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And I'm back...
Did you enjoy that little break from me? I bet you didn't. I bet you were distraught. I bet you cried yourselves to sleep at night, hoping and praying that your Golden God would return and deliver you to a world of marvellous brilliance. Well, you can stop praying, for here I am.
Christmas this year was nice. It was slightly hampered by the dreadful weather, so we didn't get to visit one half of the family, but they're the evil half, so I didn't care that much. Christmas day was spent with my nieces babbling incoherently. Both of the twins have recently learned to crawl, so that added a hint of danger to proceedings. It was highly amusing watching them propel themselves across the floor, with no real sense of direction and no obvious form of braking.
The weather cleared up a few days later, which meant I could now buy some comics, which was nice. As usual, I spent New Year's Eve writing. The fact is, I've been hugely busy this holiday season- I'm now up to 50,000 words, roughly half of the way through Book 6.
I really didn't think the writing would flow this easily, but I'm really grateful that it is. By the looks of things, 2011 is going to be a busy year for me. Obviously, we'll be looking for a new home for the Skulduggery movie, so that will take up some time, but even without that there are a couple of film projects that might be happening which don't have anything to do with the books. Very exciting, very cool, but good golly they'll take up a lot of time. I think my brain, the wonderful sponge of messiness that it is, realised that I needed to write faster than usual in order to fit it all in, so it's being as accommodating as possible. Thank you, brain. Sorry for the hurtful words I said this morning. I really didn't mean them.
Oh, but before you get any ideas, the fact that I might be finished the book earlier than planned does not mean it'll be published sooner- sorry! We're still on track for an early September release, and that's unlikely to change. I'll look into the possibility of releasing extracts throughout the year, though, to make sure you don't miss ol' Skul-man TOO much...

Here is a photo of a kitten.

What a wonderful way to start off a post, eh? I'm going a little nuts here, all this snow is sending me a little bit around the proverbial bend. I'm doing a little work, although not TOO much on the run up to Christmas. I'm way ahead of schedule, though, and having a blast.

I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done, too. Well, most of it. Laura's present is being shipped over from the UK tomorrow, hopefully- that is, if the weather doesn't close the airports again. That's the only worry I have this year.

Every Christmas Eve, Laura and her sister Katie come over and we all sit at the kitchen table and they babble on in this weird sister-talk thing of half-finished sentences and references to things I know nothing about, and then we exchange presents. My presents to them are always AWESOME. Their presents to me usually consist of a jar of boiled sweets.

Oh look, here's one of my doggies!


Where was I?

Oh yes, Laura and Katie. So that's the tradition, that's what we've been doing for the past few years. I have Katie's present already bought and ready to hand over, so I'm just hoping that Laura's gets here in time. Also being shipped over are the presents for my mother and my sisters, but it's Laura who's the important one. The others will understand if their gifts arrive late. Laura is the only one who will look at me with those eyes...

Speaking of eyes, look at this! I'm fairly certain a reader in Australia (or possibly New Zealand) brought these to one of my events back in... in... well, whenever I was over there.

Check it out! It's Skulduggery and the Grotesquery!



Which reminds me- I'm going to read ten pieces of fan fiction this Christmas, just to spoil myself. So if you have any favourites out there, let me know- and yes, you may suggest your OWN fan fiction, it's not as arrogant as it sounds...

These pieces would, preferably, be on the shorter side. Obviously, I'm not going to be reading huge multi-part stories, because that would mean I'd have to miss Doctor Who on Christmas Day, and that is NOT going to happen AGAIN.

And look! Another picture! This time of a some truly odd people dressed as Skulduggery characters!


And LEGO SKULDUGGERY AND VALKYRIE!



How are you guys going to be spending Christmas, by the way? We're doing some of our visiting on Christmas Eve, then the second half of visiting Christmas Day, and then mmmmmmm dinner...

After which, my cousins will be coming over to my parents' place, and we'll all play a game and eat turkey sandwiches. It's my job to pick a new game every year. We started off with poker, then decided that was clearly too grown-up for us, so this year we'll be playing Pictionary- the game of kings.

And these three little ladies will be joining the Landy clan for their first ever Christmas. The twins are dressed as the most coolest character EVER in the world (and being held on the knees of people I have never seen before), and little Sophie is dressed as some kind of... er... pumpkin... thing...



These pictures were obviously taken at Halloween.

My sisters do NOT dress their children like this normally.


Honest.


If I don't post again by Saturday, then a big Merry Christmas to all my Minions, my Munchkin Army, and my Ninja Leprechauns. For those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, you all get a big cheery wave and a slightly awkward expression.

I will write again soon, if only to tell you what astonishingly disappointing present I get from my sisters this year...

Sorry for the title of this post, I just wanted to make sure that none of you start believing a story that's been reported in the papers saying that Johnny Depp is going to play Skulduggery. This is, to say the least, not true. The movie rights are back with me for the moment- meaning they aren't attached to any studio. Basically, I'm far too busy with Book 6 to even consider a Skulduggery movie right now. But who knows when I'll have news for you?

