Before we start: How the h*ll is it May already? Freakin’ May? It was Christmas yesterday! The year is almost half over! I need to not think about this, because frothing at the mouth is apparently ‘not nice’. That’ll teach me to write in such hoity-toity cafés. Today marks the reverse monthiversary of my second book!* In English, this means that my second book comes out exactly a month from now**. Interview requests and guest blogs are apparently being discussed, and Plans are Afoot*** for other things related to shouting and waving and going ‘Hey everybody! I done a book! Another one! I done it!’ and so forth, during which posts on here might become more frequent, but also not. I profess that I am a bit nervous about going through the whole song and dance again – when Swords was released I googled myself so, so many times, and went through the thing of getting very down when someone dared have minor criticisms (which were usually true and fair, tbh) – but on the other hand I am quite happy with Blood Will Follow. It needed a fair amount of editing – but then again, it was also handed in as pretty much a first draft, whereas Swords came in at draft seven or so. It’s gotten a lot better, too – and now all that remains is to learn what you lot think of it. I’m well into book 3 and picking up pace – most of it is laid out, but other things are sort of shaking into shape as I go. As I near the end, I can quite understand that my hero Joe Abercrombie wished to have his second trilogy**** outlined from start to finish before he started on book 1. Other writings are by the by – film work rests for now and the Other Thing I’m writing sits none-too-quietly at 23k words, yapping at me to get going. However, the Vikings shall be pushed as a matter of priority for now – ideally I’d like them to be sitting at 25-30k or so before the end of June, which is just about achievable with a fair amount of work and puts the rest of my plans into the realm of plausibility. Those plans, in full: – Finish the Vikings before the end of the year. – Finish the Other Thing before the end of the year. – Write at least one, if not two films before the end of the year. (and I am fairly aware that #3 of those might be a tad optimistic) That puts me in the hole for at least 145.000 words, give or take, before the end of the year, and 7 months to write them in. For those of you playing the home game, that’s 21.000 words a month, which makes for about 700 words a day. This is doable – or thereabouts. If only it weren’t May already… -S

* I had great plans for this blog entry. I really did. But, y’know. If you wish, read it as a post-structuralist comment on the essence of The Absurd. ** As far as I am aware. Pirates may still hijack the book boxes, meteor showers are not unthinkable and apparently Will Self says the novel is dead, so who knows, really. *** I love the phrase ‘afoot’. Logically, this writing session is ‘abutt’. **** Go buy it. The first book is called ‘Half a King’, and the whole series promises to be annoyingly good.