The news of Trent Jamieson’s sale to Orbit has been on everyone’s lips here. Trent says he’s deep in the draft of Death Works book two, Managing Death, and is discovering all sorts of interesting things concerning the machinations of regional managers, and the truth behind Death Moots. ‘Dreadful things await my characters and I’m rushing towards them, eyes half closed, wishing they didn’t have to happen – I’m such a nasty writer, even when I don’t want to be. Gotye’s Heart’s a Mess and Spoon’s The Ghost of you Lingers were the theme tunes to Book One. This book’s playlist repeats are turning out be Killswitch Engaged’s Reckoning and Amanda Palmer’s Another Year – go figure.’

Karen Miller’s The Prodigal Mage has just been released in hardcover in the US and UK. Its sequel, The Reluctant Mage, comes out next year and she’ll be starting work on that in a couple of weeks. She’s currently doing a down and dirty rewrite on the 3rd Rogue Agent novel, Wizard Squared, before it goes off to copy it. That’s due out next year too.

Pamela Freeman is ecstatic to receive an advance copy of Full Circle. The fans who have started a Castings Trilogy page on Facebook can hardly wait until it hits the bookstores.

Glenda Larke reports that the UK cover of The Last Stormlord by has been finalized, and Book Two, Stormlord Rising, is now with the copy editor. When her main Orbit editor, Samantha, remarked that she was on tenterhooks for Book Three, Glenda checked hurriedly checked the due date for submission… Luckily it seems that Sam just meant that Book Two was such a cracking story she’s finding it hard to wait for the conclusion! You can follow Glenda’s musings over at Tropic Temper.

Meanwhile, Sean Williams has been absolutely accruing stellar reviews for The Grand Conjunction. You can drop over to his LJ to read them in full, but here’s a taster. Terra Incognita says: “This is a tale of unimaginable span. … It doesn’t seem possible that a series of books could do or contain more. The Grand Conjunction concludes a grand achievement. Five stars.” Bookgeek says: “breathless space combat and desperate gambits…a truly jaw-dropping piece of SF extrapolation and large-scale thinking”. Sean’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the first ever computer game tie-in novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times hardback list, and is being reissued in mmpb very soon (through Titan). Sean has also written an article over at Death Ray about the joys of juggling original work against the greatest franchise in the world to promote it. Sean recently launched the South Australian Writers’ Festival and will be off to present an award at the 25th Writers of the Future bash later this month. You can also catch him at the WFC in San Jose later this year. And no, he doesn’t sleep!

Though it’s still winter in Queensland, the days are bright, blue and around 27 degrees Celsius. Hard to stay inside when it’s so glorious, but I’m a disciplined writer on a mission (I am!) to finish Transformation Space. September brings a few (work) outings for me though, including The Brisbane Writers Festival and Gen Con Oz. By the time they’re over, I should have a copy of Mirror Space in my hands.

Talk soon!

MDP