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Love Over Gold
29 November 2010

It's been a while, both in terms of updates in general and the front page in particular, so I've finally updated both! You can now see the covers of my latest and upcoming books in all their glory. And speaking of upcoming books, here's the cover for EMPIRE OF GOLD, the seventh Wilde/Chase adventure, which will be published next February...

Also, there will soon be audiobook versions of all my novels up to THE SACRED VAULT/THE PYRAMID OF DOOM - including a new edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS - read by actor Gildart Jackson, who if you're into endearingly cheesy supernatural action shows you may remember as the treacherous Gideon from Charmed. They should be available from Amazon and other retailers starting from December.

Short Shorts
22 October 2010

One of those brief mini-updates this time, to announce firstly that EMPIRE OF GOLD is finished - yes! And secondly, THE COVENANT OF GENESIS has been sold to Longanesi in Italy. See, told you it'd be brief.

Rolled Gold
6 October 2010

Another lengthy break between updates - in which, like a dolt, I forgot to plug the US and Canadian publication of THE PYRAMID OF DOOM last week. So just to remind you, THE PYRAMID OF DOOM is out now in both paperback and ebook format, at all good brick-and-mortar and online bookstores!

Why the long gap? It's because I've been working flat-out to finish EMPIRE OF GOLD... which is now completed! Almost. I just have to add a new scene between Nina and Eddie that I realised was needed, fix some continuity glitches and give everything one final read-through. But then, it will be done!

In the meantime, no fewer than four foreign editions of my earlier books have turned up from Germany, China, Norway and Poland, so here they all are:

And as if that wasn't enough covers, the North American edition of THE SACRED VAULT (published next March) has had a redesign to put it more in the style of the new British look, so here that is too!

New Look
1 September 2010

I've had a break from work for a bit; it was either that or run the risk of having work break me! (Some writers I've met would consider three months to write a first draft as insanely fast. To me, it's infuriatingly slow!) But now I'm feeling recharged and hopefully ready to make the final assault on the still-unfinished EMPIRE OF GOLD. Which, incidentally, I have seen the cover of, and it looks fantastic. So I have to make sure the book lives up to it!

Speaking of covers, here is the UK paperback edition of THE SACRED VAULT, in the new style for the series. I was hoping it would have its world premiere here, but yet again Amazon beat me to it, dammit! It's different, but I think it works really well.

In other news, THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR and THE CULT OF OSIRIS have both been sold to Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm. I'll also be a guest at the Poole Literary Festival on Saturday 30 October. More details to come nearer the time, but I'll be doing a Q&A session and a talk. The subject? Er... again, details to come nearer the time!

Hopefully My New Lucky Number
11 August 2010

Time flies when you're working like a maniac; it's almost a month since the last update! I've been incredibly busy writing THE GOLDEN EMPIRE - it's still not finished, and the deadline is only six weeks away. No pressure! But it's coming along well, so I'm confident that I'll make it. Ish.

But two things spurred me into updating: firstly, the arrival of this book...

...which is the Hebrew edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS. I have to admit, because there was no cover note I at first had absolutely no idea what the language was, or even which of my novels had been translated! It wasn't until I finally found a page at the back (which is technically the front, the book being read right-to-left) with publishing information in English that all became clear. So now I know what my name looks like in Hebrew, which is rather cool.

Something cooler, however, is an announcement that you may have seen on my Twitter feed a week or so ago, but which I can now go into more than 140 characters of detail about - I've agreed a new contract with Headline for a whopping five more books! That will bring the total up to thirteen (hmm, hope my triskaidekaphobia turns out to be unwarranted)... and not all of them will be Wilde/Chase adventures. I've had ideas for different characters and stories for a while, and will now be able to write them. The books will still be action thrillers - I'm not sure how people would respond if I suddenly switched to romantic comedies! - and Nina and Eddie will definitely return for at least a ninth book, and probably more. So I'll be exploding helicopters for some time yet.

It's still early days, though, so nothing has been finalised about the new books. As soon as I have more news, I'll let you know here! Er, eventually.

