I picked up a copy of SFX at the weekend -- there's an interview with me (as D B Shan) in it. The interview's very well laid out, as SFX interviews usually are -- it's a high quality sci-fi mag, one of the best and most professional in the business. I highly recommend it, and not only for the interview with me!!! BUT the photograph... that's another matter entirely!!! The photographer's top notch (he shot me for SFX before), and he spent a lot of time on the photo. The lighting and composition on the photo are all fine (I'm no expert in these matters). But WHY has he shot me from a low level, the worst possible angle when it comes to capturing my double chin on film?!?!?

Now, there's no getting away from it -- I'm a bit of a chubbster!! Always have been, and I suspect I always will be. Even though I watch my diet a lot more than I used to when I was younger, I still seem to put on weight every time I pop something into my mouth. C'est la vie. I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me as a teenager, but these days I'm fairly laid back about it. Some people are skinny, some aren't, and life's a lot happier if you accept yourself as you are, not as you might want to be. I don't mind my bit of a belly, and I don't mind my double chin. EXCEPT when it's rubbed in my face in a magazine photo!!! I mean, it's not THAT big. If shot straight-on or from a slightly high angle, you sometimes can't even see it. But in this photo I look like a cousin of Jabba The Hutt!!! What's wrong with air-brushing?!?

I'm exagerrating, of course -- it's not THAT bad. But it's not the first photo recently to capture my double chin. I think a conspiracy is afoot -- photographers are out in force to make my bit of flab look even flabbier than it is!! How am I supposed to sleep at night, knowing they're out there, waiting for me, flashbulbs at the ready, crouched low down so as to catch me in all my doubled glory?!?!? I think I might have to pretend I've got a sore neck, and wear a brace that comes up high over my chin ...

Or I could always try to lose lose a bit of weight...

Nah, I think I'll stick with the neck brace idea!!!!

All's going well on the writing front. I'm still averaging 12 pages a day, and tearing through it at a rare old pace. I'm not too far from the end now -- like I said last week when starting, I think that all of the books in this series are going to be on the short side. I'm aiming for fast-paced, quick reads, an explosion of action, and lots of cliff-hangers. The first book isn't terribly short -- it will probably be a bit shorter than the Vampire Mountain trilogy books in The Saga once I've worked on it a bit more and added some bits and pieces that I think it needs -- but it's definitely shorter than any of the novels I've released recently, and I suspect the others will be too. While that might sound like bad news for fans, I don't think it is -- I suspect, if all goes according to plan, that we'll release the books at a faster rate than The Demonata, and they'll probably be cheaper too -- hurrah!!! But such concerns are a long way off at the moment -- the series is still in its infancy. Right now I just want to get the first draft in the bag, have a think about where I want to go next with it, and see where the story takes me.