BLADE: This is my new thriller series. Books 1 and 2 of BLADE will be launched jointly in May this year. Book 1 is called Playing Dead and Book 2 is called Closing In. It's a series that will run over several books with two launched jointly in the early part of each year, i.e. Books 3 and 4 will come out together in early 2009 and so on. The BLADE  books are shorter than my novels (each is about 25,000 words long) and the story concerns a feral boy of fourteen who since the age of eleven has been living in hiding beneath the police and social radar. He has reasons for keeping out of sight because he has a lot of enemies, some of whom are very nasty people indeed. But they're not the only ones who are dangerous. The boy is dangerous too - very. You'll meet him next year.

BLOODCHILD: My next novel is called Bloodchild. It's to be published in September so that means that with the first two books of BLADE coming out in May there will be three books out this year. The new novel is another long book with strong mystical overtones about a village with a terrible secret and a boy who sees too much but I won't expand on this just now. Will share more with you nearer publication time.

AWARDS: I'm proud to say that Frozen Fire has now won five awards: the Stockport Schools Book Award, the Highland Book Award, the Hull Book Award, the Redbridge Book Award and just recently the South Lanarkshire Book Award. It is also shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. These awards are a huge honour to be longlisted or shortlisted for (and even more of an honour to win) so I'm delighted that Frozen Fire has done so well.