26th August 2008

Up to Edinburgh on Sunday for the Heroes of the Valley event, a flying visit of about 3 hours before flying south again. As always my first stop was the Author’s Yurt in the corner of the Book Festival compound, a marvellous tent thing filled with rugs, sofas, biscuits, coffee, computers and more random authors than you could shake a stick at. It would be really pleasant just to hang out there for a while, watching the great and good coming and going, but before I knew it I was miked up and herded across to my performance tent, in company of Nicolette Jones, who introduced me. I chatted away to the audience about life post-Bartimaeus, about Grettir’s Saga and the birth of Heroes, and did a couple of readings, before answering questions. It was fun, and also interesting to try new things – when the book comes out I’ll be able to refine my talk during the New Year tours. After doing a bit of signing, it was away into a car and back to the airport to doze the last section of this whirlwind adventure.

Last week: to the British Museum to see an exhibition on the emperor Hadrian (ok, but not massively thrilling) and to browse their marvellous galleries and bookshops. Couple of interesting books bought, including one about treasures from Ancient Yemen.

19th August 2008

A few days to go until my appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and (not before time) I’m starting to ponder what I’m going to do. It’ll be my first official chat about Heroes of the Valley, so it should be fun! I’m looking forward to talking about it, and we’ll be giving the audience pamphlets with an advance excerpt. If you’re in the area – come along: I’ll be in the RBS Corner Theatre within the literary festival compound in Charlotte Square, starting at 17.00. You can find out all details and make bookings at www.edbookfest.co.uk.

Watched Buster Keaton’s The General the other day with great delight. It’s not the funniest movie ever made, but it is one of the most sublime and beautiful. Full of magical sequences and incredibly well shot for a film of its antiquity.

Otherwise I’m watching the Olympics whenever possible. My favourite bits historically have always been track and field, so it’s hotting up nicely now. Watched Bolt’s 100m victory with mouth agog.

13th August 2008

Still adrift in a sea of boxes, but now our piano has arrived, allowing me to sit plonking the keys at quiet moments of the day. I haven’t played properly for years, and am completely rubbish, but by practising slowly, steadily, over many weeks, I intend to get at least a bit more fluently rubbish than now.

I’ve spent the last week or so working every day on a story for the Dragons anthology. Am enjoying it a lot, partly because I’m so unused to trying something brief. The challenges of short fiction are great. I suspect it’s much, much harder to write an effective short piece than a sprawling novel. But it’s nice to throw myself into something that has to have impact immediately, getting the right balance of tension, action, detail and description all in a small area… I’m writing it fairly slowly, just 2 pages or so a day, which seems the right sort of pace (although, humiliatingly, I read somewhere that Kipling used to knock his short masterpieces off at the rate of a complete story a day… Oh well.). With luck, I’ll finish the draft in the next day or two, then put it aside for a while to let it settle in my mind.

Favourite Kipling short story, while we’re talking about it: probably ‘Rikki Tikki Tavi’ from The Jungle Book.

4th August 2008

The move is made! Last Wednesday two groaning lorries packed to the gunnels transported all our worldly goods across to the new house, which now resembles that warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’ll take eons to get it in order, but that’s okay – it’s nice to sit in the garden in the evening stillness of the nearby pine trees and watch bats flitting against the sky.

I’ve finished the copyediting of the (UK) Heroes manuscript, which will soon be off for printing. The US one will not be far behind, and I need to make sure that the most recent UK editorial changes get made there too. It’s a bit complex, this whole process, because the book is being edited separately and at roughly the same time in both territories, and aside from the Americanization of the US version (mainly involving additional commas), both sides spot mistakes and suggest changes that need to be taken up by the other edition too. Like a game of textual ping-pong, the alterations get batted back and forth across the Atlantic until (hopefully) we arrive at the authentic text.

