It's Finally Official

So, it's true - it still doesn't feel like it, and I've had a couple of months to digest it - I've sold three books of a series called Death Works to Orbit UK, US, and Australia. The first one called Death Most Definite will be launching at World Con in Melbourne next year, the second around Christmas 2010, and the third around Easter 2011.

I've got a lot of work to do, but this is a series I've been chipping away at for years so the groundwork is pretty much laid. It's bleak, it's funny (I hope), it's Australian, and it's about my favourite obsession: Death.

I promise I'll provide more details later, but the next year is going to see me hunkered down and writing. There'll be a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and a considerable amount of beer.

Thanks to Marianne de Pierres, who kicked this book out of me* ( I swear it would still be just a couple of chapters if she hadn't pushed me to finish it) and Deonie Fiford who helped me beat a rough first draft into shape. Oh and then there's my family ROR - best writing group ever! And Diana, always Diana because she has to put up with me wandering around the place in a vague state of writerliness, instead of out in the world earning money, and she's never complained once.

So, yeah, that's my news. Me and Orbit, how cool is that?

*and who I don't think gets nearly enough acknowledgement for all the wonderful things she's done for a lot of Australian SF writers. She's amazing, and I'm lucky to count her as not only a colleague but a dear friend