What I'm at...

Between the doom and gloom (weather as well as recession) over here, I've spent the first few months of the year up to my tonsils at work but writing wise, there has been a few things happening that have brought a little ray of sunshine to brighten my day.

First up, my first book has been under option for film and contracts have recently been exchanged to extend this for another two years. This project has changed a lot (and that's putting it mildly) since it was first optioned in 2007. For starters, there is a far bigger project in development in terms of personel, budget etc. than what was first envisioned two years ago. I've seen a couple of versions of the script and all looks great so far. Sorry to sound vague but this is awash with agents, producers, lawyers so at this stage, until it's officially announced, I'm bound to silence! What I can say is that my new contract gives me first option to write the movie tie-in book which, I'm very excited about. Also,the location for filming that is being talked about at this stage, means I won't have too to go to the other side of the world to visit the set. I'm holding my breath and keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this keeps moving forward....

With regard to my three new releases due later this year: The first edit of The Estuary (Permuted Press) is done and dusted but I'm waiting to see if the Boss is happy or if more editing is required. It's a similar story with The HMS Swift Chronicles coming from Ghostwriter Publications this year. I've seen concept art for both covers and can't wait to see the final result. And, I just found out that The HMS Swift is getting a Steve Crisp cover - I'm stoked at this, I can tell you! The third Vampire Apocalypse book, Fallout, is not due out until nearer the end of the year so the editing/cover art process hasn't started just yet. I also have a short story coming out (June) in an anthology, Buried Tales, set in the Pinebox, Tx universe (12 to Midnight) - The Evil Within.

I'm delighted to see that the release of Descent into Chaos has brought about a renewed interest in the first Vampire Apocalypse book in the series and most sales are now of both books at the same time. It would certainly seem that bringing out the sequel introduced a bunch of new readers to the series.

I've two other horror/dark fantasy novels is various stages of submission so it's very much a wait and see game at this stage. I'm also, very slowly, slogging away at my latest book. This is an action/thriller and there's not a vampire or zombie in sight. It's a real challenge for me writing in the 'real' world, so to speak. A lot of the story is set in places as far apart as Beruit and Washington and the present day happenings are the result of the political and social scenes in the 1960's and 70's. So the research is absolutely painstaking! At each writing session, I write approximately a third of what I would normally write when writing horror. The plan was to have this complete by the early summer - I'm nowhere near achieving that...

Convention wise, I had a blast at Phoenix Con in Dublin in March and at this stage, I'm on for Games Fest in the UK in October. Oh, and I'm a paid-up attending member for The World Horror Convention in Brighton in 2010...

Until next time...
Derek