21st July 2008

Sorry about the long lack of Journal. We’ve finally got the keys to our new house and are busy there cleaning, painting, hacking at shrubbery, sticking hands down drains and other such thrilling excitements. We’re actually going to move in at the end of the month, so the chaos is likely to escalate till then.

Anyway, enough about that. The big news is that we’ve finally got the Heroes of the Valley site up and running. Its address is www.heroesofthevalley.co.uk and you can check it out now for a few bits and pieces of info about the book, including a tiny excerpt. Publication is still six months away, so I’ve not put too much on the site yet: I’ll add other things through the autumn.

Among those things will (hopefully) be visuals of the covers from the UK, US and Germany… all these are nearing completion, and look great (and very different).

Other good news is that Heroes will be brought out in Russia too, by Eksmo, the publisher of Bartimaeus.

3rd July 2008

Way back in the mists of time, when Bartimaeus was just a gleam in my eye, I was commissioned by a publisher to write a sample chapter for a novel retelling a famous heroic legend. I chose Grettir’s Saga, a fantastic 14th-century tale about Iceland’s strongest warrior, Grettir, who, though good, is always getting into trouble because he can’t control his temper. One of the highlights of the saga is a fight Grettir has with a terrifying and murderous ghost, Glam, in the course of which they more or less trash a farm. I rewrote this chapter and was pretty pleased with it, though the project never came to anything. But the good news now is that this piece is going to be reworked into a short story for the UK publisher Barrington Stoke, who specialise in books for people with dyslexia and other reading difficulties. I’ll work on this later in the summer, and the plan is for it to be published in the autumn 2009.

27th June 2008

More good Heroes news: an offer for a Spanish edition, bringing the number of publishers and countries up to nine.

I caught a nasty cold off Isabelle and Arthur this week, so I’ve been slouching about feeling very sorry for myself. I cheered myself up finishing the lovely The Invention of Hugo Cabret by my friend Brian Selznick, a novel told with a marvellous and very original mix of prose and pictures. Whole sequences are told using delicate, dreamlike illustration, so that you feel like you’re in a cinema, then the story shifts seamlessly into text, allowing you to gain insight into the characters, their motivations and dialogue, before passing back into pictures again. It’s beautiful and touching, and filled me with such delight that I forgot my snuffly woes.

We’re getting the keys to our new house in a week or so: lots to do and think about. Still tinkering with the NEW IDEAS. Too early to discuss yet, but you’ll hear it here first…

20th June 2008

Looks as if there’ll be a Japanese edition of Heroes of the Valley: we’ve had an offer in from Rironsha, who publish Bart, which is good.

Some lovely US bound proofs have come in for Heroes. It’s always a great moment, seeing something in book form for the first time – it’s almost more satisfying than getting the final, published, version. It proves that it’s become something separate from that mess of paper you’ve been fiddling with for the last year or so, and if you got suddenly squashed by a bus, the book would still exist, and outlive you.

Doing a bit of new writing; toying with several ideas, one of which involves a familiar character. We’ll see.

Trivial footnote: Watched Cloverfield last night, and much enjoyed it. Maybe the cast was that little bit too pretty, but when you’ve got a story about a giant monster destroying New York, I suppose you can’t grumble too much about realism. Not entirely sure about the ending either… but it’s hard to know what alternative would have been more satisfying.

17th June 2008

Spent a fascinating day last week at a Crown Court in London, watching an ongoing trial. A friend of mine is involved with the case, and he invited me to observe from the public gallery. It’s the first time I’ve seen a major trial in operation, and it was great to watch the play of personalities – the defendants, witnesses, the prosecution and defence barristers, the judge presiding over all. It’s like a piece of theatre, with the judge’s bright red robes, the black cloaks of the barristers; the wigs and formality. But there was also a strong sense of the humanity of it all, the determination to see justice played out as fairly as possible. Maybe one day I’ll write another court scene (I did one in The Golem’s Eye), infused with the flavour of what I saw last week, but for the moment I’m not allowed to write anything specific about it at all.

