Winners and Release Dates

For those of you who don't know, we recently ran a writing competition on the Skulduggery website, where I supplied the first 50 words of a story and left it to others to come up with the next 450. The ten winners were supposed to be announced last week, but it took my publishers longer than expected to cope with the massive response... Ah, those silly publishers. When will they learn?

I was sent a little over 30 entries and it was not easy narrowing them down. As usual, the standard of writing was very high- and not just with the winners, either. A lot of the entries made me laugh, and that's always a good starting-off point, but the major point of interest for me was watching where you took the story. I gave the villain an outrageous name- Sadistica Tortura- and sat back and let the fun begin. There were some lovely ideas in there, some lovely moments and some fantastic lines. You should all be proud- especially those of you who managed to stick to the word count (ahem).


I managed to take a few days off last week, but seeing as how I have about five weeks before I head off on tour, I need to start working again. August is pretty much wiped off my calendar as far as writing goes, so I'm going to have to get an early start on Book Eight. Which is scary, because it only seems like a few weeks ago that I finished Book Seven. I'm not going to talk about Book Eight AT ALL until a few months from now, once you've absorbed KOTW into your bloodstream, but it feels kind of weird to be tying up all of these stories that I've been telling since 2007. Best not dwell, methinks...

Oh, and as for KOTW release dates, those lucky scamps in Australia/New Zealand will be getting the new book ever-so-slightly ahead of anyone else... My tour there starts on August 8th, and my publishers want the books on the shelves at LEAST one week before that- maybe even two. For the UK and Ireland, we're looking at a release date of August 30th, I think.

Of course, the Minions-who-speak-funny know by now how much I detest spoilers, and you've all been fantastic at not ruining the books for other people. I shall expect this to continue (shakes fist in a threatening manner...)

For all you Ameriminions, still no news on getting the newer books released over there, my apologies. I have some positive news for the Germinions, however, as my German publishers are planning to catch up to the English-language releases. More news on that when I have it.


Oh, and Irish readers will be able to take a break from the football final on Sunday night to tune into Celebrity Mastermind on TV3, where I shall be showing off my amazing brain power on national TV. Hells yeah.


And now, a picture.

Down Under Tour 2012

Righto, I can finally reveal the details for the A/NZ Down Under Tour. Most of the days will be taken up visiting schools, so I'm only listing the public events which will occur in the evenings and at the weekends.

For the public signings, all you have to do is turn up and I'll sign as much as possible in the time I have- but for the public events, it might be a good idea to contact the bookshop/library/whatever as soon as possible, in order to book a place.

The Ireland and UK details will be posted when I have them.

Oh, and for those of you who entered the little short story competition on the Skulduggery website, I've just read through the finalists (30 of them) and the winners will be announced before the weekend. Some truly great work in there...




August

NZ

Wellington

Thursday 9th:

The Children's Bookshop, Kilbirnie- Public Signing - 4:30 PM

Whitcoulls, Queensgate - Public Signing - 7 PM


Christchurch

Friday 10th:

The Children's Bookshop, Blenheim Rd - Public Signing - 4:30 PM


Auckland

Saturday 11th:

Appearing on Breakfast TV at 8:20 AM

Whitcoulls, Albany Mall - Public Signing - 10 AM

Paperplus Botany Town Centre - Public Signing - 1 PM


AUSTRALIA

Brisbane

Sunday 12th:

Riverbend Books- Public Event (ticketed) - 5 PM

Monday 13th:

Chermside Library - Public event - 11 AM

(CONTACT the library for bookings)


Sydney

Tuesday 14th:

Pages & Pages/ Mosman Library- Public Event- 4:30 PM

Wednesday 15th:

Virtual Author Session via Video Conference (for schools) - 11:30 AM

(To register and log in  http://www.seeshareshape.com.au/share/VC/virtualexcursions.aspx?EventID=6238&SessionID=6186&ActivityID=8313 )

