Time for a check on the state of the sinister masterplan as it stands this Jan 2011

Phases One and Two are proceeding nicely. Both The Black Tattoo and Tim, Defender of the Earth are still out there finding readers. THANK YOU to everyone who has left lovely messages in the books’ websites’ Guestbooks lately – particularly Steve from Seattle, Karolin from Estonia, Hailey from Nova Scotia, Laura from Illinois and Casey from Queensland. Your kind words and encouragement are very, very, very much appreciated.

Phase Three: I’m thrilled and honoured and amazed to report that Crawlers is currently in the running for some awards! It’s on the longlist for the Redbridge Children’s Book Award and it’s been shortlisted for the Bolton Children’s Book Award, the Gateshead Children’s Book Award and the Nottinghamshire Brilliant Book Award. That last one has a terrific website where young readers are posting reviews of the books. Hit the link and take a look!

Phase Four is my forthcoming novella to be published by Barrington Stoke. The exact release date is unconfirmed but we’re hoping for early 2012. I’m very happy and excited about this story! I’ve already dropped some hints about it in this interview so now (exclusively! ;D) I’ll reveal the title for you. It’s called O.

-and-

Latest Phases:

OK, what follows (as promised in my previous blog post) is what I’m working on right now.

What I should or shouldn’t put in a blog post at this point is something of a ticklish decision. It’s one of the facts about writing that the journey between starting work on something and everyone being able to read it is long and uncertain. Most published authors I know won’t talk about their work in progress online until release dates are locked or a book is available to order: I can understand why. If you announce something prematurely and for some reason or other it doesn’t happen, there’s a risk of looking foolish – maybe even a failure. I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve decided I don’t care.

Leaping into the dark is what writing is all about. Sometimes you fly. Sometimes you fall. But I don’t believe there’s any way to know in advance what’s going to happen with a project (unless of course you give up) until you’re up to your eyes in it, writing. So, whether they end up making it into print or not, here are mine…

-Since September I’ve been developing a very exciting experimental web comic with my friend the awesome illustrator Barnaby Richards. It’s a revenge story about this character:

-Still with illustrators, have you seen the amazing artwork David Melling produced for my story Jethro’s Ace of Hearts? Well, to my enormous glee and delight, David wants us to work together again on more. Not long before Christmas I sent him something completely new. I don’t do “classic” monsters, but it might just be the closest thing I ever write to a vampire story. It’s called Family. As before with Jethro, we may do something on TBM. I’ll keep you posted.

…and here’s the one that’s taking up the most brain-space for me right now, the reason I’ve been a little low-key with my online activities this month…

-On Tues 4th Jan I started writing a brand new project that may (or may not – like I say, it’s too early to tell) be my next book. It’s a long-standing ambition of mine: a properly frightening, have-to-sleep-with-the-lights-on-afterwards haunted house story.

So there you go. In case anyone who reads my blogs hasn’t worked this out yet, what’s really sinister about my sinister masterplan to conquer the universe is that sometimes (maybe always) it’s almost indistinguishable from having no plan at all. BWAHAHAHAHA! I don’t always know what’s going to happen. That’s the very thing that makes my job, for me, so terrifying and thrilling. But anyway, now you know what I’m up to – so I’d better get back to it. 😀

Thanks and best wishes,

Sam