Er.

First, let's get some bad news out of the way... errr... you're going to have to wait just a FEW more days for the Tanith cover...

(notmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfault)

Ahem.

This probably won't make you feel ANY better about the delay, but it's looking amazing right now. We still have to get the colour just right (because this was an unplanned addition to the series, it's kind of thrown our title-colour scheme up into the air...) but it's looking beautiful. Tanith looks like a total BAMF.

Middle of next week. DEFINITELY.

Hopefully.

The good news is, I've finished writing it. I finished yesterday and sent it off. Right now, before the editing process begins, it is 54,000 words long. That's fifty-four THOUSAND.

It was MEANT to be roughly twice the size of The End Of The World, which came in at something like 17,000 words. So when I started I was looking at a quick 36,000 word novella that I'd bang out between the end of the KOTW tour and the beginning of writing Book 8, giving me loads of time to relax and take it easy.

And it was going fine, it really was. I had Tanith and Sanguine, and they'd recruited their team of villains, and the story was rattling along and everything was cool... and then I introduced a team of good guys as well. So we have Dexter Vex and Frightening Jones and a few new characters, including the Monster Hunters (two guys I've been trying to find a place for in the regular books) and Saracen Rue. Saracen is the only surviving member of the Dead Men that we haven't met yet, and it was just so much fun writing them all that the word count kind of... ran off, dragging me behind it.

It was MEANT to be a little sliver of a book. Now it's practically two-thirds the length of Book One.

The things I do for you people, I swear...


The "Can Your School Get More Awesome?" competition is still going strong over at the Skulduggery website. The ingenuity on display is something to behold, with many of you using both social AND mainstream media (local papers, radio stations) to garner as many votes as possible. Have to say, I'm impressed at the imagination being displayed- there are some real smart cookies out there. There a few schools that are practically guaranteed to be in the top ten, there are plenty more who have established themselves as challengers, and then there are the schools with only a few votes. And to the people who put forward THOSE schools, I have to ask- how does it feel to be so utterly cool? How does it feel to be the only one in your area with enough good taste to vote? You are shining lights, you truly are.

I'm just looking at some of the photos... I love that the Bishopston school in Swansea and Heathcote School and a few others have sent us photos of the school crest- I have no idea how Tom would have drawn Skulduggery in THOSE photos but it would have been fun to see him try...

And St Annes in Shankill, who supplied an arial view... Dammit, if this had been voted for, Tom could have drawn Valkyrie plummeting from the sky and Skulduggery swooping in to save her. Argh! The potential for coolness would have been astronomical!

Let's see, what else... Skulduggery and Val would have looked awesome in the corridor of Holy Family Senior School in Ennis...  and they have skeletons in St Matthews!... imagine Val abseiling down the side of Carterton Community College... or Skulduggery walking up the stairs of Selly Park Technology College for Girls... the dogs in Gabbinbar State School in Toowoomba (you don't have to look up Toowoomba to know it's in Australia, do you?) would have been able to chew on poor Skulduggery's leg... awww and I've just seen the picture from Invicta Grammar School with all the girls in army fatigues- I'd have loved to have visited there... I'm pretty sure that's a picture of Camilla visiting Brookside Primary School- so Val would have looked pretty cheeky pulling a face behind her back... and she would have fit right in with the girls from Oakmeeds Community College... Skulduggery would have been so proud to stand in amongst everyone in Scarborough College... then we have Skulduggery himself in Brentwood Ursuline Convent HS... and I'd have loved to have visited Hitchin Girls School, if only so I could have made a load of jokes about hitchin' girls...

Voting is still going on, so you've all got plenty of time left. Once we have the top ten, it'll be up to me to pick the photo that would lead to the best Skulduggery pic and then we'll have our winner. But the effort all of you have gone to is just hilariously impressive...