AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (cover)

Sneak peek of the cover for At the Mountains of Madness from SelfMadeHero which you can find over at their brand new site.

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHERLOCK HOLMES

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

HUZZAH NEW YEAR!!

And now 2009 is the year that was. 2010 is upon us. And Arthur C. Clarke's wrong yet again.

And its been a blast. I thought 2008 was all about big changes?!?! Wow. Hit the ground running at the turn of 2009 with a chunk of the as-yet-to-be-published Hound of the Baskervilles under my belt but with a good solid month and a half of really hard work ahead of me before I turned it in. By this point my wife and I had discovered much to our delight that another baby was on the way and then almost as quickly as work on Baskervilles had ended then work on A Study in Scarlet was underway. In the middle of it all I got to work with Rob Davis on a Doctor Who story for the 2010 Doctor Who Storybook. I had my studio built/converted and I moved in to finish Study in Scarlet. Then just as I finished the book the baby (a boy!) was born!! Not too long after that I learned I'd be doing my first solo book (At the Mountains of Madness) as work began on The Sign of the Four. And right at the tail end of the year CBBC called me in to help with the visual development of a new TV show - So there you have it. 2009 in a nutshell. My feet have barely touched the ground.

And during all this two HUZZAH!! blogs have been rumbling along. There's the main HUZZAH!! which this year has evolved into HUZZAH!! Part 2 (or rather HUZZAH!! VENGEANCE OF VOLDAR) and there's HUZZAH!! NOIR which started back in April and concludes this April. So.... busy busy busy!

New Years resolutions: Well I don't smoke, and I'm a moderate drinker (I enjoy a glass of red wine with a meal and rarely drink beer now... not having hangovers when you've got two kids is a plus), but I do need more fresh air, more exercise. I sit at a desk all day so that'd be the first one. We live a stones throw from a choice of country parks (we even overlook a large recreation ground) so I'm going to be getting those shoes on more often and going out with an audiobook on the ipod and a notepad of course ;-) Also, I cook but I'm not an amazing cook. I want to learn three dishes and learn to cook them amazingly well. Oh and blog more frequently. Naturally.

Roll on 2061.

HUZZAH!! 2009

Finished HUZZAH!! for 2009 late last night with a sprint to the finish line. It's been an interesting year. I think we realised towards the end that this really wasn't a year long self contained story but the beginning of a much bigger story and so it shall continue into 2010. Who knows where it will lead? All that is known is that the backdrop for next year's story is war.

Next year will see a small rule change. Contributors will still have 3 days to contribute, however they'll have up to nine plates they can contribute on their turn. Running HUZZAH!! NOIR slightly later in the year gave me the opportunity to try out the extended page count rule (which allows NOIR contributors to use up eight plates at a time on their turn) and what this gave the story was some considerable clarity and pace. So next year's HUZZAH's story will likely be a different beast to its previous year. Hopefully we'll have a couple of new contributors too.

Don't forget - you can read HUZZAH!! in full from start to finish here.

BE SURE TO PICK UP A COPY OF A STUDY IN SCARLET! OUT NOW!! (EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT GOSH! & PAGE 45 AND 221B BAKER STREET)

A STUDY IN SCARLET! OUT NOW!! (EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT GOSH! & PAGE 45 AND 221B BAKER STREET)

Also, Pimpernel of Pimpernel's blog asked that I put together a top five Christmas gift recommendations list (I went for 5 catagories so you'll 11 recommendations in all). Goes without saying that Baskervilles and Study in Scarlet should be on every gift list... ah-hem...

Do be sure to bookmark Pimpernel's blog, especially if you're a fan of Pulp Adventure, comics Science Fiction, horror and stuffs, as there will be further lists over the next few days from Francesco Francavilla, Guy Davis, and Mike Mignola.

A STUDY IN SCARLET (EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT GOSH! & PAGE 45 AND 221B BAKER STREET)

THE SIGN OF THE FOUR

(The Sign of the Four © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

30 August 1889. The Langham Hotel, London. Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle met for the first time with Joseph M. Stoddart, to discuss contributions to the Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (a Philidelphian publication). The two works these gentlemen would produce as a result of this meeting would be The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Sign of The Four. An account of this 'golden evening' is discussed in Doyle's autobiography Memories and Adventures.

An explanation, albeit brief, with regard to the title as you'll sometimes see it referred to as The Sign of the Four (five-word title) or more commonly The Sign of Four(four-word title). The former is the book's original publication title, the latter being the re-serialisation. As we are given to defaulting to Doyle's original text our adaptation carries its former title (not least of all because that is also how 'the four' is referred to in the text regardless of which edition of the book you read).

Work, as mentioned in my previous post, is well under way on The Sign of the Four. Enough that I should be able to update more regularly with images of the book in production. The book will be out sometime in the spring next year (exact date to be confirmed) and will be followed by The Valley of Fear.

HELLO STRANGER... BABY, STUDY, SIGN & MADNESS

Well, its been a while since I've properly posted. My wife gave birth to a baby boy back in September and since then its been a mix of lack of sleep to begin with and busy schedule as work got under way on the third Sherlock Holmes graphic novel for SelfMadeHero, The Sign of the Four.

A Study in Scarlet is OUT NOW!!! (I heard it would be the 15th of December, but it appears Gosh! have copies already) - However, it is currently only exclusively available in London (Gosh!, The Sherlock Holmes Museum) and in Nottingham (Page 45) before Christmas. The book will have a general release in February.

Also, just to keep me on my toes, work has begun on another project for SelfMadeHero. At the moment all I can show you is this:

My first big solo book! But I promise there will be plenty more of that over the coming new year. I shall hence forth intermitently pop back to update this blog with images from The Sign of the Four as the book works its way to completion in February.

Ian Edginton and I will be doing a book signing at the grand opening of Mondo Comico in Nottingham on Saturday 28th of November.

The store is located at 24 Heathcoat St, NG1 3AA.

DOCTOR WHO?

My initial take on Doctor number 11.

(A Study in Scarlet © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(A Study in Scarlet © 2009 SelfMadeHero)

(A Study in Scarlet © 2009 SelfMadeHero)