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.

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...