Well, it's been a long time since I last posted on the site, so here goes with some news of what I've been up to. In the main, it's been work (honest). I finished my 8th, and most recent book, TARGET, earlier this year, and it's being released in the UK in hardback on June 18th. It's about a failed writer, Rob Fallon, who witnesses the abduction of an old friend but who, when he goes to report it to the police, finds that no one believes him. Undeterred, he starts to dig a little bit deeper and that's when his problems really begin, as he finds himself the target of a psychotic killer who's protecting a far-reaching criminal conspiracy, of which the abduction is just a small part. The pace is very fast, with the action all taking place over three days, and I'm extremely pleased with it. I'm hoping you will be too, so write and let me know what you think.

Unfortunately, when I graduated in 1991, it was right in the middle of a recession, and after a lengthy spell on the dole, interspersed with a job as a Christmas Tree uprooter (probably my second favourite job of all time after the writing), I found work in London as a computer software salesman and, despite my best efforts, I remained one for the rest of the 1990s.

The thing was, though, I'd always wanted to write- particularly crime books- so I wrote two in my spare time: one in 1995-96, the other in 1998. Sadly, neither was met with much of a welcome (in fact I think every agent in the country rejected number two: a huge gangster tome entitled FINE NIGHT FOR A KILLING).

I'm also going to be doing my very first nationwide book-signing tour to coincide with TARGET's release. It'll be running from June 15th to June 23rd, and the dates are below:

And then, after all that excitement, it's back to work on book 9, as yet untitled. It's a thriller based on a screenplay I once wrote, and which I've since optioned to a UK film company, and something that I've been wanting to novelise for ages. The book starts with a pair of armed police officers bursting into an abandoned building and finding a wounded man, armed with a gun, propped against a wall and surrounded by dead bodies. Wind back eighteen hours and we find out how he and the police officers ended up in this situation. It's another pacy read (perhaps the paciest of them all so far), and luckily, I'm finding it a fast one to write too. Which is just as well, as I'm under orders from my editor to have it delivered by mid September for a January release date, which is going to be my new publishing slot.

And next? Well after that (and after several false starts and abandoned drafts), it will definitely be the third, and potentially the last of the Dennis Milne series. No details as yet but I've got a good plot forming, and I'm planning to be writing it before the end of the year, with a January 2011 release date in mind. No rest for the wicked, eh?