I was tempted to channel Jack Nicholson and say “I’m Baaack” but I’ve got horror author buddies who’ll use that one, so it’s me, Ish, back after four months absolute silence. Well, not quite, I do talk outside the net so it’s just a matter of on here I guess.

I’ve been taking a rest (well-earned is not quite the phrase, more like well-scammed) from everything civilised to spend time scrabbling around in the dust and flies in another country and, to be honest, that was the best thing I could’ve done. That time away from news and stress helped no end, scarpering before the election at home was even better, and no one where I went uttered any of those discouraging words (“which ones?” you ask, “Musk and Trump” I reply) so my blood pressure fell through the floor.

On the negative side I missed the launch of Diathesis. Truth be told, the chances of me flying for 22+ hours to get to Dublin to physically attend were close to zero, and the chances of a video hook-up being successful from where I was only a little better, so I’m not convinced it made any difference. By all accounts it went well, the books are selling, and if you want the hardback, limited edition you’d better darken the doorway of a UK bookseller soon or get in contact with my publisher. Excuse me for a little bit of a gloat here, but Diathesis has also recently (yesterday) been thrown into the mix for this year’s Aurealis awards (the Aussie equivalent of the Hugos, but without the cool trophy or glitz) so things are looking good.

Progress on draft 2 of Diaspora (the third volume) has started, albeit only to the 35,000 word mark but it’s a start. I tossed up that or starting on Deceit (the fourth volume) but feel it’s better to get my head into the flow again than really stuff up draft one. On top of this, it appears that Death (the second volume) is on the books for a March/April release next year, so I’m expecting to spend some time going through my publisher’s ‘suggestions’ in the coming months.

Ok, that’s it, just wanted to make sure some signs of life were being sent out. Ciao.