Some guys came to build a new summerhouse where the shed used to be at the weekend. Looks good too - except now there's even more wood to dispose of including a very tall and bushy holly tree that was in the way. All of which looks pretty much like a few days of getting spiked and splintered as I try to reduce it all down to nothing.

I'm looking on this as a good thing. When you have a job that means you more or less sit in the same place all day long, doing the same thing, a spot of manual labour is always welcome.

So, across the next few days, there will be fire.

Anyway, while that was going on, I cleared up some work I had lying around and moved on to some good stuff. I pulled together about 1500 words on a new idea I had, dug out something I've been meaning to dig out for a while, read it through a couple of times and added another 1000 words along the way to bring it to a place I wanted to work on it some more - and that seemed like quite a lot of work in a relatively short space of time.

But that's really nothing more than a public announcement that writing is happening around here and I'm not just sitting around watching re-runs of Lost.

I also realised that in a few days, I'll be in Florence - mostly for a show that's going on out there but there are 24 hours in a day and with sleep only needing five of those, that leaves more than enough time to work on my next instalment of Cities Of The Dead.

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned that project before but it's a long term thing - largely dependent on getting around the world as much as possible and as such, will simply be ready when it's ready. It's a fun one to work through that's for sure. There will be cab drivers, baristas, hotel clerks and plenty of dead people.

Better news posts to follow. Promise.