A day of almost non-stop watching! I flew over to London from Limerick yesterday, to meet up with my Japanese agent who's in town for a few days -- she's become a friend, so it'll be pleasure, not work. Finished "Raven's Gate" by Anthony Horowitz on the plane over. I liked it. Not as good as his Alex Rider books, in my opinion, but fast-paced and with plenty of action. My favourite bit was set in the National History Museum, when a load of dinosaur skeletons come aloive -- a fab idea!!! Started to read "Hard Freeze" by Dan Simmons after that. Simmons is a writer I've been following for a long time, ever since "Carrion Comfort" (an amazing book) came out years ago. He's written all sorts of books -- horror, sci-fi, thrillers, etc. His work is variable, but his best work is brilliant -- his 4 "Hyperion" books are modern sci-fi classics.

Today I saw 2 films and a play. First up was "Howl's Moving Castle", a weird, wild fantasy adventure from Japan. Beautifully animated, with all sorts of imaginative and suprising touches. It lost me a little bit towards the very end, and I wish they'd shown more of the inside of the fabulous castle, but it;s certainly original and impossible to predict. Recommended! After that I saw "Me and You and Everyone we Know", a quirky film about family, relationships, childhood, online chat rooms and a whole lot more. I really liked it, though I certainly wouldn't say it was suitable for children!!! Finally, after a quick dinner at Wagamama's with my brother and his girlfriend, I went to see "A Few Good Men" in the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Rob Lowe is the main draw, and there were lots of admiring gasps from many of the ladies in the audience when he first came on! To be honest, I thought he was a bit stiff and weak. I liked Lowe in "The Stand", and think he's perfectly cast in "The West Wing", but he wasn't animated enough, I felt, for this role. Also, he botched the big "I want the truth!" scene near the end!!! He wasn't awful by any means -- just not great. Most of the rest of the cast were better, and overall it moved along neatly and was fairly enjoyable. But I preferred the film!!!

Wrote 10 pages of Book 8 of "The Demonata". This was a key scene, when one of the major characters of the series ... but no, that might be giving too much away!! I'll be taking a break from it over the next few days, because I'm going to London, but I'll get stuck back in next Wednesday.

Saw the original film of "The Invisible Man" again tonight. I've seen that film LOTS of times over the years, and it never fails to impress. The effects are great, even 70+ years later, and it has a nice savage sense of humour. I've got a boxed set, with several of the sequels, which I'll probably watch over the next week or two.

I've also been watching the first series of "Angel" this week. I have to say I was very disappointed with the first handful of episodes. It feels very awkward and forced, nowhere near as much fun as "Buffy", or as vibrant. I'm hoping it will improve over the course of the series, but so far I've seen nothing to make me want to watch series two ...

I posted details of my November/December UK tour on my Message Board today, which you can access from my web site. They're in the NEWS forum.

Wrote 9 pages of Book 8 today. Again, lots of action and description, so even though I worked the same number of hours as usual, I came up a page short. I could have pressed on, but I was at the end of a chapter and it's almost nice to end the day at a chapter's end.

Wrote 9 pages of Book 8 of "The Demonata" today. It was virtually all action scenes, and they can sometimes take a lot of time to write, because you have to describe so much of what's going on. So even though I didn't make my 10 page quota, I was happy with my output, and probably put more into those 9 than I would into an "ordinary" 10!!!

Also finished editing "Koyasan", my World Book Day novelette. I pushed myself hard to wrap it up -- it was nearly 22.00 when I stopped! My editor wanted it by the end of Wednesday, and though there was no great urgency to get it in by then, I've never missed a deadline yet, and don't want to start now!! I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, which will take a big chunk out of my day (I have to drive into Limerick city, and then there's a couple of shops I need to go to), so I knew if I didn't do it tonight, I'd run late.

I was supposed to go out with my uncle to a pub, to see Spurs play Grimsby in the second round of the Carling Cup. He cancelled, which I was pleased of, because it meant I could work on "Koyasan". I'm even more delighted now, because the useless shower LOST!!! To a second divison side!! i.e. a side 3 divisions below us!!!!!! If I'd watched that debacle I'd be in a right miserable mood -- but, having chosen to give it a miss, I can at least count my blessings on that score! Football!!! Just when you think you might be turning the corner, along comes a shambolic result to remind you of reality!

