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I got a comment from Molly in the previous entry. I started replying to it there, but figured it was such a smart question that it needed its own space. The essence of the thing is as follows:
"Chill out with the violence and blood. Seriously. Mortal Coil changed my life for the better: It made me very sensitive to violence and blood. It scared me to think of Val's life going down the drain like that, along with the lives of others. And so I ask: Why do you do this?"
I haven't really discussed this on the Blog before, so this is my opportunity.
Molly, I'm always very careful not to go overboard with gore. In Playing With Fire, there's an exploding head. I could have gone into tremendous detail describing it, but I didn't- I basically said "and then his head exploded". I like to leave it up to the reader to be as graphic as they want- if they're comfortable with imagining blood and brains flying about the place, that's fine. If they're not, that's fine too. I'm not out to be extreme- that's not what these books are about.
In Mortal Coil, however, there are a few chapters devoted to an autopsy on a living person, and in this I DO go into detail. Why? Because an exploding head gets one reaction- it gets "Ooooh gross!" But that's not the reaction I wanted for the autopsy. I wanted it to be HORRIBLE. I wanted it to be cold and impersonal and just a horrible, horrible experience. In no way did I want any reader to be enjoying reading about this. The problem is, if I DIDN'T go into detail then it wouldn't have had the same impact- there may even have been a chance that it could have been seen as just another wacky adventure this girl gets into.
Violence is a trickier subject, however. For one thing, I hesitate to call it violence. I've always regarded a fight scene that you read or watch onscreen as "action", not "violence". Violence is up-close and personal, and it's something that happens in the real world. Anything we see in a movie or read on the page is simulated violence- which, in my opinion, is action.
But putting that to one side, let's talk about the action in these books. When I started, there was one thing that I wanted to convey whenever I'd write a fight scene- fights HURT. Getting punched HURTS. Punching someone HURTS. Poor Valkyrie has had her leg broken, her hand broken, her tooth broken, her ribs broken... She's had black eyes, burst lips and a bruised body. I'm typing this now and every time I use my right hand, I wince, because my knuckles are busted and bloody from hitting a bag earlier today. I spent this evening applying straight-arm bars and getting straight-arm bars applied to me- and THAT hurts, too. Even the TRAINING for violence hurts.
I have some knowledge of fights, and how it feels to be in one, and it is a thoroughly rotten feeling. Even when you win, you feel sick, because you've just hurt another human being. It is a terrible, horrible thing, to be in a fight. It's not fun, and you really don't feel okay about it afterwards. I train with doormen and bouncers who need to go somewhere to cry after they've been in a fight, simply because they've had to be MORE aggressive than the person they were fighting in order to win. They've actually sickened THEMSELVES. And that's why my fight scenes are the way they are.
Molly, you say Mortal Coil made you sensitive to this stuff, and it scared you "to think of Val's life going down the drain like that, along with the lives of others. And so I ask: Why do you do this?"
Well, to be honest, that is exactly why I do it. I want you to be scared for Val. I want you to NOT want her to be hurt. If the fights were nothing but good fun, if nobody ever got really hurt, if Val didn't run the risk of serious injury every time she throws a punch- then I'd have failed in what I set out to do.
I respect violence. I respect what it can do. I respect the fact that it can change your life. Two guys have an argument outside of a pizza place at night, one of them throws a punch, the other falls and hits his head, slips into unconsciousness, then a coma, wakes up with brain damage. His life- instantly changed. The life of the guy who hit him- instantly changed. Jail. Lawsuit. The sheer GUILT over what he's done.
One moment of violence can change your life, so of course I respect it. Any intelligent person would. So I'm not going to write a book where action scenes take place without consequence. There is ALWAYS a consequence. 
I hope that answers your question, Molly. Now, whether or not you agree with me is totally up to you. I don't want to drive ANY reader away, and I don't want to upset anyone. But the books are what they are, and I am what I am, and I write the way I write. So this is my side of the argument, and I want to sincerely thank you for asking the question. 

85,000 words done.

I'm close. Oh boy oh boy, am I close. I spent today writing the HUGE fight at the end, and had such a good time doing it. It's a fight scene on a scale of nothing I've ever written before. So. Much. Bloody. FUN.

I've got a few more chapters until I get to the ACTUAL end, and then I have to go back and link everything up. There are whole chunks of chapters I haven't written yet, so all of that will probably take another 10 or 15,000 words, which means this book will easily be as big as Mortal Coil, if not bigger.

