Will Swyfte, who made his debut in the Elizabethan chapter of Jack of Ravens will be going solo in a new short story to appear in a prestigious fantasy anthology from Solaris later this year.

Entitled ‘Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast’, the tale fits into the mythos established in my recent books. It’s Christmas Eve, 1598, and the aristocracy of Elizabeth’s court has gathered at a country house for a night of debauchery. Will Swyfte, Elizabethan England’s greatest spy, is despatched by spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham to prevent a terrible turning point in the cold war with Faerie. But the Tuatha de Danann are gathered in the cold wastes beyond the house and will do anything to achieve their aim before dawn breaks.

Details on publication date and other authors coming shortly.

If you don’t visit the messageboards, you may like to know that the title of the next book is The Burning Man (Kingdom of the Serpent Book Two, to give it its full title).

What does it mean? All I can say is that the Burning Man is a motif that runs through the entire book (as the Ravens did in its predecessor) - and quite literally hangs over all the characters.

I still don’t have an official publication date, but my deadline for delivering the completed manuscript is June - and I fully intend to hit that mark.

I’ll be posting links to an extract and the cover shortly.

Here.

Anyone disconcerted by what has come to be known as my “brawling, boozing and shagging post” below (all in the dim and distant past, obviously, now that I am confined to a single room writing like those monks in The Name of the Rose…), should take a look here. Clearly, in the writing world I am something of a saint.

Remember: all writers are monsters. Do NOT invite them into your house.

The final design for a “doomsday” vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.

Apparently horror is going to be the big literary trend for 2007. One highlight to look out for is Heart Shaped Box by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill out next month (and, boy, is he going to be sick of that tag in a few months time - no wonder he kept it a secret for ten years). Great writer, and I have to say, a thoroughly nice bloke.

Lots of other names coming through too, from most of the major publishing houses. The genre has been moribund in the UK for going on ten years now so it’s about time for a resurgence.

I have been “tagged” by Sarah Pinborough over at www.sarahpinborough.com to reveal five things people are unlikely to know about me. As I have been forced to move my growing collection of skeletons out of the closet and into their own rambling house, I’m not really short of potential topics. But having decided to rule out anything that would alert international law enforcement agencies or stories concerning old acquaintances who may feel obliged to engage the services of My Learned Friends, I opted for the following milder revelations:

1) I used to play bass in the revolutionary and rightly unremembered Midlands band, Symbols of Malice. We split up after I had an affair with the lead singer who was the unrequited object of affection for the guitarist. She went off to be (briefly) a stripper. He went off to be a hairdresser. I went off to believe, yes, rock and roll is indeed the best business in the world.

2) I had a six-month course of anti-rabies injections after being bitten by a wild dog in the South of France. The biggest needle you have ever seen in your life, in the gluteus maximus, once a week. It was the only suspected case ever to happen in my area and the vaccine had to be shipped in specially. And to add insult to my injury, my local paper decided this was worthy of front page coverage so I had to endure six months of people stopping me in the street to ask, ‘How’s your arse?’

3) I have a Harry Potter-esque jagged scar on my forehead and another more severe one on the side of my head. The first came from a fight when an opponent decided to bludgeon me into submission with a rock. The second came when, in a drunken stupor, I attempted to break into a club that had refused me admission. Not big, or clever, but in my defence I was very, very drunk. And young. And stupid. But clearly I do have an extremely thick head.

4) I have saved the life of two people and watched one person die.

5) I was severely beaten up by racist thugs outside Leeds United football ground while leafletting for the Anti-Nazi League. Rather than deter me, it set me up for a lifetime believing that you fight for what you stand for or the other side wins.

The rules of the game say I now have to tag others so James Barclay, Chaz Brenchley and Leah Moore, you are ‘it’. Check out their blogs to see what they have to say.

I have spent eight solid hours working on one piece of dialogue for the BBC script - approximately fifteen words. And I still haven’t got it. My brain is now officially jelly. One more hour and I’m going down the pub…