Ah, Darquesse...

Those lucky Minions who made it to the Imagine festival last week got the LSODM paperback early, but I couldn't let them be the ONLY ones who get to marvel at Tom Percival's back cover, so here you go...

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she precious?

The paperback will be released for everyone else on the 27th of March, and because we are very, very smart people, we will be releasing the paperback of The Maleficent Seven, which takes place BEFORE LSODM, on the 8th of May. 

Just to confuse you.

Imagine

Apparently I'll be appearing at the Imagine Festival in London this Monday, the 17th. I had a blast last year, where I showed clips from movies, but I'm not entirely sure what I'll do this time. I might read from one of the new short stories. I'd read from the ninth book, but there is nothing from the early sections finished, and anything read from later on would be a spoiler, so...

Oh, and speaking of Book 9, I have just reached the 75,000 word mark. Judging by this, the finished book will be at least 100,000 words, which is Mortal Coil length, and could be longer. LSODM will stay the longest, I reckon, simply because of the massive amount of characters involved. But because most of those characters are now DEAD, Book 9 allows me a smaller, more intimate story — while remaining as heart-rendingly traumatic as anything I've written before.

And speaking of heart-rendingly traumatic, I've actually written the last few chapters. Not to completion, of course, but I've written enough to know what happens, and how it ends, and who lives and who dies, and all I can say is...

I am MEAN.

This Is A Blog Entry

all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

gibber.

Work is progressing. December and most of January was taken up with short stories. I still have to edit them. I'll have to do that soon, over the next few days... But I'm also back on the book. Writing away. Skipping chunks and writing important bits. I'm on the final confrontation now, making sure everything fits together. Even though there is a lot more writing to do, loads of gaps to fill in and storylines to link up, I am TECHNICALLY writing the end of the book at the moment. Will I finally get to find out how it ends? Or will I leave that blank also, to be finished off when everything else is complete?

I don't know. I really don't.

I have, maybe, another month of writing ahead of me before the first draft is done. Every morning I wake up, lie in bed for an hour (yes, it is good to be a writer) and think about the sequence I need to write that day. Then I'm up and writing. There is very little time to think about other things, such as writing blogs or tweeting, and I know you understand that, but I do want to thank you all for your patience. I don't like being silent for this long — but soon, I won't have to be.

Soon.