Ergon-omics
13 July 2010

A trio of slightly belated news stories that I should have run last week but didn't have time (read: was completely disorganised); firstly, THE SACRED VAULT is now out in hardback and trade paperback in the UK, and from what I gather is doing very well! Secondly, THE COVENANT OF GENESIS has been sold to Bulgarian publisher Ergon, so it seems the series is doing well there too. Finally, there's an interview with me in the latest issue of Suspense Magazine, so check it out!

Browned Off
6 July 2010

Thought I'd throw this in; it's Amazon.co.uk's Thriller chart from this past weekend, with THE SACRED VAULT at #2! Awesome!

Just a shame that the book and author combination at #1 is unlikely to shift from that position until, oh, about next March.

Anyway, two bits of other news: the first is that THE CULT OF OSIRIS has been sold to Thai publisher Phoenix, and the second is that Book #7 (at which I'm still pounding away - and anyone who's worked in the same room as me knows that 'pounding' isn't an exaggeration when it comes to my typing style) has at last had its title finalised. It's no longer THE GOLDEN EMPIRE, as it was a couple of weeks back: instead it is... EMPIRE OF GOLD. A slight change, but one that everybody's happy with! Now, to finish it...

Brazilian Trax
25 June 2010

What better way than a cheesy pun to announce that THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS and THE TOMB OF HERCULES have both been sold to Brazilian publisher Record? (Record? Tracks? Geddit? Yeah, I apologise.) Which now means that Nina and Eddie's adventures are available on every continent on the planet! (Except Antarctica, obviously, but I'm sure that should a Barnes & Noble or Borders ever open up at McMurdo, they'll be in stock.)

Meanwhile, from North America, I've been sent the cover of the Bantam edition of THE SACRED VAULT, to be published in the US and Canada on 22 March 2011. Like most of the other American covers when compared to the British ones, it's "the same but different", and I like it!

Work on THE GOLDEN EMPIRE is going well; after exactly a month of writing, I'm at the halfway mark, and the action is about to go crackers in Caracas. Speaking of action, just for fun I asked a friend of mine in Hollywood (who's produced some very successful movies) to put on his producer hat and come up with a ballpark figure for how much it would cost to film THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS, every action sequence included. His estimate: over $200 million, which would make it one of the ten most expensive movies ever made. As he put it, "Yikes!"

Silence Is Golden
17 June 2010

Book #7 now has a title! A working title, at least; it may still change dependent upon my whim and whether or not Headline's marketing folk recoil in horror. But for now and until I announce otherwise, UNTITLED WILDE/CHASE 7 will from now on be known as... [dramatic chord] THE GOLDEN EMPIRE.

While I'm here, I'll show off two new international covers: the French mass-market paperback of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS (which went on sale yesterday) and the German edition of THE TOMB OF HERCULES (which comes out in, er, March 2011. All good things, and all that).

I have to admit to finding the French cover design an unexpected choice - to me it suggests a heartfelt tale of separated lovers more than lost civilisations and exploding helicopters! (Somebody's in for a shock if they pick it up thinking Atlantis is going to be a romantic metaphor for unattainable love...) But the publishers know their market a damn sight better than I do, so it'll be fun to see how things go.

7's Up
1 June 2010

Last week, I started work on Book #7! (Cheers, fireworks, confetti, etc.) At the moment it doesn't have a title (the words 'Gold' or 'Treasure' might feature, though nothing's been decided yet), but everything else is planned out and the actual writing is coming along nicely. Right now, Nina and Eddie are attending the Dinner Party From Hell, which is proving a lot of fun to write because it's so different from the challenges they normally face! Gun battles and explosions are one thing, but getting through this meal without a fight breaking out could prove a lot tougher...

(If you're thinking that a dinner party doesn't sound like much of a way to start an exciting adventure thriller, don't worry - the prologue, which for the first time in the series features one of the main characters in their younger days, kicks things off with a colossal bang. More than one, in fact.)

As for when Book #7 will be published, the hardback and trade paperback are due out in February 2011, with the mass market paperback following four or five months later. But I'm supposed to have it finished by the end of September, so I'd better keep at it!

Pole Star
19 May 2010

A (very) brief international update; the Polish rights to THE CULT OF OSIRIS have been bought by publisher Amber.

