Deep into ‘Shadow’

I passed the half way point in my draft of ‘Shadow’, book 2 of the Dragon Orb series, last week. It’s now officially all downhill to the end of the book! Writing this one is a little more pressured than previous books, as the deadline is really tight. I aim to finish and polish it up by the end of February … which given that I only passed the half way point last week is going to be an impressive achievement if I manage it. I remain convinced I can do it, though I’m probably going to have to burn a lot of midnight oil to get it done. The story has already surprised me a couple of times with unexpected twists that I hadn’t anticipated during the planning stages. This is already turning into a great series. Considering my feelings on writing dragon stories before I started on this series, I’m finding it amazingly enjoyable.

It’s been an interesting start to 2008. First the deal with Random House, Germany for both the Imperial series and the Dragon Orb series, then the BBC interview on the Breakfast Show. I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed not to be able to work in a plug for my books during the brief chat, but it wouldn’t have been appropriate to the interview, so I’ve just got to hope now that they found me interesting enough to invite back as a guest again in the future. But these things usually come in threes, so I’m wondering what’s in store next! There are certainly a lot of exciting things brewing for the Dragon Orb series.

I had a meeting with the Marketing Team at Simon & Schusters this week and they have some great ideas for promoting the new series. I’m looking forwards very much to seeing how those ideas progress during the next few months, because some of their ideas are really quite exciting. More on that soon I hope. One thing I will say is that my tour for the first book in the series will take in some of the east of England. We’re tentatively looking at Norwich, Cambridge, Grantham, Lincoln and York. Nothing is even set in runny semolina yet, but that’s the general plan, so watch out if you live that way - I may be coming to a store near you!