A small interlude before I begin: sometimes you can be in a good place and able to do good things from that place. Today, my buddy James Sherry mailed me a CD by a band called innerpartysystem. I'm not saying that they're going to be the next big thing, but they might be. You know those press stories where they say 'stay away from drug X - it's a one hit, no shit killing machine' - that's kind of what they're like. Don't Stop has a huge, massive sound with an even bigger chorus, so this is just a courtesy call in case you fancy a ride on my bandwagon - you can check them out at www.innerpartysystem.com - those with good memories and/or good taste need only check out the back catalogue of Gravity Kills to know where I'm coming from. Le Fin.

Meanwhile, back in the jungle, I haven't heard from my talented lazy-ass artist friend Ian for a while but this morning - far too early for me to believe it was him - he mailed me this beautiful snippet of news from bbc.com about an ex-copper who has just scored himself a publishing deal with an £800,000 advance attached for his new crime series. This restores much faith in the publishing industry in my head because only a couple of hours prior to that I found out about - and was strongly considering the pros and cons - the New Writing idea recently launched by PanMacMillan which might also have its advantages.

Now I look at the New Writing project again 24 hours later, I'm not so sure I would go for it. The deal is OK and you can't fault the logic behind it, but it's a bit like being a winner of X-Factor. Why announce a scheme at all? Unless it's for some kind of tax reason that's over my head, it makes more sense to me just just do the deal on the contract and get on with your business. Nobody will look like a charity case or have any stigma attached... maybe I'm being too harsh on it, but I think I would rather publish myself at that point. Still, never say never eh...

Anyway - back to our ex-copper - Matt Hilton (which even sounds like a great crime writing name), kicks off with his debut Dead Men's Dust in June 2009 and far from being jealous, I take my hat off to him. Good on you Sir... may you write for as long as you feel able! Like I said yesterday, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

There is a big update to come but it will have wait until tomorrow... I need a Friday night binge on it...

Clip of the day: The Perfect Drug | Nine Inch Nails