buy.

You'll be able to meet a Dalek at 10.00am-12.00pm and 2.00pm-4.00pm, and also at 2.00pm author Nick Griffiths will be talking about his book Dalek I Loved You. There will be games, quizzes, and competitions to take part in as well.

So maybe I'll see you there...

Zombies, zombies and more zombies... and a little Pax Britannia thrown in there too.

Yes, it's time to update you on all the news from Abaddon Books. Click here to find out more.

Ampney Crucis Investigates

Starting in 2000AD prog is a brand new Thrill, Ampney Crucis Investigates, created by the redoubtable Ian Edginton and Simon Davis. The two have previously worked together most notably on the Stone Island books, and it looks like we can expect more of the same gruesome goings on within a real world setting with the opening story Vile Bodies.

This is right up my street, with Davis' macabre and colourful art perfectly complimenting Edginton's unpleasant imaginings. After only five pages of strip and one teaser pic there's not much to go on, but I'm guessing Mr Crucis himself is going to be something of a Lord Peter Wimsey/Noel Coward-type character, and in some ways he already rather resembles Ulysses Quicksilver.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to more of this and am already (optimistically) hoping that there will be more to come after the conclusion of this opening adventure.

By the way, Ampney Crucis gets his name from an actual village in Gloucestershire.

Evolution Expects - the cover revealed

And a nasty piece of work it is too. Here, see for yourself...

Of course, when I say it's a nasty piece of work, I mean it's another fantastic piece of work from esteemed Abaddon artist Mark Harrison, but even I have to admit that the cover image is rather... well... unpleasant.

But that's nothing compared to what Mark's wife thought of it - and then my wife pointed out that I was the one who had come up with the image in the first place!

To find out more about the poor tortured soul who appears on the cover of Evolution Expects, you'll have to wait until April 2009, I'm afraid, when the fifth book in the Pax Britannia series will be released in the UK (the US release date is still to be confirmed).

And for those of you who've been paying attention to earlier posts, here's Mark's concept rough for the final cover design.