Red Spikes is real

I have a copy here, in the flesh. The matching Black Juice and White Time are also real; there is something very attractive about those three spines sitting in a row. (Only happening in Aus so far, folks—I'll let you know when the new one looks like going any further.) Already, Ellen Datlow likes it and has been spruiking it at WorldCon. Already, reading-groups notes are in the pipeline. (Thanks, Robyn!) It's a happening thing.

Apart from that, it's been pretty much nose to the tech-writing grindstone here. Which is a very good situation for sprouting story ideas, but less wonderful for developing them and getting them down on paper.

September will be The Lost Shimmaron month—well, half-month—when I sit down and power through The Singing Stones of Scintillon, the children's novel I'm writing for this seven-standalones series by the wRiters On the Rise authors, to be published by ABC Books.

Meanwhile spring is sprung and Lewisham is getting smothered in that flower that must never appear in stories, jasmine. Another new word you must never use: 'effulgence'. I'm starting to get toey about 'accretion', too. So watch yerselves.