Back in the office – am doing my best to get through my remaining LETTERS, some of which, shockingly, are from LAST YEAR. Making progress now, and I hope to have a clear conscience by the end of the month.

10th June 2008

BEA continued: On May 30th, after about 3 hours sleep I tottered to the Convention Center to attend the Author Breakfast where a zillion publishers gather about tables of stale buns to listen to notable authors chat about their work. Eoin Colfer introduced things hilariously, and Sherman Alexie, Judy Blume and Neil Gaiman each did great talks: to my delight I discovered an advance copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book among my free goodies – I read it on the plane home, and it’s fantastic.

Later that morning, I signed chapter samplers of Heroes of the Valley for an hour at one of the tables in the convention centre. Lots of authors line up at their tables and people queue for each one. You have an hour, no matter how many (or few) customers turn up. I was able to keep going for the hour and felt pretty excited to sign Heroes for the first time: even if it is just the first couple of chapters. Now I’ve got to wait until January to flourish the real thing. It looks as if my tours in the UK and US will both take place in January, or possibly February 2009.

On May 31st I filmed a short video interview for Hyperion about Heroes. At some point soon we’ll put this up on the Hyperion site – and possibly also here. I’ll put some links to it nearer the time…

8th June 2008

Last week, on 28th May, I flew to America for the US Book Expo at the Convention Center in Los Angeles. It was a four-day round trip, with an 8-hour time difference, so my body never quite worked out when it was supposed to eat/sleep/say intelligent things, meaning that all these activities were a bit compromised. But I had a fantastic time with my publishers and fellow authors at Hyperion, and have come back inspired to do some new writing.

On May 29th most of my day was free, so I took a cab across to Santa Monica for a couple of hours, to walk the pier, tread on the hot sand and dip my toes in the Pacific, just so I could say I had. I had to buy a slightly dubious hat on the pier in order to stop myself frying to a crisp; it made me look very much the Englishman abroad – not necessarily a good thing.

That evening I went across to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown LA for the Hyperion dinner, where I met with lots of booksellers from across America and spoke briefly about Heroes of the Valley for the first time. The other authors attending included Eoin Colfer, Jon Scieszka, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Lane Smith, Dave Barry, Rick Riordan, Ridley Pearson and Brian Selznick, and their presentations were fantastic and very funny. Afterwards Brian Selznick and I went for our first drink together since BEA 2003: he’s recently had huge success with the amazing The Invention of Hugo Cabret – check this out at www.theinventionofhugocabret.com.

5th June 2008

A very busy few weeks – and hardly any time to sit and pen this journal. I spent much of May zooming about doing author visits at a number of great venues.

1st May: Aldro School, Surrey – lots of talks about Bartimaeus: great fun, despite me coming down with a cold. The next day I’d completely lost my voice, but it recovered in time for:

6-7th May: Egham School, Surrey – two days of talks and workshops, centred on first person narrations. We had a whole range of excellent story openings, tantalising fragments that left the listeners enthralled, excited or amused…

8th May: Francis Combe School, Herts – a second talk here: I’m writer-in-residence at Francis Combe, which is local to where I live.

9th May: Lincoln Book Festival, Lincoln: I did a talk here opening the Book Festival, and announcing the long-list for the 2008 Lincolnshire Young People’s Book Award. For the complete list of these great books, check out the Festival site.

Also around this time met up with Andrew Donkin, the mastermind (among many other things) of the excellent Artemis Fowl graphic novel. We’ve started thinking about the Amulet of Samarkand graphic novel, which is currently slated for early 2010. At the moment we’re pondering artists…

Then off on holiday to Norfolk for a week of sandcastles, sea, sky and general relaxation, before preparing for my visit to Los Angeles and the US Book Expo. More on this soon…

30th April 2008

Oops – another big gap between journal entries: my only excuse being a lovely visit last week to the Ecole Internationale in Geneva. It was my first return to Switzerland since I was about 19, and my first ever visit to Geneva, which in the days I was there was surrounded by great grey walls of fog and cloud. Even so, you could see what a gorgeous location the city has, circling the end of its lake, with the Jura mountains and foothills of the Alps rising on every side.