My deadline is the end of March, so I reckon I'll make it without a problem. Then another month or so of big edits, then another few weeks of little edits, which should take us to May or June. Then we let it sit while we decide on a title, then we get it printed, then we send it out to reviewers, and then suddenly we're in September, and you're holding it in your greedy little Minion-y hands.

If everything goes according to plan, I see no reason why we can't give you a sneak preview sometime in early summer or thereabouts.

I have another few weeks of intense work ahead of me, and then I can go back to having a life. Yayyy!

.... So this can be the post where you continue your lunatic babblings, and the NZ post is for the earthquake topic. Glad to see a few postings from that part of the world...

Hi all,

I know we have a few minions in New Zealand who read this blog, and certainly one or two in Christchurch. Could you take a few moments to write a short comment, just to let us know you're all right after the quake?

Cheers,

Derek

The nice thing about being hard at work is that, at the end of the day, you feel entirely justified in sitting down and relaxing in front of the TV. I have a pile of DVDs I still have to watch, and I'm looking forward to them, but over the past few weeks I've been focusing on TV boxsets. And boy oh boy, have I been impressed.
The first boxset I watched was season 5 of Doctor Who. I'd seen MOST of the episodes when they were aired, but I'd missed a few, so this was my chance to finally find out just what was going on. I seriously didn't think anyone could replace David Tennant- his Doctor was a wonderful creation, with an ego of Skulduggery-like proportions, which is ALWAYS a good thing (in my humble opinion). But Matt Smith arrived and instantly owned the screen. His Doctor is, quite frankly, hilarious. As of yet, he doesn't have the dangerous/scary edge that Tennant's Doctor had, but I'm sure he's going to get there eventually.
Karen Gillan as Amy is simply my favourite assistant. She's cute, she's a redhead, she pouts a lot, and she's funny. And that ACCENT... What more could you want?
A very good start for Smith and Gillan, I think, and while there were some dodgy episodes, most were truly great. I'm so glad I watched this, and I'm so glad that so many of YOU, my Minions, watch this too.
The second boxset I watched only had three episodes in it, unfortunately, but it was so much better than it had any right to be. Sherlock, the new Sherlock Holmes show on the BBC, is just WONDERFUL. Again, we have a main character whose ego and arrogance could rival Skulduggery's, and while Martin Freeman isn't exactly as attractive as Karen Gillan, he makes a pretty good sidekick nonetheless.
And, just when I thought I couldn't be any more surprised with it, I get to the third episode and Moriarty appears, played by an Irish actor called Andrew Scott. Andrew starred in the first film I wrote, Dead Bodies, and he was wonderful in that and as Moriarty he was truly... unsettling.
Sherlock definitely gets a thumbs up from the Golden God.
And the third boxset I watched, the one I just finished last night, was seasons one and two of Misfits. Misfits is a Channel 4/E4 show aimed at an older audience than either Doctor Who or Sherlock, and to be honest I wasn't expecting much. It's about a group of young offenders who get struck by really strange lightning while doing community service, and they gain superpowers.
I loved it. Loved it loved it loved it.
It's fresh, it's fun, it's hilarious, it's addictive. They do good things, they do bad things. They try to cover up the bad things, and they try to avoid doing the good things. Only one of them actually wants to be a superhero- the others find the idea just a little too silly and impractical. I've never been more surprised by a show, and I highly recommend this to, um, any of you who are old enough to watch it. And it's got Ruth Negga in it! Ruth's a beautiful Irish actress who I got to know a few years ago, and she's WONDERFUL in this. The nice thing about UK productions is spotting the Irish actors I'm friends with.
(I went to see True Grit yesterday and Domhnall Gleeson was in it, who was also in my second film, Boy Eats Girl. I almost stood up in the cinema and shouted "I know him!"
But I didn't.)

Ah, the Jitter Girls.
They're quite scary, you know. Scary and unstoppable. Or maybe more creepy than scary. But unstoppable. Definitely unstoppable.
I came up with the Jitter Girls as part of a script that never got made. In fact, it was this same script in which I came up with the idea for the Cleavers, as well. That script had a whole load of ideas, but unfortunately it just wasn't very good. All these madcap ideas didn't cohere into anything resembling sense, so I abandoned the script and started cannibalising my own stuff, taking what worked and using it somewhere else.
Which is why I'm writing about the Jitter Girls, ten years after coming up with them.
January was, basically, a month writing various short stories and whatnot. I had reached the halfway point of Book Six, and was quite comfortable with taking a few weeks off to get some other work done. Well, now I'm back at it, and I needed a new threat for the middle section and I was searching through this magnificent mind of mine and those creepy ol' Jitter Girls just jumped right out at me.
I knew I'd get to use them, sooner or later.
I'm not going to tell you much about them, other than that they are currently giving Skulduggery and Valkyrie quite a hard time. I haven't a clue how they're going to be defeated, either. The way I'm writing right now, it looks like the Jitter Girls are going to kill our heroes and skip off into the darkness. Which, you know, would be bad for the rest of the book.
Oh dear. I seem to have written myself into a proverbial corner.
I should probably get back to work.

