I’ve written a short appreciation of Robert E Howard’s Puritan adventurer, Solomon Kane, at Speculative Horizons.

You can now find me on https://twitter.com/Chadbourn.

There’s an extract of me reading from The Burning Man on This is Derbyshire, along with a brief interview and a call to email questions for me to answer - on anything, writing, fantasy, my work, life in general…

Send me something to make me ponder.

As you may have noticed in one of the comments below, multiple award-winning artist John Picacio has signed on to provide covers for the US publication of my Age of Misrule books - and I couldn’t be more pleased.

John is a phenomenal artist with World Fantasy, Chesley and IHG Awards under his belt, as well as a Hugo nomination. But don’t take my word for it - take a look here and prepare to be impressed.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s announcement, I can reveal that I’ve just agreed a six-book deal with US publisher Pyr.

The highly-acclaimed SF and fantasy imprint will publish the first of my epic Elizabethan fantasy sequence, The Swords of Albion, in Fall 2009, with books two and three in subsequent years.

Pyr has also acquired the rights to my British Fantasy Award-nominated Age of Misrule sequence. The three books – World’s End, Darkest Hour and Always Forever – will be published in Spring/Summer 2009.

Here’s the rest of the press release:

Chadbourn says: “I’m very excited to be working with Pyr on the launch of The Swords of Albion and the US debut of Age of Misrule. Pyr has a dynamic, cool and smart approach to the genre, which, of course, is an excellent fit for my writing!”

Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders says: “Mark is a brilliant writer - who not only has a tremendous imagination but manages to marry his vision to a very readable, accessible and fast-paced style. It’s amazing to me it’s taken this long to get him to America, but between these six books and the epic fantasy trilogy that Solaris recently acquired, that egregious oversight is about to be resoundingly corrected.”

The Swords of Albion, which will be published in the UK and Commonwealth by Transworld, follows Elizabethan England’s greatest spy, Will Swyfte – adventurer, swordsman, rake, swashbuckler, wit and scholar.

Lou says of The Swords of Albion: “I first encountered Elizabethan Superspy Will Swyfte in the short story “Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast,” originally published in The Solaris Book of New Fantasy (and subsequently selected for Hartwell and Cramer’s Year’s Best Fantasy), and fell in love at first read. I was weaned on Ian Fleming and Fritz Leiber, and this wonderfully fun character seemed to marry both these loves into one. I wrote Mark to ask if there were any more planned outings for Swyfte, and was thrilled to hear back within minutes that a proposal for a trilogy was going out the very next day. Naturally, I couldn’t wait for the next day. Now, I can’t wait for him to finish writing the first novel. And the second. And the third…”

The Age of Misrule deals with the return of the Celtic gods to modern day Britain and is steeped in the mysticism and mythology of the Isles with an edgy modern take – from Fabulous Beasts firebombing the rush hour-packed motorway outside London to the ancient secrets of Avebury stone circle.

Lou says of The Age of Misrule: “Every once in a while you read a work that treats its subject so well you realize it’s the last and final word on the topic. Like the way a certain Boy Wizard pretty much owns the school for magic space, and the idea of all of reality being a virtual illusion ends (for the foreseeable future) with the film The Matrix. That’s the sense I got reading the books of the Age of Misrule. Mark’s rigorously-researched exploration of Britain’s sacred sites reads with such authenticity that I can’t imagine there being any other explanation. That it underpins a fantastic adventure story chocked full of great characters - a sort of modern day Lord of the Rings transposed onto contemporary Britain - makes for a simply irresistible combination. I can’t wait to spring it on unsuspecting Americans - they have no idea what’s in store for them!”

With the Solaris book, and another unannounced tome, I’ve got six books out in the US next year, which, I think, justifies a trip…