Happy new year everyone. I don’t know whether to class this as a ‘news’ post or a ‘critical failures’ post. A critical failure because this post was supposed to go up yesterday. In fact, my whole year is already one day out of whack on account of having had two New Year’s parties cancelled on me at short(ish) notice and then spending most of the day in bed with a migraine anyway. So yesterday was our ‘celebration’ day in this house. All in all this holiday season hasn’t been that great. We had a very nice Yule celebration on the 20th, Christmas itself was overrun by the little people, the smaller of whom seems to have regressed to being two again and throwing ‘I want’ tantrums left right and centre. The bigger one knocked a tooth out, root and all – still don’t know quite how he did it, and we’ve managed to see precisely one couple of *our* friends. With a bit of luck that will change shortly. So the holiday season gets a big thumbs sideways this year. The kids had a great time. The rest of us, I think, are just relieved that it’s all over.

However, on the plus side, number one son’s favourite song is currently The Knights of Cydonia by Muse and number two has developed a penchant for Space Lord by Monster Magnet, so at least driving is fun now.

In the midst of all this, some surprisingly useful writing has happened. The reworking of King of the Crags is under way and I’m about a third of the way through. It seems like it’s going really well. I’m pleasantly surprised to find that it’s quite a good book in the first place (or so it seems to me, but I always remember everything I write as being rubbish until I read it again). But what’s really making the difference is the addition of a little extra material. I won’t say that this has come about as a direct result of the early reviews because to some extent it would have happened anyway. Still, the reviews have made me think about some things more than would otherwise have happened, so thank-you reviewers, all of you so far. You have made The King of the Crags better (and fractionally longer – sorry Simon) than it would otherwise have been.

the Order of the Scales is on hold at about a third of the way through while I deal with the rewrite. A certain Total Recall inspired scene is now imminent. Or not, as the case may be.

No New Year’s resolutions this year except to finish King of the Crags, Order of the Scales and the construction of the Lego Death Star (in no particular order) and to actually read some books written by other people this year.