Four Fronts
10 May 2010

Things have been busy abroad; here are the covers for the Polish paperback and US large print editions of THE TOMB OF HERCULES, the Italian edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR and the Polish edition of THE COVENANT OF GENESIS.

The planning for Book 7 is now almost complete; just the last couple of action sequences to work out and I'll be ready to start writing. It'll be good to be back!

Turn It On Again
27 April 2010

A quick reminder that the US and Canadian edition of THE COVENANT OF GENESIS goes on sale today!

Very Good Friday
2 April 2010

Well, it is for me, at least, as I woke up to an email from my US publisher telling me that THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR went straight into the New York Times bestseller list in its first week on sale! I also received the cover for THE PYRAMID OF DOOM, revealed here:

If you're thinking that looks an awful lot like the cover for THE CULT OF OSIRIS, that's because it's the same book under a new title, as I will keep on reminding people for the rest of the year. (Seriously, if I go on Amazon.com and see a one-star review from someone complaining that "It's the same book I already bought, what a rip off", I'm going to go to their home and hit them with a fish.)

Development of the still-untitled Book 7 is coming along nicely, but to illustrate just how malleable things are even though the overall plot is more or less finalised, in the last couple of days one character split into two different people, and one of them went from being a Colombian drug lord to a Peruvian Maoist revolutionary. Quite a career change!

Dropping On To Shelves Like Tetris Blocks
23 March 2010

A quick reminder to everyone that THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR goes on sale today in the US and Canada! It's followed on 15 April by the UK release of THE CULT OF OSIRIS in paperback, then back to North America for the Bantam Dell edition of THE COVENANT OF GENESIS on 27 April, with a two-month gap before the UK gets the hardback and trade paperback debut of THE SACRED VAULT on 8 July. It's a busy few months - and it'll probably get busier, as I hope to have started writing Book 7 by the time VAULT comes out...

Is Nothing Sacred? Well, There's This Book...
10 March 2010

I was going to reveal it here first, but yet again Amazon beat me to it. But still, as Buzz Aldrin once said, "Second comes right after first," so here is the not-quite-world-premiere of the cover for THE SACRED VAULT!

In addition, thunking through my letterbox today was the Dutch edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR, making an interesting contrast to yesterday's American treatment of the same cover. (If the title looks a bit "fake", it's because the real book features a rather nice gold foil effect... but like a vampire my scanner has an aversion to reflective surfaces, so I had to use Photoshop to fix what came out as a big black blob.)

With THE SACRED VAULT now almost sorted (I've got one last set of proofs to check before it goes to the printers, which I'll be doing later in the month), my attention's switching to Book 7. I've got a pretty solid sense of the story as a whole, so it's a matter of sorting out the details and answering the thousand and one questions that come up with when developing a book: the most important of them being "Why doesn't the bad guy just shoot Nina and Eddie in the head the first chance he gets?" Once they're all answered (or at least Goodyear Blimped sufficiently that nobody has time to ask them...) I can start writing!

Well Red
9 March 2010

Hot off the press is the North American edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR, which as you can see is very, very red. I think it looks pretty damn good! It goes on sale in the US and Canada on 23 March, so be sure to buy a copy or ten.

THE TOMB OF HERCULES has also been sold to two more countries: Denmark (published by Cicero) and China (published by Global Group).

If You Take A Walk I'll Tax Your Feet
2 March 2010

With the US release of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR coming up at the end of the month, I've done a fairly lengthy interview for The Big Thrill to discuss it and my career in general. Check it out!

And now, a rant. Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs has decided, as far as I can tell solely in the interests of avoiding paper cuts when opening envelopes and/or sheer laziness, that it wants self-assessment tax returns, as required for self-employed types like authors, to be done online. I'm fine with that in principle; save a tree, carbon footprint, yadda yadda. But I'm bewildered (read: driven to an uncharacteristic seething rage) as to why said online system doesn't bother using the ability of a computer to, y'know, COMPUTE things. Like the actual amount of money you're supposed to pay.

