No, I haven't taken up darts. Where I have scored - or rather, where my books have scored, I'm happy to say - is over on authonomy, Harper Collins' online community for authors and readers. Twice in the space of two months, a book of mine made No.2 in their book chart. And I'm proud to say that made yours truly the FIRST EVER AUTHOR to 'do the double' and have TWO books successfully hit the Harper Collins' Editor's Desk and win those highly coveted Gold Stars.

First was my sci-fi comedy, *Evil UnLtd*, (TM) in the October chart. The Harper Collins crit was favourable indeed, speaking highly of the writing - but they didn't go so far as to pick the book up, as they didn't feel there was a market for science fiction comedy. Well, there are other publishers out there who will see things differently, of course, when they've had a chance to read what's on offer. So, far from undeterred, I took their assessment of the quality of the book as hugely encouraging and am even commencing work on Volume 2. With its ensemble cast, it was always intended as an ongoing series. Heck, *Evil UnLtd* (TM) is more than that, it's a brand. For the time being, you can still read the sample as posted on authonomy. Just click on any of the links or on the book cover above.

The second (December) star was won by my kids' book Kip Doodle And The Armchair Of Lost Dreams, which came in at No.2 when the clocks struck midnight on New Year's Eve. So I had two reasons to quaff my champagne as we moved into 2009 - and *Kip Doodle* (TM) now awaits his verdict from Harper Collins. Hopefully we'll hear what they have to say before the end of this month. For what it's worth, the comments from readers have again been overwhelmingly positive with, most importantly of all, a wonderfully encouraging response from children who've read it. Again this is only the first book in a series, so of course it's my hope that before too long it'll be out there in the bookstores for kids and adults alike to enjoy. Meanwhile, the sample is also available to read over on authonomy.

Whatever Harper Collins has to say about *Kip Doodle* (TM), these books - these series! - will be published and will be available in bookstores and online. On that score, have no doubt.

As with a dartboard, it's only a matter of time before you hit the mark. Not that I'm throwing darts at publishers, only books. But if you'd like to check out the quality of the 'arrows', then please go see for yourselves - have a read and by all means let me know what you think.

I will be posting more samples of my works on authonomy at some point in the near future, and have already posted a Young Adult fantasy novel of mine. These books won't be chasing stars, they'll just be there for the feedback - invaluable to a writer, as I'm sure you'll appreciate.

There's other news too, of a rather exciting variety, but unfortunately that I can't tell you yet. That and more, I hope, in the next News bulletin!

Watch this space.

September 2008

Authonomy!

In the interests of self-promotion and in the interests of promoting awareness of what is basically just a good idea, I'd like to tell everyone about authonomy. It's a platform/online community for authors to air and share their works, developed by Harper Collins, allowing authors to upload all or part of a given book and any registered members to read and review them, offering helpful comments and criticisms and/or recommending them to friends. And as an added bonus, Harper Collins will actually consider the top five reads at the end of each month. So naturally it serves me to announce that I've posted a third of one of my novels on the site, but more than that, as I mentioned, I just happen to think it's a neat idea. And I recommend my author friends to go upload some work of theirs and give it a whirl, and recommend my reader friends to go check it out and see what's on offer. And if anybody happens to read my modest sample of sci-fi comedy, (the link to which should work once you've registered at the site, but if not search for the works of one 4dprefect) well, so much the better! Hopefully, I'll be uploading more of my work there as time goes on. Watch this space - and, er, that one as well.

Coming Soon

SHELF LIFE is a short story anthology for charity, in memory of Craig Hinton, friend and fellow Doctor Who author, who passed away in December 2006. My own contribution to the collection, Crawlspace, is a story featuring the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), and was originally written to be read at the Los Angeles Gallifrey convention (2005) at a round table discussion chaired by Craig and myself. Neither of us got to read our respective stories out - we were having far too much time chatting and laughing. Great fun, good memories and when it came to submitting a story for the collection Crawlspace came readily to mind as the obvious choice. The anthology, edited by Jay Eales, Adrian Middleton and David McIntee, is due for release soon and the proceeds will be going to the British Heart Foundation.

Also, for those who enjoyed Fright Night: The Shrieking Stones (published by Puffin and written by yours truly under the unassuming pen name of Steve Rogers), the second book in the series, Fright Night: The Howling Castle, is due for release in September. Well worth watching out for if you have kids and, some would say, even if you haven't.

Further news on both of these and who knows what else as and when there's, er, further news.

March 2008

So March is already upon us and as I mentioned before, I have this pseudonymous children's book now out - Fright Night: The Shrieking Stones, allegedly by Steve Rogers but actually by yours truly. Go buy your copy now and who knows, maybe you'll get a mention on my blog. Of course, that might be under an umbrella name of, say, "all the wonderful people who rushed out and bought my book", but imagine if at the end of movies they credited every person who watched them individually. That would just be madness. As an alternative, feel free to post comments to the blog if/when you get a chance to read it.

Anyway, I've had a chance to read the finished article myself and I can recommend it. But then, of course, I would say that. On the other hand, I'll say it even louder when it's my name on the cover! :)