So what have I been up to lately? My neck in work, is the answer. Mostly I’ve been writing my new opus, BetterLife, which, as noted in my last posting, is to be published sometime in 2010, in French initially, by Bragelonne. And for those who are wondering, I’m not to one who’ll be providing the French, my excellent translator Nenad Savic will. If the Frenchifying was left to me, it’d be a paltry and hobbled work, perhaps about a cat who lives in a tree and eats a bird. Bragelonne have purchased world rights, so BetterLife is very likely to appear elsewhere, including, one hopes, in the land of my native tongue. The story, by the way, is a satire on reality shows and celebrity, and also an enquiry into the nature of luck. So far, 200 pages in, it seems to be pretty violent too. And here’s a press release about it.

And speaking of France, how about this, which was taken at last year’s Salon du Livre in Paris. What’s weird is that when I first looked at the picture, I couldn’t immediately recall having posed for it and wondered whether someone had mocked it up with Photoshop. Then a vague memory trickled into my brain: the Ugly Doll, the book, yes, that was me, I really did that. I’m not surprised the poor little fellow doesn’t like to read much, though. Must be hard with only one eye…

A final last item of France-based news is that Éditions Griffe d’Encre, headed up by the charming Magali Duez, are producing a French version of Gig. Publication date is spring, and Mélanie Fazi is the brave woman who’s agreed to tackle the task of rendering a work based around palindromes from one language to another. Here’s their press release.

On the Blighty front, I’ve recently signed a two-book deal with Solaris for follow-ups to The Age Of Ra. These will be — wait for it — The Age of Zeus and The Age of Odin. Can you see what I did there? Together the three will form a kind of trilogy, although none is a sequel or prequel to any of the others. The links will be thematic rather than narrative. I’ve yet to come up with a catchy catch-all title for the series. At present it’s a toss-up between The End Of Ages Trilogy and The Pantheon Trilogy, and I’m thinking of setting up a phone-in line and charging people a pound a pop to vote for their favourite.

Other than that, we passed a quiet-ish festive season here at Lovegrove Towers, although our two little Christmas-cranked human dynamos had Lou and me up and out of bed by 6 most mornings, and occasionally even earlier.

I’ve also knackered my back, but no one wants to hear about other people’s medical misfortunes, do they?