Shearers on Norton - Public Event  - 4:30 PM


Melbourne

Thursday 16th:

Dymocks, Collins St - Public Event (ticketed) - 5:15 PM


Adelaide

Saturday 18th:

Dymocks, Rundle Mall - Public Signing - 11 AM

Cabra Dominican College - Public Event - 1 PM

(CONTACT Pages & More, Glenelg for bookings)


Perth

Monday 20th:

Aquinas College - Public Event - 6 PM

(CONTACT Dymocks Garden City for tickets)


Tuesday 21st:

South Perth Library - Public Event - 11 AM

(CONTACT Dymocks Hay Street for bookings)

John Forrest Secondary College - Public event - 6 PM

(CONTACT Dymocks Morley for bookings)

Chapter One

Ladies and gentlemen...

"The Butterfly and the Wolf" is now available to read on the home page of skulduggerypleasant.com.

Consume.

Ireland/UK Tour

Okay then, here comes the places I'll be visiting in the Ireland/UK part of the tour. As mentioned previously, these will be weekend affairs- from Fridays to Sundays (mostly)- and they'll mainly consist of public signings.

30 Aug - 3 Sept:
Dublin
Bray
Drogheda
Cork

7 Sept - 9 Sept:
London
Bournemouth
Southampton

13 Sept - 15 Sept
London
Birmingham
Liverpool

And I'll also be appearing at the Bangor Literature Festival, the Mountains to the Sea festival in Dublin, and the Cheltenham festival.

The fact that I can't visit EVERYWHERE is always a shame, but we do try and spread the love as much as possible. This time around, my publishers took into account that I'd be in Australia/NZ for the previous two weeks, so I reckon they took pity on me. Maybe it was all the manly crying I did. We'll never know...



Eagle-eyed Irish readers may also have noticed that I shall be appearing on the "Celebrity Mastermind" quiz show, starting on TV3 this Sunday. I'm not sure what episode I'm on (I think it airs on July 1st but I'm not sure). For those who don't know, Mastermind is a show where you are asked questions about a chosen topic, and then you're asked general knowledge questions. I'm not going to say ANYTHING about what happened (we recorded it a few weeks ago) so you'll just have to watch to see how well I did. Or not, as the case may be. Ahem.


Let's see, anything else...

The Forums are back up, thanks to a load of readers who chipped in and paid the website domain fee. You Minions are amazing, you really are. Anyone who hasn't visited really should, if only to raise an eyebrow or two at the topics being discussed...! skulduggeryforums.co.uk.


Oh, and sometime soon (don't know exactly when) we'll be releasing Chapter One of Kingdom of the Wicked for you to read over at skulduggerypleasant.com, a chapter entitled "The Butterfly and the Wolf"...

Dalkey! And Forums!

For all you readers in Dublin/Wicklow, I'm going to be appearing at the Dalkey Book Festival this Sunday at 12 PM...

And does anyone know what happened to the Skulduggery Forums? It seems to have been replaced by a... web-sitey... thing...

And because I have nothing further to add, here are two well-timed photos...

A/NZ Tour Locations

Alrighty then, here we go.

New Zealand- from (roughly) the 8th to the 11th of August, I shall be visiting:

Auckland

Wellington

Christchurch


Australia- from (roughly) the 12th to the 21st, I shall be visiting:

Brisbane

Sydney

Melbourne

Adelaide

Perth


I know we have a few readers in Christchurch who read this blog, so I'm glad to be able to visit after missing out last time around. And I know most of you in Adelaide and Perth were CONVINCED I wasn't going to get anywhere near you (especially you guys in Perth) so, y'know... this tour's for you!

And now, because I realised whatever picture I post here also pops up on the Facebook page, I shall post another picture of Gina Carano. Because she's lovely.

And another of Ronda Rousey, keeping the "hand-wrap" theme going...

What do you mean they have nothing to do with what I've just posted?

