3 ... 2 ... 1 ... LAUNCH!

Major conventions are events that see a good number of books being launched, and British FantasyCon -- staged in Nottingham next weekend -- is no exception. And I'm very pleased to be able to say that I have work in three of them this year.

I've already mentioned Never Again in the previous entry in this blog. It has a terrific line up including Lisa Tuttle, Joe R. Lansdale and Ramsey Campbell, as well as many of this country's rising horror stars, and all the proceeds from the book are going to charity.

I don't know why I've not tried out The Black Book of Horror before now ... it's the natural successor to the old Pan and Fontana Books that helped launch my career in the first place. But I put it right this year, with editor Charlie Black accepting 'The In-Betweeners,' the fourth of my tales set in the fictional town of Birchiam-on-Sea on the southern coast of England. (The others, if you're wondering, are 'The Waiters,' 'Birchiam Pier,' and 'Pages from a Broken Book,' and they can all be found amongst my two current collections with Dark Regions Press). The terrific cover, by the way, is the work of Paul Mudie, who was the artist behind the covers for two of my own earlier collections, Passport to Purgatory and No-Man and Other Tales.

Non-fiction rears its prosaic head as well, in the form of a contribution to Cinema Futura, a book full of writers like myself talking about their favourite science fiction movies. So ... much signing, much celebration. It's going to be a busy and a fun weekend.