The Mortal Word has hit the shelves – well, physically hit the shelves, electronically hit the metaphorical electronic shelves, you know what I mean . . .

Thank you to everyone who’s picked it up. Thank you very much indeed – I hope you enjoy it. I can’t say much more than that. I mean, I really, really hope you enjoy it. My Lego figures on my desk of General Leia and the Fourth Doctor and Lam Ching Ying as the One-Eyebrow Priest hope you enjoy it. (They’re very cooperative. Either that or I’ve been drinking too much coffee.)

I’m delighted to share that The Mortal Word is on the Amazon list for December Best Books of the Month: Science Fiction & Fantasy – which is awesome! (Many other fantastic books are also there, such as Swordheart by T Kingfisher, or How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin, so I’m in really cool company.)

So what next? I hand in my current draft of book 6 to my editor, and I get working on book 7. Truly there is no rest for the wicked. Or for authors. And I get ready for Christmas – time to do the Christmas shopping . . .

The Mortal Word is out in two days – or four days, if you’re in the UK. I would be covering this post with exclamation marks, but I’m trying to be self-controlled and mature and adult and all that sort of thing.
So while we’re waiting, what else is going on? Well, there’s Doctor Who, which I was watching earlier this evening, and I love Jodie Whittaker and the new series, but that’s a different kettle of fish (or witches, if you’ve just seen the latest episode).
There’s also the UK Amazon Kindle offer on The Lost Plot for £1.19, which is still running – and The Invisible Library at 99p. Just saying.
And from me . . . I just want to say thank you to you all who’ve been reading my books. I hope you enjoy this latest one.

Back from Florence now, and it was absolutely fantastic. I loved the food, I loved the sightseeing, and I have a stack of souvenirs such as local paper, a personal seal, some prints, and a lot of books from the museums . . .

There’s less than a month to go till the release of The Mortal Word, and as you can probably imagine, I’m trying not to count the days. Or at least, not too much. Or too audibly.

For people in America, here’s a giveaway for The Mortal Word (till the 6th November):
https://sweeps.penguinrandomhouse.com/enter/the-mortal-word-dedicated-giveaway

And for people in the UK – I’m delighted to let you know that The Lost Plot ebook is currently on amazon at just £1.19 – so you can catch up on the Perils of Irene before we hit book five. (Hit the ground running, as Irene might put it . . .)

I’ve just finished the first draft of Library book six. Still lots of work to be done on it – some of which I know, and other bits of which I have yet to run across (think of it like a car tyre hitting a bed of nails) – but at least I’ve got to this point.

And it’s just in time for me to take a holiday! I’ll be spending next week in Florence, in Italy, which should be absolutely awesome. Time for some research, some self-indulgence, some awesome food . . .

Here’s an interview (of me) by Ingram – it has a few potential details about future books, if anyone’s interested . . .

(The sharks are probably definite.)

Back from the Nine Worlds convention, back from my holiday, and back to regular day job and to working on book six. (And incidentally visiting the Great Northern Quilt Show last Saturday and coming away with far too many fabric purchases. I blame the fabric. It throws itself into my bag as I walk past.)

Good news, or at least cheap news: both The Invisible Library *and* The Masked City ebooks are at 99p on UK Amazon at the moment. Apply here for your heroic librarians, great detectives, suave seducers, dragons in distress . . .

Also, if you’re a German reader, The Masked City is available for just 1.29 euros on German Amazon, as part of this month’s Kindle deal.

And I’ve just seen the cover for the Taiwanese version of The Invisible Library. It looks gorgeous! More details later . . .

I’m afraid I’ve been rather quiet lately. First there were the UK proofs for The Mortal Word, and then there were the US proofs for The Mortal Word, and in the background I was slogging away at book six . . . and in a most depressing heatwave, too. (I know that by a lot of standards, the recent UK temperatures are comparatively minor – especially in the north of England, where I am – but trust me, it was quite bad enough for my tastes.)

I’m going to be at Nine Worlds in London at the end of next week – so if you’re there as well, do say hi. I will be doing a presentation on the Takarazuka Revue, though given it’s 9am on Saturday morning, I will understand if you can’t be there – I know I’m going to be hitting the coffee heavily beforehand . . .

I’m delighted to share that my American publishers (Ace and Roc Books) will be publishing books six, seven and eight of the Invisible Library series in the US.

No dates yet, I’m afraid, but they will be coming . . .

Just a quick note to say that The Invisible Library is currently at just 99p on amazon.co.uk – apologies to other areas. You can find it here:

The Invisible Library

I think the offer’s only going to last for ten days, so if you want to buy a copy for yourself, your friends, your enemies, your librarians, your wombats, or any other connection, then seize the opportunity . . .

And here are my personal favourites.

Estonia – my definite favourite so far, and got through to the final – impressive voice and dress

Belgium – an interesting minor tune. Didn’t get through to the final, but was fun.

Finland – got through to the final. Perky and entertaining.

Denmark – got through to the final. Strong manly bearded Vikings striding through snow and singing. Manfully.

Serbia – also got through to the final. Somewhat weird but entertaining and pleasant to listen to.

France – automatically gets through to the final. But I like the tune.

Who would I ultimately like to win? Estonia’s my favourite, but I suspect it’s unlikely to come first. Still, one never knows. And Denmark might be an interesting dark horse.