Greetings from sort-of sunny Glasgow! Yes, hints of summer are coming and going here in central Scotland, which is a good thing. There`s been too much cold and inclemency recently; time for a bit of sunshine just as we are about to go to the polls to express our collective judgement on the Blair government. And who knows - could be an eye-opener, could be depressing, but at least we the people will get to speak our mind...such as it is.

Anyhoo, so what`s been happening on the writerly front? Well, readers, just a few days ago I received my author copies of the German edition of Shadowkings (published by Heyne) which translates as `Schatten Konige` (try imagining Arnie saying that and you`ll get an interesting flavour). The cover is rather neat, sort of a horseman wielding an axe with a bit of landscape in the background but done in silhouette; hmm, did any of Heyne`s art dept have a wee look at this website, I wonder? And the title lettering is in large block caps with a kind of orangey-red fire effect, all blood and fire kinda thing. Groovy. So now I`ve been published in English, Russian and German; which language suits this dark epic the best I wonder?

Also got my advance copies of Shadowmasque (from Simon and Schuster UK) a coupla days ago and by jiminy it looks damn fine, again with a splendid cover by Steve Stone (to check it out, you can see it on the Amazon.co.uk site). I find myself reasonably satisfied, perhaps even a little proud with this final volume of the saga; I set out to write a fantasy trilogy that was different from most others in the genre, with a 3rd volume set some time after the 1st two, and I think I have achieved that. As to whether readers find it a good tale which answers the mysteries and concludes the epic well....I`ll just have to await judgement in its various forms, not least at the checkout!

The official publication date for Shadowmasque is June 6th, and those of you resident in the Glasgow area and nearby may be interested to know that there will be a booklaunch event for it taking place at Ottakars bookstore at the Buchanan galleries in Glasgow on Thursday, June 16th, at 6.30pm. That`s what has been pencilled in at the moment, so if there are any changes to this I`ll be sure to let you know via this blog.

Okay, that`s all for now. Be sure and vote on May 5th - not only is it your duty as a citizen, it is essential that the democratic process receives as many votes as possible. The only wasted vote is one that is not used.

Take care, y`all.