So we’re about to move house, and things are pretty much in disarray, and there’s a ton of jobs to be done (boxing up books, taking down pictures, Polyfilla-ing holes in the walls, oh, and getting that mortgage secured) but I thought I’d squeeze in one final news update before the chaos begins in earnest.

First off, Telos publishing have at last come up with the deluxe hardback edition of Shrouded By Darkness, the anthology edited by Alison Davies which has a story of mine, ‘Cutting Criticism’, in it and which is already out in an equally attractive paperback. This is not only a beautiful-looking book, with a host of quality stories, but the profits are going to a worthy cause, so that’s all the more reason to rush out and buy a copy.

Across the Channel, there’s now a mass-market paperback edition of the French version of Days doing the rounds. This is the spooky-but-rather-nice cover, appropriately dollar-greenish in colour:

I’ve yet to see a finished copy myself (hint, hint, Mr French Publisher) but this image really works for me, and also seems to be working for the Gallic public, as the book is selling like gâteaux chauds over there.

Now, I was Amazoning myself the other day, as one does when one is an author, and found several curious listings under my name, which I thought I’d share with you.

First off, it would appear that I’ve been writing for a very long time indeed, judging by the fact that The Guardians Volume 3, by James Lovegrove, has a publication date of April 1st 1920 and is categorised under the subheading “Antiquarian, Rare and Collectable”. Rare is the word for it, given that it came out 45 years before I was born! Mind you, that actual day of the year mentioned has a kind of fishy ring…

Then there’s a novel I’m supposed to have co-written, Nevada Blue, which is in fact by John Tilsley alone. How my name has come to be attached to it, I’ve no idea. The only reason I can think of is because it was published at exactly the same time as the first edition of Days, under the same imprint, and somehow, by some process of literary osmosis, I’ve managed to take half-credit for it. I’m sure it’s an excellent book. Just please don’t think I had any input into it.

A rather smart-looking cover for the second in the Guardians series, Berserker, would appear to belong to an American edition published by TV Books. I like the acid-green hand leaping out at you. As far as I’m aware, though, this artefact doesn’t exist. If it does, nobody ever sent me a copy.

Also listed are two editions of The Kuczynski Verifications, the sequel to Provender Gleed that never actually got written (or rather it did, the first hundred or so pages, but I abandoned it because I didn’t, and don’t, think it was any good). Mind you, the book’s not due to be published till 2008, apparently, so there’s still time for me to get cracking…

And with that, I shall leave you, to return to the world of packing cartons and dismantled furniture. With luck the next update should see me and the family ensconced in a better place. Or Eastbourne, at any rate.