Ta Da!!!!!!

Layyyydeeeeeez an gennelmennnnnnnn...

I give you the wonder of wonders...

the marvel of marvels...

the paperback cover of paperback covers...

The Maleficent Seven!!!

Tom Percival, you've done it again...

Short Story Collection

Ah, Saturday night... what would you be without a title announcement?

I should have announced this yesterday, to be honest, but I was in Swindon, in England, doing writerly things like chatting to 600 people, signing all their books, and then travelling on to the WH Smith head office and signing 500 copies of LSODM, so you'll forgive me if I was a tad... distracted.

But, without further ado, to those who have not yet heard, the title of the short story collection out next summer is...

Armageddon-Outta-Here.

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

I swear to god, I never thought Harper Collins would agree to this. My first instinct was to call it Tales of the Dead Men, but that wouldn't have been accurate because there'd probably only be one or two stories featuring the Dead Men — not enough to warrant a title.

Harper came back with The World of Skulduggery Pleasant, which is, let's face it, a title far too boring to exist.

I  suggested Armageddon-Outta-Here as a joke, expecting everyone to dismiss it. But the more I thought about it, the more I said it in my head, the more I loved it. And suddenly I became determined to be the writer who has a book with THAT title. 

Amusingly, Harper Collins agreed. And I couldn't be happier. 

And if that wasn't awesome enough, we should actually have a cover reveal early next month for you to gawp at. Could I BE any nicer to you?

No. The answer is no. 

Under Pressure... Moi?

Glancing back at old Blog entries, I happened to notice that on December 23rd of 2012 I had 13,320 words of LSODM written. This was a good thing to notice. It means that, with 18,504 words of Book 9 already spewed forth onto the page/screen, I am well ahead of where I was last year — and I finished LSODM in PLENTY of time, did I not?

Well, actually, no, I didn't. It was pretty much down to the wire, as they say. I couldn't afford to make ANY mistakes with LSODM, because I had no time to do anything resembling a significant rewrite. But at least I know it can be done. At least I know I can do it. Now all I have to do is hope I DO do it.

Pressure pressure pressure... It's everywhere. I don't actually mind pressure. It's a handy tool to make you sit down and write, after all. And I have no one to blame for these onrushing deadlines but me, because I'm the one who agreed to them in the first place. I'm the one who said "Hey, let's collect all the short stories, and I'll write a few more brand new ones, and we can publish in the summer before the final book!" And what a wonderful idea that was. What a magical, wonderful idea, to schedule the writing of short stories at the same time as I've scheduled the writing of a book. How clever that was.

I had wanted to include ten new stories in the collection. I STILL want to do ten — but the fact is, I might not be able to. I may only be able to do five. I want to tell a tale of the Dead Men during the war. I want to tell the tale of Billy-Ray Sanguine and what he did when he was recovering from the sword-wound that Valkyrie inflicted on him in The Faceless Ones. I want to show you how Val met Caelan for the first time. But most of all, I want to go back to Skulduggery and Valkyrie, back before the screaming and the killing and the darkness. I want to see them having fun again, before the death and the destruction and the heartache and the loss. The collection will be out mere months before the final book, after all... I want you to enter into Book 9, fully aware of how good it used to be between them.

And then I want to shatter what remains of your souls.

LSODM Paperback

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, straight from the pen of Mr Tom Percival, the paperback cover for Last Stand of Dead Men...

Sooo utterly cool... and wait till you see the BACK cover... Wait till you see the cover for the Maleficent Seven paperback — a thing of BEAUTY, so it is...

Oh we spoil you with artwork, we surely do...