Ah, at last I have returned to the Shadowrealm! Bwah hah hah hah!!!

Er, right....enuff cheese. But then again - just watched Big Trouble In Little China on Channel 5, and what a damn fine movie it is, one of Kurt Russell`s best in my view. Snappily directed, immaculately plotted, sparkily acted, jam packed full of humour and action - I mean, it is essentially a bubblegum movie, real pulp stuff, but done with such verve and wit - just great. When I come to write my no-holds-barred, rollercoaster steampunk/everythingpunk novel I want it to be just as entertaining as BTLC, and if I can reach that level it really will be an achievement. And if ya ain`t seen the movie, do so ASAP.

(And if you want to find out more about the movie and some possible sequels, go to -
www.wingkong.net/index.htm - Tell Wang I sent ya!)

Got the contract for my entry in the upcoming collection known as `The Thackery Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases`, a compendium of wacky and sometimes gross examples of esoteric maladies....I`m especially proud of my own, known as Buboparazygosia. As far as I`m aware, it should be out in the autumn from Night Shade Books.

Update on the massmarket edition of Shadowgod and the trade edition of Shadowmasque, the last volume of the trilogy. The former was due for publication in Feb next year (2004) but has now been put back till late spring, and Shadowmasque may not appear until the end of the next year. More information when all becomes clearer.

Promised a few URLs, but they`ll have to wait until the weekend. And then you`ll be sorry!

Adios - Mike C

Greetings, and welcome to the first posting of the Shadowjournal. In this as-frequent-as-I-can-manage chronicle I shall announce breaking news with regard to my writings, which at the moment means the Shadowkings Trilogy, and also indulge a wee bit in other news and views and the occasional vitriolic rant...but in a good way!

So as you`ll gather by now, Shadowkings and Shadowgod are out and being absorbed by my reading public....whom I hardly actually hear from, unfortunately. The first two books of the trilogy basically constitute the story of the Great Shadowking War, while the third book, Shadowmasque, deals with the consequences of the unknown reasons for the end of the war. One reason for writing the story this way was to avoid the temptation to write 3 books, then write another 3 books - I wanted to compress that whole trilogy sequelitis thing into one 3-decker (so in effect, you`ve got a 2-book trilogy followed by a 1-book trilogy - so sue me!). Another reason was to try and avoid the problem of middle-book sag, which is endemic to fantasy trilogies: bk 1 sets up the conflicts and the characters and bk 3 brings it all to a rousing conclusion, while bk 2 is a kind of jostling and shuffling around, setting up the positions for the big battle of bk 3 (and yes, I know that Empire Strikes Back was better than SW, but that was because of directorial expertise, I think).

So anyway, that was the general idea behind the overall structure.....and I`ve been waiting for some feedback from readers as to what they think of it. Of course, it could be that I`ve so gone against the established form that readers aren`t sure what to think. We`ll see.

What I`m Reading

Currently, Deadhouse Gates by Steve Erickson - not what you`d call an easy read, since many of the characters seem disconnected from the 1st book, Gardens of the Moon. That said, there`s sufficient grotesquerie and incident to keep me going. Also, looking over some old editions of F&SF magazine, from 72, 74 and 1980 - wow, what a difference to the magazine today - I mean, they had real, honest to goodness science fiction stories in `em!

Books I`m looking forward to are George RR Martin`s Feast Of Crows (or is it `For Crows`?) - the Song Of Ice And Fire series has been utterly gripping so far and I`m rilly keen to find the consequences of the final chapters of Storm Of Swords. And of course, Yiska, the 3rd volume of the Last Clansman trilogy by Miller Lau, a good friend who has recently returned her native Scotland wherein she shall undoubtedly be creating more dark and mysterious fictions.

What I`m Listening To

For all that I have a very wide musical taste, I find that I`ve been listening to a lot of heavy rock and metal during the writing of the Shadowkings books (mmm, wonder why?), and my most recent discovery is a Spanish band called Asgaroth. They`re definitely a metal band, and quite intense, but they manage to mingle several strains together, goth, black, progressive and doom metal (yes, dear reader, these are all subgenres of contemporary heavy metal), and pile in with that big echoey piano as well. Bags of atmosphere and menace - it`s almost like HP Lovecraft and William Gibson jamming with Black Sabbath in an abandoned cathedral at midnight. Without a doubt, it rocks my world.

Still, I do keep track of other musical entities out there in consumerland, like the new Metallica album, St Anger, which got the big thumbs-up from Metal Hammer magazine but was trashed by Classic Rock. I`ve heard the title track and its meaty and interesting enough for me to want to hear more.

Progressively speaking, there`s a new album out from Spocks Beard, which should be interesting since one of the band`s main songwriters left some months ago to spend more time with God.

Well, that`ll have to do for the moment. Next time, I might mention a few URL`s for sites dealing with current affairs and who knows - you might see me ranting!

best - Mike C