I spent three days at the International School, giving talks to the pupils of the middle school, and was given a friendly welcome by everyone. It is a wonderfully, bewilderingly cosmopolitan place, with over 130 nationalities represented among the children, and 86 different languages spoken as mother tongues. Teaching is done either in English or bilingually in French/English, fortunately for me: I was able to chat away in English and be understood by all. I talked mainly about Bartimaeus and the trilogy.

In my spare time I took the trams into the centre of Geneva and wandered about, looking at the waterfront, where the great water spout blows water to a height of 400 ft, and then to the maze of streets in the old town. It was raining, and the roads were almost deserted; the tall ranks of ancient stone houses had a secretive, watchful air. I sensed treasures locked away behind the gates and bolted doors and windows; at intervals gold light spilled out of narrow shop fronts, where precious books and works of art were dimly displayed. It felt like a city of magicians, where I was a traveller astray… Before I could get completely lost, I was met by my charming host Marie-Claire and taken off for a fine meal… but the image of the quiet, mysterious city remains with me.

10th April 2008

Last Friday, as planned, I spent an excellent day wandering around the British Museum, specially purchased notebook in hand, looking at assorted ancient wonders: statues, jewellery, demonic amulets, mummified animals (and people), cuneiform cylinders, squashed skulls, items from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Yemen, Assyria and beyond… Plenty here to get my teeth into, and I’d only done about 5 rooms (out of the 80+ in the museum). I may well pop in again tomorrow.

Have begun a little bit of writing inspired by the above, and am also now busily answering my backlog of letters, so I feel marginally more virtuous than in a long while.

Work is proceeding nicely on the Heroes of the Valley website, which may be up and running sometime next week…

I’ve committed to do an event to launch the Lincolnshire Young People’s Book Award on 9th May 2008. It will also form part of the Lincoln Book Festival that week. I’ll put information about this, and other forthcoming events and school visits this summer, up on my Events page soon.

3rd April 2008

Having a quiet week while my agent and most of my publishers are frolicking at the Bologna Book Festival. I’ve started going through my backlog of letters, hoping to reply to them all with exceptional efficiency over the next month or so. I’ve also started work on a new website for Heroes of the Valley. My wife Gina’s done some great art for it, and I’ll start by putting a few bits of basic info about the book – with maybe an excerpt, if my publishers allow. We should get this up and running very soon and it’ll be fully accessible from here.

Yesterday I began some preliminary research for a new book. This involved wandering to the local book store and getting some books on history, including tomes on the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings. I’m off to the British Museum tomorrow to wander about amid the mummies and all the other priceless ancient artefacts (the ones that Bartimaeus didn’t smash, that is) to see if they might give me some inspiration…

27th March 2008

Am now back from a week’s holiday in Worcestershire and Shropshire, a pleasant part of England, filled with rolling hills, woods, small villages, old churches, castles and such like. Quite close to where we stayed is Wyre Forest, a (for England) large tract of woodland in which it is quite possible to get completely lost; we took a long walk there, aiming for (but not reaching) a disused railway course deep in the forest’s folds. I like the idea of finding it and following its route through the trees. Reminds me a little of a book I read as a boy, and would still recommend: The Forest of Boland Light Railway, by ‘BB’. It’s about a bunch of gnomes who build a railway and have to fight off some dodgy goblins. ‘BB’, the pseudonym of Denys Watkins-Pitchford, who also illustrated his books, wrote some excellent and haunting novels based on his love of the countryside. Probably the best is Brendon Chase, about three boys who run away from home and fend for themselves in a great forest. But I digress…

Among other jaunts we went to two fantastic castles, which I visited half my life ago and which (unlike me) haven’t changed: Ludlow and Stokesay. Ludlow’s full of great stairways that rise to teetering turrets above river gorges, and Stokesay (right) is an incredibly romantic fortified manor house, half castle, half medieval hall – in perfect condition. Both ideal for stirring new story ideas, though after Heroes of the Valley, which has a medieval setting of sorts, I think I have to turn further afield for my next book…

Heroes has now been bought by six publishers: Joining Hyperion (US), Random House (UK), Bertelsmann (Germany) and Albin Michel (France) are Salani (Italy) and PT Gramedia (Indonesia).