Wrote 10 pages of Book 8 of "The Demonata" yesterday -- the action has hotted up to boiling point!! I also edited the first third (20 pages) of "Koyasan", my World Book Day novelette. I was going to do more of that later, but we had a power cut! Part of the drawbacks of living in rural Ireland is that we get power cuts quite often. You can never tell how long they're going to last. This one lasted about two and a half hours, wrecking my night-time editing plans. In the end Bas and I went to see my Granny and Grandad, and a few other relatives, and passed a pleasant enough night in half-light. It came on again about 10.30, so we were able to watch the end of the movie we'd been viewing when it went off earlier -- "Sahara", the Matthew McConaughey adventure movie. It was better than I thought -- absolutely ridiculous, but shot in lovely settings and fast moving. Ideal for when you want just simple entertainment.

By the way, in response to a comment -- when I talk about pages, I mean A4 pages. My average page is about 300 words.

I said in an earlier Blog entry that I almost never get hangovers. Well, today I had the mother of all hangovers!!! I think it's because of the Atkins diet -- since I've no bread or potatos or anything like that in my system, I think alcohol hits me harder than it normally does. I was out on Saturday night, first to watch Spurs play Aston Villa (a 1-1 draw), then with family and friends. I didn't drink any more than usual (even a bit less than I sometimes do when I go to football matches), but this morning I was a mess! My head was pounding, I was sick, my legs were trembling. I had to rest on the couch in my TV room for a few hours, and though I improved over the course of the day, I still don't feel 100 per cent. I'll have to be more careful over the next week. If this actually is a result of the Atkins diet, I certainly won't be staying on it much longer!!!!!   :-)

Yesterday, my copies of the UK hardback edition of "Cirque Du Freak" arrived. It looks lovely, much more impressive than its onscreen cover on my site suggests. But there was another package too -- 40 copies of "Sons of Destiny"!!!! I was extremely puzzled -- I hadn't ordered them. When I studied the invoice I realized they were actually 40 books which I'd ordered, and which had been sent to me, in October 2004!!!!! This was back during my Destiny tour last year, and when the books didn't turn up, I had the publishers send me replacements, as I lost all faith in the delivery crew -- they said they'd tried to deliver on three different occasions, but had for some reason never actually done so!! I assumed the books had been returned to the warehouse, but yesterday, out of the blue, for no good reason, they turned up here! Straaaaaange ...

Wrote 10 pages of Book 8 today, which I was delighted with because I only worked on the book in the afternoon. I was having a barbeque tonight to celebrate the first birthday of one of my uncle's kids, so I had to get ready for that, which meant I couldn't squeeze in a full day's work. I thought I'd maybe get 5 or 6 pages written, but I stormed at it in the early afternoon, after lunch, and managed to whizz through a nice, sharp 10 pages -- excellent!!!!!

Was busy cooking for the BBQ. I had two sets going at once, and I was the only chef, so I was darting from one to the other, turning pieces of meat like mad, trying to stop everything from burning. Found it quite enjoyable actually. Although running 2 was definitely harder than 1, I was able to cook twice as much meat, so finished in half the time it would normally have taken. Even so, BBQs are certainly a lot more fun when somebody else is doing all the hard work!!!!

Had a small panic attack early in the day. I started on the Atkins Diet on Monday, just the 2 week induction course, to lose a few pounds -- I'm a bit chubbier than I'd like to be, and I'll probably gain some weight on my American tour next month (lots of travel and eating, very little exercise!), so I wanted to lose a bit beforehand, so I didn't spiral completely out of control!!! I've always been a bit (sometimes a lot!) on the chubby side. I don't worry about that these days, though I didn't like being considered fat when I was younger. But I do like to be reasonably healthy and able to climb a flight of stairs without having to stop to catch a breath -- hence the diet!!

Anyway, the panic attack was that I realised I couldn't drink beer because of the diet, and, quite frankly, I can't really enjoy a BBQ without a few beers, especially if I'm cooking! (I'm by no means a heavy drinker, but I do like a few bottles at social occasions.) Thankfully, Bas discovered low carb beer, which the diet allows me to drink, and suddenly all was well with my world again!!!!!   :-)   It didn't taste that bad either, which was a bonus!

Wrote 10 pages of Book 8, and plotted out the next few chapters. I find the plotting out crucial -- with a guide, the actual writing flows quite easily, but without one I struggle!!

