…asks someone via Formspring (immediately creating a sense of polite dinner conversation that goes some way towards eradicating the atmosphere created by the previous question 'how big is your cock?').

Until this week I really haven't been able to discuss it due to the usual boring wait for contracts to be agreed and signed. If anyone ever writes a dictionary of writing terms the word 'contract' shall be defined as 'paper argument often completed long after the book it relates to has been finished'.

Finally two projects for 2011 have been scribbled on, however, so I shall reveal them. The first reunites me with Lee Thompson, King of Design and sees me playing with that whole 'Facsimile Antique Guide Book Based on a TV Show' thing which is the smallest sub-genre in publishing and one that will soon become known as Those Adams Books. It's called The Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard Manual and is, as you might expect from that title, based on the old sitcom Dad's Army.  I'm sure you can imagine what it will be like all too well, a lovely retro design filled with my silly words (overseen by show creators Perry and Croft as is right).

The other project is one of those "can't believe this is actually my job" gigs. Titan Books have been reprinting Sherlock Holmes pastiches for a while under "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" banner. Well, this autumn they will dabble with an entirely original Holmes novel, mine. With yet another following in 2012.

I can't begin to tell you how excited about it I am but I'll blog about both books as I go.

The rest will have to wait for more paper and more signatures.

Gx