Officially The Black Mausoleum comes out in the UK on the 16th August. However I have one copy to give away and this time I’m going to let the competition run for a whole week on account of being on holiday for the week. Usual rules apply – comment here to be entered and I’ll pick a winner at random on Friday evening. Signed and lined and dedicated as per the winner’s request. If demand is particularly high then I might run another competition later in the year but I don’t have too many of these to give away at the moment.

Competition (as usual) is open worldwide. Outside Europe I ship by surface mail to keep the costs down so please be patient.

In other news, lots of stuff is happening and I can’t talk about any of it. More books have been delivered. The fourth manuscript of 2012 is almost finished. Various ghostwriting projects are under discussion and also a rather interesting proposal for an SF series. But I have been missing my dragons, and the planning work for Prince of the Storm-Dark starts next week, with the writing in anger due to start as soon as the school holidays end. At which point I might have something interesting to say again…

Next week I have an ARC of Justin Cronin’s Twelve to give away. You have been warned.

Nomnomnom, look what came through the post yesterday…

I’ll put one copy up for grabs next week. Meanwhile two other dragon books to give away again:  another pair of The King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales as one lot. That’s the UK editions and I will sign and line them if you want. Perfect for anyone who got The Adamantine Palace[1] but never got around to the others, and yes, I still have several more to give away because I need to clear space for when the new covers come out. You haven’t seen the new covers? Go see the new covers.

Usual rules – comment here and I’ll randomly select someone to get the books.

If anyone was following my MOPNOWRIMO projects earlier in the year, the one I did in February has been delivered and the one I did in May, which I still distinctly remember sucking like a Dyson[2], is well into its second re-drafting and still turns out not to be so bad at all. Although I say that having not actually written the ending yet. You know that thing where you should always push on to the very end before you rewrite? <hangs head in shame>. I will do it tonight. I will try.

[1] To be clear: The books I’m giving away this time are parts two and three of a trilogy. The Adamantine Palace is part one.

[2] Previous attempts at eliciting Dyson spam yielded nothing AT ALL. Still getting tutus.

An SF classic that I haven’t read and for which I get perpetual grief. Everything suggests I would probably like it, so maybe said grief is justified.

This is the Gollancz SF Masterworks edition. Usual deal – comment on this post and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy of the book. Surprisingly no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, but it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually.

This is one of those thoughtful posts. Sorry.

Right: in the last few years I’ve seen various arguments go back and forth about the “new” fantasy, grim and gritty and dirty and a bit nasty. Or possibly a lot nasty. I’ve seen the argument, presented in many different guises, of “but that’s how it was,” and I’ve seen the argument back of “how WHAT was, exactly” and “but isn’t that the point of fantasy – to NOT be how it was?” and I have sympathy for all three points. I’ve seen what I reckon is my favourite: “but that’s how it IS,” which I take to be an allusion to the world being an uncaring and fundamentally hostile place. Well I’m not sure it is, but it does often seem that way. One argument in particular has lingered – that the message heroic fantasy sends is that if you try and try and try and try and work really really hard to do something, you will ultimately succeed, and that’s not how the world works and to be taught that heroic fantasy message simply leads to hopelessly unrealistic expectation. I largely buy that argument but not its conclusion. I’m not going to go into it here because I’ve covered it before.

However.

I’ve also changed my work patterns lately. This is just one of those things – every few months I take to working in a different way. It’s not even a conscious choice, more a fitting work around the rest of life in a different way as the rest of life constantly warps and mutates and changes (and it does, if you have children, by the way, because what they’re like no isn’t what they’ll be like in six months, not will it ever be that way again. It’s a constant adaptation to their constant adaptation, and it would terribly nice if I ever in any way saw the next change coming with more clarity that it’s simple probability. But that’s by the by). The long and the short is that I now work out now and then, often enough to make a “workout” playlist of stuff to listen to. Thumping stuff to get the blood moving, that sort of thing. And even if I then go and listen to Berlioz or podcasts, it’s the contents of that playlist that got me thinking. There’s some newer music in it, a few tracks that I’ve grown to like in my middle years but most of it turned out to be stuff I used to listen to decades ago and it’s all angry angry stuff (good for workouts) with a subtext of addiction and depression and powerlessness and death and you knew I was a goth, right? Oh and also quite a lot of Motorhead, which doesn’t really fit at all but then maybe I was more of an awkwardly angry hippy than a goth and…

Oh never mind. Because the world may be fundamentally hostile or uncaring but it’s also fundamentally ridiculous and sometimes you have to revel in the simple sensation of being alive by listening to Killed By Death very very loudly several times.