13th March 2008

A long gap since my last journal entry, but the excuse is that I’ve been finishing the revisions to Heroes of the Valley – and that finally went off today! Feel a great sense of relief and pride, and also a need for a holiday.

I’m going over to Los Angeles in May for the Books Expo there, where Heroes (this seems to be the title again) will first see the light of day in the form of a teaser pamphlet with a couple of chapters in. A galley proof of the full text will be done later in the year, prior to publication in January.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to (a) doing nowt, (b) catching up with all the letters and forum questions I’ve got outstanding and (c) starting to jot down a few IDEAS I’ve been getting recently about another novel… No further hints at this stage.

February 28th 2008

Not much to report here: finished my physiotherapy on my arm, which now only occasionally makes strange whirs and clicks. Am knee deep in the final changes to the book, going more slowly than I’d like (as always), and champing at the bit a little because of some NEW IDEAS that have been fermenting. I’m kind of keen to sit down and see where they go, and I’m hoping to have time to do that after Halli goes off. Still not sure about the title. I always have trouble with titles, but this is the most tricky of all time.

I had fun the other day visiting Bartiforums (check out my links page) and answering lots of questions that had built up steadily over the last few months. There are still zillions more awaiting my answers: I’ll hurry things up, I promise. The Forum is fantastic and always gives me a lot of pleasure whenever I visit.

Watched an interesting documentary about Fantasy books last night on BBC 4; poor old CS Lewis got some stick for his religious agenda. Some of his views ARE completely ridiculous (poor Susan being denied Heaven because she’s into make-up), but the underlying vigour of Lewis’s beliefs feeds his imagination and gives it real power. And his narrative voice is still smooth and luxuriant, as I found when I reread some a while ago.

Next week the Puffin Classics relaunch occurs, including Kipling’s Just So Stories, with my introduction. There’ll be something about this in The Times on Saturday 1st March, and you can get more info at www.puffin.co.uk from next week, including my podcast.

February 19th 2008

Should have made a journal entry or two in the last couple of weeks, but things have been busy – including having an offer accepted on a house! Great excitement, but it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s finalised and guaranteed – fingers crossed meanwhile.

On February 8th I spent a day at my old school, St Albans School [Link: www.st-albans.herts.sch.uk/, including a podcast I recorded], doing workshops with the first formers, who all came as their favourite literary characters. I was chuffed to see one Bartimaeus among the host of pirates, James Bonds and Dickensian waifs, decked out in fine gargoyle guise. I was tempted to give him first prize in the costume competition, but resisted this natural bias. It’s a strange thing going back to the stamping ground of my increasingly distant youth. It seems an age ago that I left (1989), and in fact there are lots of new buildings and other changes (including the arrival of girls), but there’s much that is exactly the same – including half the teachers, most of whom are only a little greyer. Out on the orchard below the cathedral the cross-country team do their hill sessions exactly as I did twenty years ago... I dread to think how far I’d lag behind now.

I’m revising Halli this week. Looks as though the title’s going to change, but I’m blowed if I know to what. With luck I’ll get the changes done in a couple of weeks, so that my US publishers can get an advance galley made up soon after. It’ll be amazing to see it in book form after so long. I have to work on a map too.

