The wonderful author, Mark Lawrence, of Prince of Thorns fame, has been running a competition for the last three years - the Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog Off. It's a competition for... you guessed it .... self-published fantasy books, designed to bring visibility to the best the genre has to offer. 300 books enter (and this year was full within 48 hours of opening to applicants) and then top fantasy review blogs pick their favourites to go through a second round, continuing eliminations until only one remains. I've entered HE WHO FIGHTS this year and, in the first round, its being reviewed by the wonderful people at the Qwillery (http://qwillery.blogspot.com/). It's in a tough group with some excellent books and I've already added a lot to my TBR pile.

I've no expectations and I'll be happy if the book starts to find a new audience in the world.

In other news, I'm progressing with book 2 of my secret project. I always hate the start of new books. There's a lot of frustration in finding your feet and getting the story going. However I'm working with a cast of characters that I know well and I love being back in that world again. It's going to be challenging for me though as it's the most ambitious thing I've ever attempted. I'm also writing a new Nathaniel Rane novella as he hunts for the one who got away at the end of Book 1.

Big day today. I sent off edits on my secret project. It's a big book - 165,000 words and I'm super proud of it. Official news will come out about it in the next few weeks I think...

I've been doing lots of thinking about the next Nathaniel Rane and Jack Frey books over the last few weeks as well. I was going to put Rane on hold until next year and concentrate on Jack Frey and the secret project but Nathaniel doesn't seem too keen on that idea. So I might try and squeeze in a quick novella this month. It will be about the same length as CRY WITCH (approx 30,000 words) and I'll aim for the same vibe - fast, thrilling and fun.

The next Jack Frey book was going to be called CRY HOPE but I think that will now be CRY WAR. The Black Dogs are going to take the fight to the Nostros with Jack and Lin leading from the front. Trouble is Lin has a secret that might tear our heroes apart...

CRY WITCH and CRY FEAR are both coming out as audio books in the next couple of weeks. Read again by the amazing Simon Vance, they are truly fab. Out of everything that's happened, hearing my stories read out is the most surreal experience.

Finally in more amazing news, today I had my 25,000 download of my books . It's incredible to think so many people have read my stories. I am so, so grateful to all of you.