And it got me thinking, that playlist, of who I used to be a long time ago before I knew who I was, and also that the message of heroic fantasy, of which I read a lot at the time) – try and try and try, try long and try hard and don’t give up and in the end you’ll get a cookie, well it might not really work for our exterior struggles, but for most people who have much opportunity to read for pleasure in the first place (and I say most knowing there are people for whom this generalisation will be starkly false), perhaps the struggles that matter most aren’t the ones we have with the outside world but the ones we have with ourselves, with our own inner contradictions. In those battles, we are our own champions, like it or not, and everyone else is the plucky sidekick. Maybe that’s where stories of heroes have their worth. I can try and try and try all I want to be the best son/dad/husband/wife/writer/singer/poet/lover/ninja/muse/pigeon-whispering particle physicist/whatever in the world and with seven billion other people out there there’s a good chance I’ll never get good enough to be worthy of remark. But in my head it’s just me and my demons, no billions of other people. And maybe I can try and try and try to be happy with merely being quite good at some of those things, and maybe it’s because of all those stories of bloody-minded heroes who never give up despite the odds that I can believe that one day those might converge.

So I’ll still keep my heroes, thanks, and I might even write some when I’m done with dragons.

Lord of Slaughter didn’t go down as well as I thought it would either, but I guess Rivers of London made up for that…  Any, more of my own books to give away now:  another pair of The King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales as one lot (again). That’s the UK editions and I will sign and line them if you want. Perfect for anyone who got The Adamantine Palace[1] but never got around to the others, and yes, I still have several more lots to give away because I need to clear space for when the new covers come out. You haven’t seen the new covers? Go see the new covers.

As a reminder, by the way, here are the old ones. Usual story – leave a comment on this posts if you’re interested in two free books and the gods of random will make their choice come the weekend. Also also, have I mentioned the new covers?

Yes, I realise that if you came and looked last time around then you have, you commented, and really, you’re not about to look yet again. From those who are becoming regulars, comments along the lines of yes, yes, just gimme the goddamn books already will be received in a spirit of tolerance…

Also see, look, a new review: Blood and fire. A must for dragon lovers everywhere. Antipodean SF reviews The Order of the Scales.

If anyone was following my MOPNOWRIMO projects earlier in the year, the one I did in February has been delivered and the one I did in May, which I still distinctly remember sucking like a Dyson[2], is well into its second re-drafting and still turns out not to be so bad at all. Although I say that having not actually written the ending yet. You know that thing where you should always push on to the very end before you rewrite? <hangs head in shame>. I will do it tonight. I will try.

[1] To be clear: The books I’m giving away this time are parts two and three of a trilogy. The Adamantine Palace is part one.

[2] Previous attempts at eliciting Dyson spam yielded nothing AT ALL. Still getting tutus.

One of the first books I gave away was the second in MD’s series of Vikings & Werewolves and now here’s the third, savaging 10th century Constantinople.

Usually deal – comment on this post and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy of the book. Surprisingly no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, but it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually.

I never used to like swimming very much as a kid. Partly because I wasn’t much good at it. I actually can’t remember anyone teaching me very much either, although I suppose they must have done. I remember not wanting to be able to swim for a long time because being able to actually not sink meant having to go and do swimming in the big pool where the water was way, WAY too cold when you were used to the little pool.

Still, despite my petulant reluctance, the ability to swim arrived like an unwanted government, born from an ugly union of the relentless force of The System and colossal indifference. For reasons I never quite understood at the time, some of my friends even liked going to the pool and even viewed it as a treat (why? And where was the appeal? Five minutes in and I’d swum half a width, touched the bottom, done a mushroom float, been splashed in my face and then I was bored because the only thing left to do was pee in the water). I never got it and rarely went, but on those few occasions that we went to a swimming pool for “fun” I remember the phenomena of Scary Joyless Beardy Men. See, half or maybe two thirds of the pool was for the likes of me to tit about in, and then there was the dreaded Line of Orange Floats that carried every bit as much weight as the Berlin Wall and for much the same reasons: over on my side was a place of laughing and splashing and playful games. Over There was a place of relentless work, back and forth, up and down, on and on without rest or sleep. The home of the Scary Joyless Beardy Men. I don’t know why I only ever noticed the men or why they generally had beards, but they were clearly Joyless because who the hell with an ounce of fun left in them would spent any of their time just swimming up and down, back and forth, on and on when they could have been doing almost anything else. And Scary partly because they were big and relentless and had beards and partly because they didn’t half get grumpy if you crossed into their Zone Of No Fun and accidentally got in the way but mostly because they were so utterly incomprehensible. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT? WHY? They were what I thought East Germany was like, only they were in my swimming pool (I also quietly resented them for using up a portion of the pool so that I couldn’t swim widths. Lengths meant going into the deep bit and that was scary in an entirely Here-Lurks-Great-Cthulhu-Within-The-Fathomless-Depths sort of way).

