I started editing book 3 of my 4 book series yesterday. (I often work on Sundays. I used to stick to a Monday to Friday routine years ago, which I liked, but I do so much travelling these days that I need to maximise my time at home and work whenever possible.) I was grinning all the way through the first few chapters. They’re an exceedingly dark part of the storyline, but feature a couple of twists which I know are going to have readers smiling BIG! It’s always nice when you can work in an unexpected but, in retrospect, perfectly obvious twist, something that will make readers gasp with surprise, but, when they think about it later, kick themselves for not seeing it sooner.

Edited more of book 3 today. I’d planned to finish it, but lots of other stuff popped up, not least of which was a photo shoot for a newspaper interview. It will be appearing in the Irish Independent this Saturday, April 5th (fans outside Ireland will probably be able to find it on the Indo web site, at http://www.independent.ie/ -- although I can’t guarantee that). I did the interview a while ago, but the photographer only came today. I normally don’t like photo shoots but this was more fun than usual -- the photographer was fast and efficient, and came up with a few unusual shots. Most cameramen take the same old shots -- Darren at his desk, Darren with a book -- but, in their defence, that’s usually what they’re asked for. This guy did the normal stuff, but some artier pics too. It will be interesting to see if the editor in this case goes with a few of the more experimental shots, or with the regular, standard type snaps. I know where I’d be placing my money if I was a betting man ...