Well okay then.
I am back. I have been astonishingly busy these past few weeks, but it's nice to see your conversations continuing in the Overflow Blog. You people sure can yap, can't you?
I finally finished my little tour of fan fiction, and it was a revelation to me. First of all, a quick note about each of the writers I sampled from.
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I loved the opening. It was a very creative way to approach a story, and really worked. The writing itself was very good, with a terrific flow.
Octaboona- ()
Absolutely BRILLIANT writing, and a very unique approach.  Tells the story of how and why Kenspeckle made the Desolation Engine, and includes lots of foreshadowing of future events. So much fun.
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Really nice writing, and the first story to really make me realize the sense of community that has been built up in fan fiction, where you all use each other's characters. Absolutely wonderful.
Lenka- ()�
I loved this one. Really nice interactions, great dialogue, funny jokes. Light-hearted comments will always get a thumbs up from me, and they're not easy to do. Well done, Lenka.
Lizzy - �()
Ah, introducing the mysterious, enigmatic figure of Bone, a thirteen year old girl who keeps the Dead Men on their toes. The whole thing just sparkles with cheek and attitude.
Nicolette- ()
Nicolette reinforces the fact that all of your characters share this private little Skulduggery universe that gets added to with every new story. And apart from that, she's a really good writer.
Dragona Pine -(�)
I could say a few things about Dragona's writing. I could talk about the really funny dialogue, I could talk about Skulduggery's role in the story, or I could forget all that and focus on the really unique way he's come up with for killing vampires. Socks. He uses socks. Oddball.
Darkane Claw- �(�)
Darkane's work is a joy to read. Fantastically funny dialogue, which is a huge requirement for me, and great character interaction. Mightily impressive.
Sarthacus Bolt �()
There's a certain skill to writing a great battle scene, but my God, Sarthacus has that skill.
Leo Sparks � ()
Sometimes, a writer's enthusiasm just leaps off the page (or, you know, the screen) and that is exactly what's happened here. Loved it.
Mary Hiashi-
Mary's writing is quite different. Oblique, one might say. There's a certain dreamlike aspect to it, like a dark fairytale. Really quite beautiful.
Kallista- ()
Ah, Kallista. What can I say? High quality writing, great pace, fantastic atmosphere. And, in a Twisted Christmas part 3, she even has her main character decide NOT to steal a copy of Skulduggery Pleasant, because Derek Landy "deserved the fruits of his labors". Couldn't agree more, Kallista!
I could have read on, and I could have read more from each writer, but I just didn't have the time. I am, as I have said, astonishingly busy, and that's going to continue for a good while yet.
But this was a wonderful experience for me. I had thought that fan-fiction simply meant taking my characters and putting them in new stories. And absolutely, that's a big part of it. But what surprised me was the sheer independence on display. In some stories, Skulduggery only had a cameo. In other stories, he didn't appear. In yet other stories, he wasn't even MENTIONED.
I think it is incredibly healthy for you, my Minions, to continue doing this. I think everyone should write, even if you think you're rubbish at it, because I, personally, find writing so fun and so rewarding. The Minions whose work I've read have really carved out their own corner of the Skulduggery world, and they're exploring their own ideas and themes, not merely taking mine and reinterpreting them.
You're a talented bunch. Your Golden God is proud of you.

You know what today is?

Today is Laura's birthday. She's 23. And how is she spending her special day?

Studying for college exams.

Laura hates studying, she LOATHES studying, and earlier on she apologised to me for being in a grumpy mood. But the fact is, she should be celebrating today- instead, she's feeling miserable. How can you make her feel better?

I think that a few birthday wishes from my loyal Minions may just raise a smile on her face...

Just to let you all know that apart from all the work I'm doing, I'm also reading those ten or eleven fan-fiction pieces I've picked out- and so far, I'm very impressed. What came as a complete surprise is the fact that you really take the idea, the world of Skulduggery, and you run with it, populating it with your own characters.
Really, really fascinating stuff. When I've finished reading the last one I'll make a list of the pieces I've read and give a short opinion on each one. 
There are some talented Minions out there�

My first New Year Resolution:

Learn how to format this damn Blog...