There were a few times when I thought I wouldn't make it - that I had bitten off more than I could competently chew on but about an hour ago, I finished a first draft of The Family of Noise.

Now it's time for the hard work of getting it out into the sunshine. Updates to the pilgrims progress will be made here of course.

In the meantime, I'm definitely going to self publish The Day The Sky Fell Down because I'm not holding my breath when it comes to any kind of deal over a short story collection and sometime around the end of June, when that's complete (I still have a few stories to wrap up before that's ready), I'll move on to the next novel. That's currently called Misty Mountain Hop but we'll see how that pans out as a working title as I move along with it.

Also in the pipeline is an easy job of writing an introduction for my friend Dirk Behlau's new book - I don't know when it's out but he's a superhuman whizz at letting the world know about his work, so chances are you will know even before I do - I'll post when I know more.

This week however - before the rough and tumble of three 20 hour days next weekend - I am most definitely going to take two whole days off from absolutely everything and spend some time with the real family of noise and walk that dog until we can't walk no more.

Expect pictures.

Meantime - I just posted a new story over in Dirty Realism: This Means War (I) which suggests that there will be more from the war in the future... which there will be.

Now, back to slobbering over just how great Tobias Wolff is and cooking. Tonight, it's fajita's created in the fiery pits of hell. I know you're jealous...