Saw the original version of the movie "Scum" yesterday -- powerful stuff!! It's about a young offender's institution in the UK in the late 1970s. The BBC commissioned the piece, then banned it -- they thought it would prove too controversial. A movie version was made a couple of years later, featuring many of the same cast. When that was shown on TV in the early 80s it led to a change in the laws regarding juvenile offenders!

Saw a silent film called "Tartuffe" today, directed by the great F W Murnau, who made "Sunrise", one of my top 10 films. "Tartuffe" wasn't in the same league, but it was an entertaining little piece about hypocrisy. Lesser Murnau, but worth a look if you like silent cinema.

Received this amusing e-mail a couple of days ago, in response to my blog bit about some people thinking I'm really J K Rowling:

My daughter and I went to your recent "Lord Loss" event at the Edinburgh Book Festival which we both really enjoyed. It was a lot of fun (especially the sing along at the end!!) Great value for money and quite exciting to hear so many snippets from your forthcoming " Demonata" series. Anya, my daughter, was particularly chuffed and impressed at you recognising that you had met her at a similar event before - so very well remembered! As on the other occasions she met you at book signings, you were friendly and charming and frankly, not at all up yourself, in the way that some people are on attaining a degree of success!

Anyway enough of the arsey lickiness! The primary reason I am writing, is that I recently came across your blog, which I hadn't previously realised existed and was particulary amused at the idea that some people believed that your books were really written by JK Rowling! Inspired by this and the fact that, I understand, you live in Co. Limerick, the following limerick came into my mind and struck me as so mindlessly stupid, that I thought I would share it with you, whether you wanted me to or not!! Here goes...

There was a young writer called Shan
Who some people thought was Joanne
"It's Rowling..." they said
"Just a bit more undead"
So he now wears high heels for his fans.

With many apologies, both for the appalling poetry and in case I have inadvertently outed the fact that you are really a secret cross dresser!!!

Best Regards,
Marion Stevenson (age 41 1/2!)

Heh heh -- I think that's brilliant!!! Thanks for the cool limerick, Marion -- though I'm not sure what Bas will think of the implication that I like to wear women's clothes!!!!!   :)

Well, I'm back in the world of the web after a few days off! Had a good time in the UK. Went to stay in a convent to begin with -- Bas's aunt is a Carmelite nun, and lives in an enclosed order. She's in her 70s, and despite living within a convent for the last 50 years, is as wild as they come! She dated Richard Burton's brother in her earlier years ... she loves to smoke and drink ... and is the biggest Terry Pratchett fan I've ever met!!!! We try to get to see her at least a couple of times a year. I enjoy chatting with her -- she has a different take on life to most people.

Mary (the nun) was quite busy on the Friday, so we didn't see as much of her as we expected. We spent quite a lot of time driving around the East Anglia countryside. Popped in to visit a place called Grimes Graves. I was expecting some sort of graveyard, but it's actually the site of ancient flint mines. It was interesting, learning about the mining, though the mine itself wasn't much to view.

On Saturday we drove up to the coast for the wedding. It was one of Bas's friends getting married. We knew absolutely nobody there apart from the bride and groom. I was a bit edgy to begin with -- I'm not a great socializer, and find it very hard to get a conversation going with complete strangers. For the first few hours we didn't talk to anybody and I was feeling quite glum. But when we sat down for dinner, we soon got talking to the other guests at our table and they were an enjoyable bunch, easy to get on with. We spent the rest of the night chatting with them, and it was fun. Didn't have a crazy one -- drank sensibly and had an earlyish night -- but it passed nicely.

Got back home on Sunday. Went through my post and caught up with my e-mails. Found out that I'm back in the New York Times Top 10 Children's Bestsellers (hurrah!!) at #7!! I'm delighted when my books chart in any country, but because of the size of the place, America is obviously a vital and enticing nut to crack!!! Most authors from this side of the Atlantic don't make it in the States. I'm one of the few who've managed to take off there, and while I'm nowhere near as popular as Eoin Colfer (who's huge in America) I've made the NYT Top 10 with 3 of my last 4 books, which is an amazing achievement. It'll be interesting to see how "Lord Loss" fares there, especially coming so soon after the release of "The Lake of Souls" ...

Returned to book 8 of "The Demonata" today. Wrote 11 pages, which I was very satisfied with. Not the most exciting part of the book -- it's the build-up to the action scenes, the calm before the storm. I'll be glad to get down to the chaos and mayhem over the course of the next few days!!!!