(And just to make sure, that was NOT a sly way of hinting at upcoming news, because there IS no news! None!)

Okay then, here is the LONG list of UK cinemas in which the book trailer will be appearing. It'll be shown in the pre-film adverts- so it won't be part of the movie trailer section- at selected showings of Harry Potter and the new Narnia. We can't give specific performance times or dates, unfortunately, so all you can do is HOPE that you pick a screening over the next two weeks where it'll be shown...
For those of you who won't get a chance to see it on the big screen, you have my commiserations. If it makes you feel any better- even I won't be able to see it in a cinema. How much does THAT suck?
But for those of you who DO get to see it, come back here and tell me how it looks, okay?


MIDLANDSBirmingham VUE Birmingham AMC Broadway PlazaBirmingham (Erdington) ShowcaseBirmingham EmpireCoventry ShowcaseDudley ShowcaseWalsall Showcase
LONDONThurrock VUE  Acton VUE Watford VUE Harrow VUE North Finchley VUE Dagenham VUE Finchley Road VUE Shepherd's Bush VUE Staines VUE Croydon (Grants) VUE Islington VUE Fulham Broadway VUE Romford VUEWood Green VUEWestfield VUE London Piccadilly ApolloWimbledon HMV CurzonChelsea CinemaBluewater ShowcaseNewham ShowcaseBromley EmpireLondon Leicester Square EmpireSutton Empire
YORKSHIREDoncaster VUE Sheffield VUE Leeds (Kirstall Road/Cardigan) VUELeeds (THE LIGHT) ShowcaseLeeds (BIRSTALL) Showcase
NORTH EASTHartlepool VUEStockton (TEESIDE) ShowcaseNewcastle EmpireSunderland EmpireLANCASHIREBolton VUEBirkenhead VUECheshire Oaks VUEManchester (South Quays) VUE (Red Cinema)Southport VUEBury (The Rock) VUEAltrincham ApolloLiverpool ShowcaseWigan Empire
WALES AND WESTBristol Cribs VUEBristol Longwell Green VUEBristol OrpheusBristol (AVON MEADS) ShowcaseBristol (CABOT CIRCUS) Cine de LuxCardiff VUECardiff (NANTGAWR) ShowcaseSwansea VUEMerthyr Tydfil VUECwmbran VUEPort Talbot Apollo
CENTRAL SCOTLANDEdinburgh (OMNI) VUEEdinburgh (OCEAN) VUELivingstone VUEGlasgow East ShowcaseGlasgow (PAISLEY)Clydebank Empire

Remember that little Book Trailer competition we launched a few months ago, with our friends at Waterstone's? Remember, we were looking for a minute-long ad to play in UK cinemas, promoting the books?

If you remember that, you may also remember the fact that we chose not one, but TWO winners- Liam Fitzpatrick and Danielle Drew- and combined their ideas to make the Best Thing Ever In The World �.
Remember all that? Oh I AM glad. Because, drum roll please, the trailer is ready.

The reason that this was a "UK only" competition, and the reason the trailer will only be shown in UK cinemas (take a look on the blog tomorrow and there'll be a list), is simply because Waterstone's UK came to us with the proposal. But does that mean you minions living outside of the UK will never be able to see it? Pfffft. How unfair would THAT be? The fact is, we're putting it online FIRST so that you, my faithful minions, will be able to devour it like the insatiable little zombie-readers that you are.

You're going to need a bucket as you watch this, because your brain WILL melt. That's an official health warning.




If you're having trouble viewing from the blog,

Ahem.

Just a brief note to update you on how the work is progressing. So far, every book has been longer than the one before. The first book was about 75,000 words, and Mortal Coil was over 100,000. With Book 6, I'm planning on continuing that trend, but I don't know by how much.

I've been working away at the first section of the story, the first quarter of the book, dipping in an out of scenes and chapters... Even though, officially, I started this book on November 6th, a lot of things have been taking up my time, so I've really only been able to seriously write in the past week. And in the past week I've written almost 20,000 words. That's roughly a fifth of the book, and I've done it in six days.

I am on a ROLL.

Praise be to me!

And we have a winner...!

On Thursday night, I accepted the award for Best Children's Book of the Year (Senior) for Mortal Coil, to rapturous applause from everyone who loves me. Yes, fine, that means I was applauding myself as I made my way to the stage, but it still counts, dammit...

Here is the beautiful award on my mantlepiece...


I also picked up a SECOND award, for I am THAT brilliant- this time it was for the Book of the Decade thing I won a few months back. Here are BOTH awards on my mantlepiece...


Yes. I have a cool house.

Thanks to everyone who voted- it's because of you, my Minions, that the Skulduggery books do so well at things like this. And I just LOVE getting up on stage and making fun of everyone. Makes me so happy...

And, now that I've remembered how to post photos, I'll add a few random ones...

These are home-made jackets worn by two girls who came to signings a few months ago, one in the UK and one in Germany... Sweeeeet.


And here are two pictures of kittens I used to have, before I found good homes for them...!