I’d forgotten all of that when I started swimming a couple of months back, until I caught sight of myself in the mirror and there he was, a vision from my childhood: Scary Joyless Beardy Man. Only this time it was me, and so now I know that all the Scary Joyless Beardy Men that I remember maybe weren’t joyless at all. Maybe they were just thinking of far-away places and far-off worlds instead.

Next up should need little introduction. I think for me this is the funniest ever, bar none, even remotely, with the possible exception of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  And it can be yours. Usually deal – comment on this post and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim. But it might take a while because on account of the terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.

Well I don’t like to advertise certain online book retailers so I can’t get an image of the cover of the particular edition I have up for grabs, but it’s the Special London Edition with an exclusive short story: Home Crowd Advantage.

I haven’t read the short but I’ve read the book and it was a lot of fun and a lot of people seem to agree. Usual story – comment here to be thrown in the hat to win a copy. This one closes on Wednesday evening.

The Book of the New Sun didn’t go down nearly as well as I thought it would but now I have more books to give away, this time another pair of The King of the Crags and The Order of the Scales as one lot (again). That’s the UK editions and I will sign and line them if you want. Perfect for anyone who got The Adamantine Palace[1] but never got around to the others, and yes, I have several more lots to give away because I need to clear space for when the new covers come out. You haven’t seen the new covers? Go see the new covers.

As a reminder, by the way, here are the old ones. Usual story – leave a comment on this posts if you’re interested in two free books and the gods of random will make their choice come the weekend. Also, tell me whether you like the new covers better than the old ones or the other way round or neither. Also also, have I mentioned the new covers?

If anyone was following my MOPNOWRIMO projects earlier in the year, the one I did in February is going through what might be its last rewrite and the one I did in May, which I distinctly remember thinking sucked like a Dyson[2], is pushing two thirds through its first re-drafting and turns out not to be so bad at all, once you get rid of certain obstacles like one major secondary character doing too much vacillating, too much descriptive waffle and the pointless and unnecessary addition of a primary non-human antagonist when there was a perfectly good human one just sitting there waiting to be used. Once he didn’t have NO HANDS any more. Never give your villain no hands. Really. Just don’t.[3]

[1] To be clear: The books I’m giving away this time are parts two and three of a trilogy. The Adamantine Palace is part one.

[2] I am getting spam from purveyors of Tutus again. This is a test to see if I can get some more technically oriented spam, because as a purveyor of FIRE-BREATHING MONSTERS I find that tutus, even in spam-form, seem remarkably… well, wrong.

[3] See previous post on no-handed heroes if you really really want to know.

Mwahahaha…. I have an ARC of Justin Cronin’s Twelve. To give away. But embargoed for now so you’ll have to wait

Another giveaway tomorrow. More dragons I think.

<exeunt cackling>

Once upon a time there were a bunch of bankers who had made themselves very, very rich. Granted special privileges by the highest authorities in their sphere of influence, they were frequently exempt from local laws and taxes. Over time they developed a goodly number of tricks to avoid even the laws to which they were expected to comply, mostly by doing exactly the thing they weren’t supposed to and calling it something else. Distrusted by the population at large for their mysterious and secretive ways, they made themselves indispensable to the rulers of their time, though the states they ruled were destitute with population taxed to the point of open revolt.

As a result of Barclays’s admission of its misconduct, its extraordinary cooperation, its remediation efforts and certain mitigating and other factors, the department agreed not to prosecute Barclays for providing false LIBOR and EURIBOR contributions, provided that Barclays satisfies its ongoing obligations under the agreement for a period of two years. The non-prosecution agreement applies only to Barclays and not to any employees or officers of Barclays or any other individuals.

In the case of the Templars, when Philip IV turned on them, a lot of bankers were burned at the stake. Just quietly noting that interesting fact. Not that Philip IV was any better, all things considered. The “great treasure” of the Templars was supposedly shipped in secret to Nova Scotia. This is obviously a daft notion – clearly they took it to the Cayman Islands.