A couple of emails came through over the past day or so which I felt worthy of pointing out, along with a post from one of the actors in the CDF film. First, Richard in the USA wrote to say:

Our family visited New Orleans last week. Our hotel window looked out onto an alley in which "Cirque du Freak" is being filmed. Thus we discovered your books, and my oldest daughter is reading the first one now. John C. Reilly looked really cool in a red coat and red hair. I'm going to read the book after Rachel finishes it, and we look forward to the movie.

I've posted here before about the positive effects of having a book filmed. No matter how the adaptation goes -- even if it turns out to be a REALLY bad film -- it virtually always brings some new fans to the book. For me, writing is all about personal pleasure, creating something unique and intriguing, which will satisfy me -- but publishing is all about trying to take your story to as many people as possible. Writing should be all about creation and inventiveness, but publishing should be all about business -- I'll never understand writers who seem reluctant to help promote their books, who take a stand-offish, almost sneering approach to the people who buy their books, who have nothing but contempt for the selling side of the industry. I'm not saying you should ever write FOR money -- but you certainly should take the business of writing seriously if that's what you plan to do for a living. It's very difficult alerting people to the existence of a book. All publishers struggle with the problem of finding new fans, new readers, of convincing people to take a chance on a writer they've never read before. Movies help. People read interviews with actors, or see the filming take place, or catch a trailer, etc., and go and read the book -- so even if a film sucks, it can still bring new readers to a book!!!!

But according to reports emanating from the set, the film of Cirque Du Freak doesn't look like it WILL suck -- which will hopefully mean even more readers come on board!! While I'm not directly involved with the film, the reports I've been getting have all been positive. Ray Stevenson, the actor playing Murlough, posted this revealing comment on his site recently:

"Filming here in New Orleans is going very well indeed. I love working with John C. Reilly, he's a real gentleman. My character is bringing me a lot of fun. First time I've ever played an absolute bad guy, although I consider him a misunderstood vampire hell bent on complete domination of his world. Paul Wietz is just great to work with. He has a vision for this movie which is very exciting, very dark and carnival like with a palette of fair ground lights and circus costumes. ... Again I feel blessed to be involved with a project that I believe will entertain a lot of people. ... He's pretty unsavoury and not exactly easy on the eye. But I like him and on many levels he's just a bit too hungry, all the time, for anything he can get, especially blood !! (he regards people, especially children, as 'bags of blood')"

Sounds good!! I've been keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out well, even since the start, but it seems like maybe it won't need my good wishes ...

Finally, Emma Foster sent me the following email about the Authors For Autism auction which I'm currently involved with (people can bid to have their name featured in one of my upcoming books):

Great to see you doing so well in the Ebay charity auction already, some of the rest of the authors have no bids as yet, and you already have 10 bidders! I had a look myself, and would have had a bid, but unfortunately the amount is already more than I earn in two weeks, so I will have to wait until I am earning a bit more cash! Excellent thing you are doing for charity though, and hopefully the bidders will get as much as possible for that next gory death.

As Emma noted, bidding is high -- the auction has been live less than 24 hours as I type this, and already the high bid stands at a staggering £460 -- about $920!!!!! And it isn't due to finish until April 2nd!!!! I'm delighted that bidding is so brisk, since all the money will go to charity. I know it means a lot of you reading this won't be able to take part, which I feel bad about, but the whole point of doing something like this for charity is to raise as much funds as possible. If any of you have a healthy bank balance and fancy your chances (or if you have a rich relative -- the winner can choose any name they want to appear in the book), click on the following link to place your bid: EBAY AUCTION LINK