I’ve had a few new ideas also, which I’m pondering during long walks…

I’m also getting to grips with my LETTERS. Sent 10 off yesterday, and will do more daily…

February 5th 2008

Initial feedback on the new book seems promising, but I’ll hear the full editorial comments next week. It’s been great to have a couple of weeks without thinking about Halli and the other characters – things that I’d worried about before now seem inconsequential, and actual problems now seem clearer and resolvable. With luck I’ll be able to work on revisions during February and finish around the month’s end. The title is still up in the air, and publication seems likely (but not certain) to be January 2009 in the UK and US.

Am looking forward to getting fit now: at the beginning of January, when I was in the throes of the book, my bike slipped on ice early one morning as I cycled to the office and I landed heavily on my arm; for about 5 minutes it was out of its socket, but then popped back into place with a remarkably loud click. I’m doing exercises on it, and the movement is much better, but I haven’t been cycling or running for ages. As a result I’m feeling sluggish: my vow this week is to get out and have a least one cautious run round the local park. With luck no limbs will fall off.

February 1st 2008

Had a baby grand piano delivered to my office yesterday. It belonged to a late relative of mine, and I bought it last year when I thought I was moving into a bigger house. The house move fell through and while we look for somewhere new, the piano has to stay at the office, forcing me at long, long last into a much needed tidy up. There are about 20 piles of papers dotted around over the floor, now pushed into a corner by the piano’s arrival. The upside is that I can now go and play something whenever I’m struggling with the work; the downside is that I’m about 10 years out of practise and will therefore be totally rubbish. And loud. When I struggle with a proper piece I end up segueing into a terrible bit of repetitive jazz, which must echo through the walls into my neighbours’ house. It won’t be surprising if I’m found one day soon dead at the keyboard with a garden fork (or equivalent implement) through my back.

January 28th 2008

To the Strand in London and the offices of Puffin Books, who’ve produced the wonderful new editions of the Puffin Classics, including Kipling’s Just So Stories, to which I’ve done an introduction. I met with the delightful Anna, head of digital marketing, and recorded a podcast which’ll go out on the P Classics website in a month or so (publication’s at the beginning of March). I read out an excerpt from the all-time great short story The Elephant’s Child, and also did a short interview – not sure how crisp it was on account of my c.4 hrs sleep the night before (Arthur isn’t sleeping well). Then wandered about under the bright winter sun through central London, discovering to my disquiet that quite a few things have changed in the years since I did this regularly – buildings gone, shops vanished, roads misremembered. Ended up at the excellent Gosh! Comics, near the British Museum, where I rewarded myself for completing my book with a few purchases, including one of the Hellboy instalments by Mike Mignola, which I discovered at Christmas: a fantastic fusion of beautiful graphics and elegant, pared-down story-telling. Very interesting to me as he likes playing with folklore and legend in a similarish way to me with Bartimaeus. Also Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, which I read on the way home – very funny and nicely perceptive study of adolescence and loneliness...

January 24th 2008

To Richmond for the funeral of my Great-uncle Bern, who died last week at the age of 94. In view of his fine age it was an occasion that mixed sadness with general celebration of a long life well-lived. He was a gentle, charming and courteous man, an exemplum of a certain style of ‘Englishness’ that, if not quite dying out, is pretty rare these days. He also retained a joy of life right to the end – sending emails and scanning photos on his laptop until late last year. I hope I manage something similar, experimenting with personal matter transportation (or whatever the equivalent technological breakthrough is in 2064) in the weeks before I go…

January 23rd 2008

A final read-through and a few words tinkered here and there. Then, mid-afternoon, the manuscript was sent off by email to various destinations. Walked home through the darkness with a great weight lifted from my shoulders. At least – until I get the reactions in…

January 22nd 2008

Well, it’s done!

I finished revising the last chapters this morning, and after a cup of tea and possibly some lunch will sit down in a dark corner and read through the whole book to make sure it holds together. If there’s nothing too obviously wrong, I’ll wing it off to my editors and shall then be observed dancing and capering like a madman through the Hertfordshire streets. This behaviour will continue for approximately 2-3 days, after which I’ll get some preliminary responses and the whole editorial process will start.