Vague Tour Dates, Carano and Rousey

For those of you wanting to know tour dates and locations, I should have them soon.

I mean, I have them NOW, like, but I'm not going to tell you what they are until they're finalised. I simply can't. What if, for example, I mentioned that my publishers are thinking of sending me to a town near you, and you organise your mates to go along, and start making plans, and then a week later I announce that, actually, we're going to be missing out on your town because we simply don't have time to visit?

That would suck, would it not?

So, I'm keeping them to myself for the moment. I've just sent an email off, checking on when I can announce, and hopefully it'll only be a few days.

As it stands, though, and without getting into too much detail, I think I'm spending 4 or 5 days in New Zealand, and then about 10 days in Australia. I'll be visiting a lot of cities I've been to in the last tour, while also adding some new ones. Right now, my main focus is making sure I get to spend enough time at each particular location, but this timetable is TIGHT... I just don't want to get into a situation where I have to rush to the airport when there's still 50 people waiting to get something signed...

And then the Ireland/UK tour kicks off. Unlike previous tours, where I was gone for 10 days, we're only going to take the first three weekends in September, in order to fit in as many big signings as we can.

The kind of tours you go on tend to change DRASTICALLY depending on how your books sell. When you're starting out, or when your audience is smaller, writers get sent to a load of schools in order to get the word out. Then, if they're lucky enough for their books to catch on, the schools come to THEM, in theatres or community halls or whatever. And then, if they're REALLY lucky and their books have an established audience, the best use of their time is these huge public signings, where they get to meet as many readers as possible. It's frantic, it's hectic, sometimes only one book can be signed per person, but the whole point of it is to send everyone away with a smile on their face.

Except me, of course. By the end of these signings, I can no longer smile. My face-muscles tend to melt.

This year is going to feel weird because I'm not going to Germany, like I've done every year since 2008 or so. The reason for this is because my German publishers want me over early NEXT year for one of their festivals, so all you German readers will have to wait just a little longer...

Speaking of festivals, I've got a few coming up. I'll be at the Dalkey Book Festival on the 17th of June in Dublin, I'll be in Cheltenham in October, and... okay, I have a few others that are apparently unconfirmed, so I'll wait until I know for sure before announcing them.


Hmmm... I'm thirsty...


Do I have anything of interest to say to you? I'm trying to think...

I've been watching a few movies, ever since I finished the book. Watching some TV. The Avengers kicked all kinds of ass. Words cannot express how much I loved that movie.

The Grey surprised the hell out of me. Wow.

Dexter is its usual brilliant self.

I'm loving how much Game of Thrones is being loved by the general public.

Umm... is that it? Is that sincerely all I've watched?

Actually, the only other show I've been watching is the only reality show I'd EVER watch, The Ultimate Fighter, where all these fighters train and fight in order to be awarded a contract with the UFC. Mixed Martial Arts is just terrifying to watch because your favourite fighter might be winning round after round after round, and then he makes one tiny mistake and the fight is over. Not even boxing is as nerve-wracking as MMA.

But to my mind there is one thing cooler than MMA- and that is Women's MMA. I've mentioned Gina Carano before- she was in Haywire, some of which was filmed in Dublin, and she's going to be in the next Fast and Furious movie- and she began her career as an MMA fighter. As you can probably tell by my books, I have a healthy respect for women who can fight, and Gina Carano is probably one of my favouritest women in the world right now.

And my other favouritest person is Ronda Rousey, the current Strikeforce Women's MMA champion. From what I've seen, Rousey is wonderfully upfront and honest, and if you have a few minutes, go on You Tube and take a look at her fights. I say a few minutes because most of them end within the first 60 seconds or so. Her armbars are AMAZING.

Do yourself a favour, though, and look at the Miesha Tate fight LAST. And only if you have a strong stomach. Honestly. The way that arm bends back on itself is just stomach-turning.

In one of the books, I can't remember which, Val looks at Tanith and wishes she had shoulders like hers. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you those shoulders.