Cheltenham

Just back from the Cheltenham Literary Festival, which was a bit of a personal disaster to tell the truth. For some reason, two of the promised school classes failed to turn up at my talk, so I was left with a tiny audience of kids who were mostly too young to follow the scheduled lecture. The week before I had a massive turn-out at Ballymun and Finglas in Ireland for the Dublin Children's Book Festival, so I expect the UK trip was God's way of telling me not to get big-headed.

Having said that, I did like Cheltenham itself. Lovely hotel and there was a Writers' Room in the Town Hall where they laid on yummy food and decent wine (both gratis) all day. That's what I call proper treatment.

Shadow Project

New working title for 'Sohanti' -- it's now 'The Shadow Project', suggested by my agent Sophie Hicks who read all 530 pages of it at a single sitting and tells me it would make a brilliant movie. Whether it makes a brilliant book remains to be seen: it's with my publisher at the moment -- always a nervewracking time.

My trip to Edinburgh was great fun. Before I got there, we stayed in a posh hotel where Churchill entertained Eisenhower during the war and I had a bath in Churchill's bath, a brute of a thing with enormous copper taps. When I was a kid, Churchill was the world's hero and mine. Lying in his bath, wishing I had a cigar and some gin, I kept thinking 'How on earth did I get here?'

The audience at Edinburgh was a lively lot; a bit younger than I expected. I devoted most of my appearance to questions and they came thick and fast. How do you define magic? Do we really have souls? Can wizards fly on broomsticks? I loved it and plan to do it all again at Cheltenham Literary Festival next month.

We took a bit of a holiday after Edinburgh, during which I discovered to my amazement that Exeter University is running a course on Western Esotericism -- the first time subjects like magic, alchemy and astrology have found their way back into a serious university in centuries. I've applied for a place, but may have left it too late. I'll keep you posted.

New David Lee Stone Web Site

Until now, the David Lee Stone link on this page took you to a Web site devoted exclusively to his Illmoor Chronicles. Now it takes you to his own official Web site and very nice it looks. (Check out his own readings from his books on video.)

I love Davey's work, so I was particularly pleased to hear there's a new three-book contract in the offing. No details as yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Sohanti, Faerie Lord, Cheltenham and Summer Queen

I'm pie-eyed. Just this minute finished my new teen novel, Sohanti. (Working title.) Just over 95,000 words in this draft and I've been buried in it so deeply I hardly know what it's about. Next step a read-through, then off to my lovely agent Sophie in the hope she'll sell it for a fortune.

Meanwhile, Faerie Lord, which was supposed to be out in the U. S. in September, now seems to have been postponed until December 26. Needless to say, nobody told me, but I got that date from Amazon.com, who are usually very reliable. U.K. publication remains unchanged at early February, 2008.

Following on my little talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival next month, I've been asked to speak at Cheltenham Literary Festival in October. Subject matter for both talks is my new non-fiction, The Wizard's Apprentice, and it's about time I got down a few notes.

Finally, my darling Orla Melling, author of the best-selling Chronicles of Faerie, has been elected Summer Queen -- a hugely well-deserved honour. See her Book Blog for details. There's a link on thispage.

Shameless plug for latest book

Well, as you can see from Herbie Brennan's Bookshelf, I've started to push my latest book 'The Wizard's Apprentice' which Faber are bringing out in the first week of July. And since my opportunism knows no bounds, I've made a promotional video that centres on a fascinating experience mentioned in the book. Feel free to view at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvbWNJbMD-w

Recommended reading

Just finished a book by Timothy Findley, the Canadian novelist, called 'Not Wanted On The Voyage.' It was recommended to me by the marvellous Orla Melling when the two of us found ourselves contributing to an anthology of essays which will be published to promote the launch of Philip Pullman's 'Dark Materials' movie.

Orla plans an analysis of Pullman's literary influences. My essay, a History of Hell, was triggered by the extraordinary image of a senile God in the final volume of his trilogy. Orla (who is frighteningly well read) pointed out that essentially the same image was used by Findley in his novel, so I hunted down a copy for research...

...And found myself reading one of the remarkable books I've ever come across. It's the story of Noah's Ark as you've never heard it before, harrowing, funny, emotional, memorable and, above all, thought provoking. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Done and Dusted

Just finished the proofs for Faerie Lord and a bit of a marathon it was. The word count is higher than any of the other books in the series (by quite a bit actually) but they've managed to squeeze it into slightly fewer pages -- 425 in total -- without changing the layout or type face as far as I can see. I've always wondered how they do that. Publication date in the States is now September 18 this year, in Germany probably a little later in the autumn and in Britain early February, 2008.

Another one almost done and dusted is The Wizard's Apprentice, a stand-alone non-fiction title that Faber are bringing out on my birthday (July 5, if you want to send a card) this year. It's a lovely production, beautifully illustrated and I'm sort of excited about it. It tells the real story of wizardry in the world today and gives some of the basic magical training and techniques. Not at all what you'd imagine from reading fiction, but hopefully timely with all the interest generated by Joanne Rowling.

Meanwhile, what started as The Shadow Realm has suffered a bit of a train crash and is being rewritten as a wholly different book. It's all go!