It’s been an exciting year work-wise for me. First, The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Wild hit the shelves. Written in collaboration with my good friend Christopher Golden, this is the first volume in a trilogy. Fox2000 optioned this mid-2010, and the book itself is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever had published, with wonderful artwork from Greg Ruth and such fine attention to detail from HarperCollins. The exciting news just in is that Fox has re-optioned the book, and 2012 should see a lot of progress on this front!

My novel Echo City was released by Orbit in the UK (it was out from Bantam in the USA last year). It’s had a great reception and some lovely reviews, and I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with Orbit. They’re wonderful to work with, and their covers are all works of art. I never understood the true science of book covers until I worked with Orbit.

My 2010 novella The Thief of Broken Toys was nominated for World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson Awards. It won none of them, but I was thrilled with it

being on such prestigious awards lists.

I was a guest at Horrorfind in Gettysburg, and had a great time catching up with loads of friends and making many new ones. It was my first US convention in several years, and it made me realise how much I miss them. Especially the breakfasts. Cake for breakfast. Oh yeah.

2011 also marked 5 years since I’ve been writing full-time, and I took a moment to reflect on whether or not it had been the right decision. A moment that lasted about 6 milliseconds. Of course it was the right decision!

So after such an exciting year, can 2012 be any better? You bet. In fact, it might well be the most exiting year of my career to date. Here’s what’s happening:

February will see the release of The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Sea Wolves in hardback, and The Wild will be out in paperback. And Fox2000 will be progressing the movie of The Wild, of course! These books have also sold in Germany, France, Brazil, and Hungary, so we’ll see releases in those countries too (in fact The Wild is already out in Germany).

In August, my new fantasy novel The Heretic Land will be published by Orbit in the UK.

October will see two releases. Firstly, my huge apocalyptic zombie thriller Coldbrook will be released by Hammer/Arrow in the UK. And London Eye (Book One of The Toxic City) will be released by Pyr in the USA. This is the first in a YA trilogy that I’m just so excited about.

There’ll also be various short stories and novellas, as well as some forays into the ebook market.

Other stuff, equally exciting … I’ve been commissioned to write a screenplay, and more of that soon (when contracts are signed). Mark Morris and I hope to complete our collaborative YA novel in 2012. I’m working on a Top Secret collaboration, and Chris Golden and I are throwing around ideas about what to work on together next. I have a script that will be ready to go out early in 2012 called Hell Came Down, and I’m itching to get stuck into a new script called The Silence, which I’m really excited about. Stephen Volk and I hope to collaborate again next year, too. And there’s also a novel I want to write which … well, I can’t tell you anything about it. It’ll be different.

So that’s a recap of 2011 for me, and a little peek forward into 2012. If you’ve read this far that might mean that you quite like some of the words I write. If you do, I thank you, because I couldn’t continue writing so many of them without your support. I hope you’ll stay with me. Things are getting exciting.

Have a great Christmas, a safe and enjoyable New Year, and let’s have some more adventures together soon.

(coming soon, a personal look back on 2011 … the year I got fit!)

The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Wild (first book the new trilogy by me and Christopher Golden), will be hitting the shelves at the beginning of March in the USA, and there’ll be some exciting promotional stuff going on between now and then.  Watch this space for news!

Stephen Volk and I have finished our first collaborative screenplay, PLAYTIME, and we’re just thrilled with how it’s turned out.

Other than that, I’m still working hard on my new fantasy novel for Orbit.  As yet, I can’t give you a title … but soon.  Soon.

And talking of collaborations, Brian Keene and I are embarking upon Project A.  It is going to be major.  Oh yes.  More soon.

Monday is the second anniversary of my going full time as a writer.  Two whole years, and in that time I’ve done a quite amazing amount of writing, including 5 solo novels, three screenplays, three collaborative novels, some novellas and short stories … and other stuff.  Bloody hell.  Anyway, I’ll be blogging on Monday all about that, talking about what the last two years have been like and what I’m hoping the next two years will bring.

So please check back on Monday.  I might be tired, but we’ll have some fun.