Here's a thought: how about, if I make an adjustment to the "payment on account" towards next year's expected tax bill once I have a clearer idea how much it's going to be, the COMPUTER then COMPUTES how that will affect my final bill for this year? Rather than, say, not doing so and then several months later earning me an angry red letter threatening legal action and charging interest on unpaid tax I didn't even know was due. Because I foolishly assumed that the amount I was told was payable was the amount I had to pay. Just an idea.

I wonder if tax-free Monaco'll have me after what I did to the place in THE CULT OF OSIRIS? (One thing's for sure; I'm going to be hiring an accountant to handle all this crap for me in the meantime!)

Three Little Words
19 February 2010

Back from a break (I was thinking about taking a trip to some exotic tropical island, but in the end went to, er, Halifax) with some news: the new title of the novel previously known as THE VAULT OF SHIVA is... THE SACRED VAULT. It's a little different in format from the previous books in the series, I know, but if you were going all Garth from Wayne's World and muttering "We fear change", don't worry - it's a marketing thang, and after five successful books I'm pretty confident that Headline know what they're doing! I should be able to show you the cover soon.

On the subject of covers, here's the 'Chinese Complex' edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS; if the colours look a bit odd, it's because it actually has a funky holographic effect. It looks very cool in person, but my scanner wasn't keen on it!

It's All My Vault
29 January 2010

THE VAULT OF SHIVA is finished! I submitted it to my publisher yesterday, then celebrated with a bottle of champagne. (Hey, after almost five months of solid work, I decided that I deserved it.) I'm now going to take a bit of a break to do all the things I've been too busy to do, like seeing Avatar, reading the new Matthew Reilly, going to the gym, tidying my flat... maybe even taking a proper holiday to somewhere far-flung and exotic, which is something I haven't done since 1998. It'll stop everyone from my agent to radio interviewers telling me I need a vacation, if nothing else!

After that, it'll be on to Book 7 - which at the moment is in an unusual position, in that I know what the personal storyline for Nina and Eddie is going to be, but I'm not yet 100% sure which ancient legend they'll be hunting for! I have some ideas, but they need to be researched, especially as events in Book 7 will directly affect Book 8 (where I do know what the quest will be). Now, I wonder if I can find some gorgeous tropical beach with wi-fi so I can work while I relax...

The new North American title for THE CULT OF OSIRIS has been confirmed, by the way: it'll be published as THE PYRAMID OF DOOM on 28 September. Same book, new title - so if you're in the US or Canada and you've already bought THE CULT OF OSIRIS as an import, don't buy it twice! (Unless you really want to, in which case go right ahead.) It's weird getting used to the new name, but I quite like it: it has the same pulpy, melodramatic feel as a 1970s Doctor Who story.

Just to wrap up, here's the cover of the just-published Danish edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS!

Das Ist Gut!
14 January 2010

Another foreign sale to report: THE TOMB OF HERCULES has been bought by Goldmann Verlag in Germany. I know that'll please my German fans, who have been asking for ages when Nina and Eddie's next adventure was going to appear - the German edition of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS was published a year and a half ago! Hopefully there won't be as long a wait before they can read the next in the series...

Also dropping through my letterbox today were the UK large print edition of THE SECRET OF EXCALIBUR and the Turkish translation of THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS. Covers for your perusal below!

Vaulty Towers
12 January 2010

Another new year, another new news page! Slightly late, I admit, but I forgot to do it the last time I updated. (D'oh!) So here it is, a currently rather short page that will hopefully fill up with exciting stuff as the year progresses. And speaking of exciting stuff, here's the cover for yet another international edition of one of my books, this time the Indonesian version of THE TOMB OF HERCULES.

As for what I'm working on right now, I just printed out the revised second draft of THE VAULT OF SHIVA, which still needs a bit more work - it's too long, for a start, and there are a couple of sections that need rewriting. But it's almost done! The extra work does mean that its publication date will be moving back a little, though - sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping to have Nina and Eddie's latest adventure in their hands on the first of April, but I don't want to rush things and put out a story that I'm not happy with. (Major props to Headline for being both understanding and accommodating!) The new date hasn't been finalised yet, but will probably be in June or July. Also, it's almost certainly going to have a title change for marketing reasons, as will the North American edition of THE CULT OF OSIRIS - I'll announce both new names here when they've been confirmed!

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