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!

Miracle report

So far only half a miracle. I'm still sore, but not as bad.

Back in Trouble

Well, I've done in my back, haven't I? (And am feeling in the mood for a whinge.) Sat on the floor to screw together a little nest of tables and when I went to get up I turned into a victim of the Spanish Inquisition. Since then, I've been hobbling round like a centenarian and complaining bitterly. Off to the osteopath this morning in the hope of a miracle. I'll let you know if I get one.

Trees

Although I'm probably the least hearty individual on the planet, I do try to take a walk with Jacks each morning (when it isn't raining) in a rather nice public garden a couple of miles from our home. This morning while we were en route, the road was blocked by a massive JCB scraping at something over a low hedge. As we waited for it to finish, the driver turned the arm on a hedgerow tree and pushed it over, then manoeuvred to take out a second tree.

Jacks, who gets very emotional about these things, burst into tears. Both trees looked perfectly healthy and since they were growing in the hedgerow itself they were clearly in nobody's way.

It did occur to me that since we're now apparently living in a world where existing forest cover is unable to cope with the amount of carbon we're pumping into the atmosphere, it might make sense for Governments to enact legislation forbidding the uprooting of trees without a special (costly, difficult to get) permit. As the Tesco ads keep telling us, every little helps.

Expanding Universe

About a year ago, my agent and I had the bright idea of expanding the Faerie Wars universe into graphic novels. This wasn't a question of converting Faerie Wars into a graphic novel (although that could happen yet) but rather examining the lives of certain characters from the mainstream novels in graphic form.

Well, it now looks as if it's going to happen. Bloomsbury, who publish the mainstream books, are putting a toe in the water with a picaresque story about Brimstone when he was a boy. No further details beyond that at the moment, but the full story will appear on the main Web site as soon as I have information on publication date, artist and final format.

Edinburgh

Feeling a bit smug today: I've just been invited back to speak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year. I've been a couple of times before and loved it. Edinburgh's an attractive and manageable city and the book festival is just one part of the much wider Edinburgh Festival which ensures there's something of interest going on day and night.

As an invited author you get to pontificate on just about anything you like to an enthusiastic audience (mostly kids, in my case) then sign copies of your books for readers and collectors. My agent advised me years ago to sign books on every possible occasion, since once you do, nobody can send them back.

I'll let you know more details when the programme solidifies.