Hi Guys

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to let you know that I’ve put up a little Christmas present for you all.  It’s a (very) short story that I wrote for Puffin Post magazine a few months ago that details a little bit of HIVE’s lost prehistory.  Hope you all enjoy it!

Taking Wing

Just a quick post to wish all visitors of the blog a merry Christmas and to post some fabulous character art that I’ve been sent by a fan of the books.  She’d like to remain anonymous but if you want to contact her to tell her how brilliant you think these are you can mail her at eve2782@web.de

Check these out!

At last I have been freed from the cupboard under the stairs now that Rogue is finished.   Just the editing to do now!  Let’s hope that there are plenty of spare commas in my editor’s desk drawer……

I’ve also been really busy with a series of school visits all around the UK and Ireland to help promote Dreadnought.  All of the events have been really good fun but it is nice to be home again and now I can get cracking properly on the sixth book.  That’s if I don’t get too distracted by all the preparations for Christmas.

Now the really good news!  It looks like we’ve finally sorted out getting the rest of the series published in America!  I’ll have more details soon but it looks like all the people who’ve had trouble getting hold of the rest of the books on the other side of the water might finally be able to find them in the shops.  I don’t have release dates yet but as soon as I do I’ll let everyone know.

Here you go!  Hope you all like it.

A couple of things to mention that I thought you guys might be interested in.

First off, the lovely people at Bloomsbury have set up a new site for the HIVE series.  It looks great and you can find it at http://www.hivehub.co.uk/

I especially like the Evil Laugh Generator

Bloomsbury and WHSmith are also running a HIVE competition at the moment which you can find at  http://www.bloomsbury.com/hivecomp/

The prizes include an iPod touch, signed copies of the books and even a chance to have some bloke who looks a bit like me come and visit your school.   UK residents only I’m afraid but go along and enter if you fancy a chance of winning any of that stuff.

Rogue is coming along well and I can almost see the possibility of a life outside the cupboard under the stairs in the foreseeable future…

Cheers

Mark

Afternoon all!

Just got back from my trip up to the Edinburgh festival and then Seven Stories in Newcastle.  All three events that I did were really good fun and I’d just like to say a big thanks to everyone who was involved with organising them.

On another note, as some of you may have already found out, copies of Dreadnought have started to appear in the wild.  Some have shipped a bit early from Amazon and there are even some in bookshops around the UK.  So if you do pick up a copy drop me a line or post on the forum and let me know what you thought!

And finally, the more observant browsers of Amazon may have noticed we’ve settled on a title for book five.  It’s going to be called “Rogue”.  Hope you like it…..

Mark

No, that’s not a Portal reference, it’s just me letting everyone who visits the site know that I am, in fact, still alive.  I’m working really hard on HIVE book five at the moment and while there are occasional forays into the outside world to top up on biscuits and coffee I’ve not had very much time to update the site.  I am still regularly checking in on the forums though, just to make sure that the expected level of harmless lunacy is being maintained and I’m happy to report that so far everything is still satisfyingly deranged.

Right then, back to the cupboard under the stairs……

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I’m once again hooked up to the digital IV of the Internet.  We had a great holiday and I’m feeling recharged and ready for the big push on book five.  All I need now is coffee and biscuits…..

We’ve also come back to traditional British summer time weather which is currently taking the form of a persistent light drizzle.  I miss the sunshine ><

I’ll be trawling through my mail and the new posts on the forum over the next couple of days so if you’re waiting for a reply from me on something you should hear from me soon.  I’ve also just finished checking the final proofs of Dreadnought and I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks of it come September.

Right, coffee…..

Just a quick post to let you know that I’m going to be “Away From Internet” for the next week or so.  When I come back I’m planning to do an update on all this cool HIVE art that’s been popping up on the forums so if you find any more post a link to it and I’ll try to include it in the update.

See You Soon!

Mark