I’m feeling pretty good about it, but in fact it’s impossible to say with certainty what state it’s in. After about 5 weeks of intensive work I reckon it’s fairly robust, but fresh eyes and brains are needed now. I’ll try and take a break (and do some LETTER-writing), and not think about Halli and co for a while.

With luck a whole new period will start now, and things that have been up in the air for a long while will begin to settle into clarity – these include the title of the book, details of covers and of course the publication dates in the UK and US. I’ll keep all news posted on this site.

Many thanks again for all my recent letters (and those NOT so recent), including those sending good wishes about Halli: I will respond soon!

January 10th 2008

Latest progress report: 26 chapters revised and ready; 5 still to do. I reckon another week, maybe 10 days, should see me at the end. It’s still going well, and I can’t hold out on the title any longer. The publishers may not like it and so maybe it’ll change, but at the moment I’m calling it:

Heroes of the Valley

Well, it’ll probably end up as something completely different, but that’s what the first draft manuscript will be called as it wings its way through the email ether to my editors in London and New York.

I call it the first draft, but it’s really anything between draft #1 and draft #8, depending which bits you look at. Some scenes, a few paragraphs, and one or two good lines here and there have survived for over a year, ever since some really early proto-drafts which are nothing like the ‘finished’ pre-edit article. My study is festooned with paper – all those early drafts piled up like the archaeological levels at Troy. To the right of my chair is an incredible pool of discarded paper – print-outs I’ve worked on during this last month’s revisions. Whenever I finish with them I drop them to the side. I’ve sworn not to pick them up until the book is done. With luck I’ll finish before the pile topples over and crushes me.

So far Heroes of the Valley (testing the title there; still like it) has been sold to 4 countries: UK, US, Germany, contracts signed, and France, forthcoming. Once it’s finished we’ll see who else might like it. I think that people who liked Bartimaeus will hopefully enjoy this too.

My run-in to the finish has been ‘helped’ by my son Arthur, who insists on waking at 5 o’clock a.m. each morning. This at least means that I get to my study early. I shall try to remember to thank him pointedly when he’s older.

In two weeks I’m off to Puffin to record a podcast about Kipling’s Just So Stories, which I’ve done an introduction to for the new Puffin Classics Edition. I’ll put up info about this recording and the book itself in due course.

So, then… We’ll see where we are in a week’s time…

January 2nd 2008

Happy New Year to all! I’ve been remiss not writing my journal for a few weeks, but my excuse is that I’ve been ploughing on with the new book: the final push. It’s getting pretty exciting now. I’m going through the whole thing, tightening, revising and – in a few cases – reworking whole chapters to get the feel right. It’s taken about 3 weeks so far and I’m over halfway. I reckon another 14 days or so ought to see the manuscript ready to send off.

I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s looking, at long, long last. The other good news is that it has a title now! Can’t reveal it yet though, but will do so as soon as my publishers give the okay.

I thought it was time to give a huge seasonal APOLOGY to everyone who’s sent me letters and is still awaiting a reply. I’ve got a big stack of them sitting here making me guilty every time I turn my gaze from the computer: as soon as the draft is done I will get to work!! It has to be my New Year’s Resolution No 1. A second SORRY to all those who’ve got unanswered questions gathering dust on the Bartimaeus Forum: I’ll respond to these a.s.a.p too.

Many thanks to everyone at the Forum for all your fantastic debates during the course of the year. And a particular THANK YOU and FESTIVE GREETINGS to Gladstone, Luciene, Stephánie, Nero, Nathaniel&Bartimaeus and all the rest of the Bart Trilogy Fan Club for your fantastic Xmas pictures, poems and messages of good will. I loved them all.

Lastly, a quick message for Michael T in Seattle: my email replies to you aren’t getting through! Could you email again, including your email address spelt out within the message – I want to try sending something from a different computer, and I need to check the exact address…

Anyway, back to the book. I’ll give an update next week of how it’s progressing . . .