My Year in Review

Ah, 2013... I knew you well.

It was a good year for me, all things considered. A busy one, of course- but when is it ever any different? The Maleficent Seven and Last Stand of Dead Men were both released, delivering to me the most shocking revelation of all — that there's only one Skulduggery Pleasant left. Yes, technically I KNEW it was coming, but it still kinda took me by surprise to find myself writing the final book in the series.

So what else did I get up to in 2013? Let's recap, shall we?

January - dipped my toes into Twitter. Discovered Twitter to be basically quicksand, and so was unable to pull toes out. Still being dragged under.

February - I did an event at the Imagine festival in London, showing clips from movies that inspired Skulduggery. So much FUN.

March - Went to Germany. As usual, had an insane amount of fun and was kept incredibly busy for the entire time. The Maleficent Seven was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

Also met Steven Moffat and compared notes on how to traumatise people. (Speaking of which - The Time of the Doctor, eh? I'll miss Matt Smith, and it was so good seeing my beloved Amy back for a few seconds...)

April - was spent writing.

May - Started yapping to Ronda Rousey's mum. Which is, I think, an event worthy of an entire month.

June - this month consisted of me editing, touring, playing video games and watching movies. Not a bad way to spend a few weeks.

July - Read Geek Girl. Met Holly Smale. Holly Smale fell in love with me. It happens.

August - Last Stand of Dead Men released. Could life get any better?

September - My doggy died. This year I have had to put down my three dogs. I now have no dogs left. Ali's death sucked most of all.

October - My Doctor Who short story was released. Yay!

November - Writing for Book Nine.

December - Writing for Book Nine.

And how shall I be spending my New Year's Eve, you wonder? Will I be partying? Will I be singing? Carousing?

Nope. I'll be writing. And I'll be writing happily.

In closing, I'd like to thank all of you for your support, thank you for reading, thank you for being nice to each other, and for supporting each other. It's because of you that I am able to do the thing I love every single day.

I hope 2014 is kind to us all.

But especially me.

Twelve Days of Fandom

MERRRRRRRRRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day, whether you celebrate it or not. I hope this day is fun and filled with laughter and that you spend it surrounded by friends and family.

And to set you on your way, here is the Twelve Days of Fandom video (actually two videos, because apparently Youtube can't handle that much editing in one go). Thanks to everyone who took part — it has taken up two days of my life putting all this together, but it was so worth it. Some of you can really sing! And some of you really CAN'T. The videos I saw were funny, sweet, genuine, wacky, impressive, silly, and some of them were downright CUTE (Melissa and her doggy — I mean COME ON!)

The lyrics were written by myself and Laura Jordan (not Valkyrie-Laura, but an awesome Laura just the same!) and it features a special appearance by one Miss Holly Smale.

Have a great Christmas, everybody.

Video

And because I don't have ENOUGH to do at this time of year...

Alrighty then, here's a fun little thing I've been working on, and I need your help. I'm editing together a video (and I'm very new to editing, so I haven't a clue what I'm doing) of many people singing what is basically the 12 Days of Christmas, but with a difference.

If you want to be a part of this, all you have to do is send an email to skulteams@hotmail.com, giving me permission to use your video in making MY video. We, in turn, will get back to you with the lines I need you to sing. You then go off, sing these lines into your phone or camera or whatever — it can be you, it can be you and a friend, you and your family, or a group, or a pet, or a puppet, or your favourite kettle — and send these (SHORT!) videos back to the skulteams address so you can be edited in.

(Oh, and one minor details, for those of you under the age of 18... GET YOUR PARENTS' OR GUARDIANS' PERMISSION!)

If you could keep the lines you sing to yourself— i.e. don't tweet them! — that would be very helpful! The lines will be given out tomorrow, the final deadline is Monday night, with the full video to be released on Christmas day, right here on my blog.

Provided I learn how to edit by then.

NO MORE APPLICANTS! ALL SPACES FILLED! GOOD GOD THERE ARE OVER 100 OF YOU! 

THOSE WHO GOT THEIR APPLICATIONS IN HAVE UNTIL 7 PM (IRISH TIME) ON MONDAY TO GET THEIR VIDEOS IN!

'Tis The Season...

... to be jolly, fa la la la laa, la la la laaaaaaa...

My Christmas tree is up. It actually went up a few weeks ago. It's not a REAL Christmas tree. I mean, it's real ENOUGH. It's not IMAGINARY. If you threw it at someone, it'd hit them. But it's made from assorted plastics and stuff. Also it's black. It looks awesome, but lacks that Christmas tree smell. But I don't mind that. My folks have a real Christmas tree up, and that's where Christmas happens anyway, so who cares if my house doesn't smell of pine needles? Not me. Not really.

Not... really...

Anyway, yes, the tree. It's up. The presents are bought. They're not wrapped, but they're bought. Most of them. Okay, I haven't a clue what to get my dad, but he's a dad. He'll be happy with socks. Fathers are simple creatures. 

So... tree up. Presents bought. These are things I set aside time to do, because I needed to set aside time. I've been so busy lately that if I hadn't set aside this time, I just wouldn't get around to it. There are loads of things I just didn't have time for, like sending out Christmas cards. I love sending out cards. I try to combine it with answering all the letters from readers, so when I send off a reply, they get a Christmas card too. How lovely! But not this year. Answering all those letters, sending all those cards, would take two days at a minimum, and they are two days I can't afford to take off writing. 

The writing is going well, by the way. I've been focussing on short stories these last three weeks, building up quite a collection of new stuff. Each of these stories will be told in a different "voice" than the one you're used to. You'll see what I mean when you read them. 

One thing that I haven't decided on yet are the Christmas Skype calls I was planning on making. Essentially, I was going to take an hour one day and just fit as many three-minute Skype calls into that hour as I could. It seemed like a lovely idea at the time, but I'm not so sure anymore. Not everyone who wanted a call would be available on that hour, and so I'd have to field quite a few complaints. Then there'd be the people who'd want a one-on-one chat, when I'd only be comfortable chatting if there were two or more people in the room with you. Basically, my idea would end up causing a whole lot of hassle that I could really do without, so I just don't know. 

Okay then, enough jibber-jabber. I have work to do. 

Be cool, my Minions. 

Oooh Shiny...

Look what arrived a few days ago...

Ohhh, all those lovely Doctor Who stories, all in one place! And look what ELSE arrived in the same box...

Toys! Wonderful, wonderful TOYS!

I was indeed  a happy writer.

So what else have I been up to lately? Well, I've been writing, amazingly enough. I have taken two weeks off Book Nine to focus on coming up with new stories for Armageddon-Outta-Here (haw!) which'll be out next summer.

As a sample of what the new stories will feature, we're talking the Dead Men in the Wild West, the story of how Valkyrie met Caelan, a Billy-Ray Sanguine solo adventure, and Skulduggery Pleasant and Gordon Edgley at a horror-themed masquerade ball, set 25 years ago.

Time is tight, deadlines are onrushing, but I'm having FUN, so none of it seems quite like work. And hopefully it never will.