Good day to you, gentle reader, and rejoice! For on this day the 3rd part of my Shadowkings trilogy, Shadowmasque, is published in paperback for the not-at-all burdensome price of £6.99. I urge you to go forth and buy it in the thousands, just to help me defy the trend of decreasing sales that all trilogies seem to bear.

On a lighter, yet somehow aggravating note - Michael Gove, tory MP for Surrey Heath, has been looking down his impressive conk at we in the SF and fantasy community (as reported in this months Ansible). While speaking to John Humphries on Radio 4 he opined:

"I think in the same way there are things that men can read which can send out signals which are deeply, I think, unattractive to women.' John Humphries: `Such as?' Gove: `Well, sci-fi and fantasy. I think if you're the sort of man who's reading one of those lurid books with, sort of, triple-breasted Amazonian women on the front cover, and inside it's all about swords and sorcery, and so on, then I think what you're communicating to any woman is that you're still an adolescent."

Such wit! Truly, it is clear that it is with this staggering grasp of modern culture (as well as his talent with the razor-sharp put-down)(not to mention his fearless approach to alienating sections of his constituency) that has got him where he is today. I urge all my readers to go immediately to his website - www.michaelgove.com/index.php - where may be found his email address. Of course, anyone thinking to contact the redoubtable Gove should not, I repeat, not begin their missives with the likes of `Dear tertiary syphillis victim` or `Hey, Brain-donor!`. I positively insist that this would be contrary to the art and and spirit of cultured, courteous dialogue.

TTFN!

ps - must speak to Simon&Schuster art department about triple-breasted amazonians for next edition....