Last Friday I finished work on the penultimate draft of my new novel.  It was cause for relief as well as whiskey, since I’ve had my head down for the last several months, pushing myself to see it through to completion.  Most of the time I can both write and keep a loose hold on the rest of my life, but sometimes I just have to let go and drop into a fictional world.  That’s what I’ve been up to since the summer, and although it’s been rewarding as far as the new book is concerned, I’m sorry to have left this website in a state of disrepair.  Likewise my apologies if I’ve missed you on twitter or other places online.  My working methods aren’t brilliantly in step with the digital age.

Anyway, I’ve got some time again now.  Things to catch up on.  Things to get done.  I’ve got a new entry to add to my bestiary, which I should have up in a few days’ time.  Then there’s the imminent arrival of the UK paperback of The Man who Rained, which will be on bookshelves around the end of the month.  Meanwhile Das Mädchen mit den gläsernen Füßen (the German edition of The Girl with Glass Feet) won the lovelybooks.de award for best cover of 2012.  I can’t really claim credit for that, but it’s an excuse to show you this delightful little trailer that script5, the German publisher, put together.