It's been a crazy couple of months, so it's great to be able to have a little time to, as Lucy calls it, chillax. Which I hope is a hybrid of chill and relax, not chilis and laxative. As you can see, I'm currently using my time to think up incredibly funny jokes.

Why has it been so busy? Well, February was almost entirely spent writing. From the 28th of January to the 27th February (my birthday) I locked myself away with my laptop and at the end of the month emerged with the first draft of Furnace 4. It was a crazy, breathless ride and I hope that shows in the book. It is fairly relentless, and gory, but the action scenes are some of my absolute favourites in the series so far – including an insane battle at the end. But of course I can't say any more about that! Julia, my editor at Faber, asked for a couple of minor changes (mainly bits that were too gory) and I've made them, and now the book is with Trevor, the copy editor, who will polish it up. Then it will be on the shelves in October! Here, exclusively, is the cover – it's not the finished version but it's close! What do you think?



I love it!

After one day off I began an Easter tour on 1st March. Now I'd like to blog about this separately, because so much happened, but to give you a summary it involved four weeks, 30 events, 2,000+ kids, 1,000 miles in the car, 11 train journeys, two terrifying flights, a dozen taxis, lots of walking, five hotels, ten full English (and one full Irish) breakfasts! It was all great fun, though. Well, apart from the flights... Thanks to everyone who helped organise this, and everyone who came to listen! I'll blog in more detail soon!

So April has been much less busy, although there has been lots of catching up with things. Lots and lots. But it hasn't all been work. I've ordered a new bathroom, which is awesome as mine is in a terrible (and terrifying) state. You pretty much catch diphtheria every time you brush your teeth. They're coming to install it next month. There have also been a few more birthdays (it's the birthday season in our family), including my littlest bro Matthew. Here he is blowing out the candles on his cake!



The next big birthday is Lucy's later in the month. She's going to Laserquest which is so cool! I can't wait! The weather has been getting a little better so we've been spending a fair bit of time at the park, especially as Lucy has a brand new bike. And we even ventured to the beach this week, although it was freeeeeeezing! We had an awesome game of pirate crazy golf in Yarmouth. Well, awesome except for the fact that Jamie beat me!! Lucy kind of won the day though as she managed to get a hole in one.

Anyway, that's kind of what life has been like so far this year. I'll be throwing myself into Furnace 5 very soon as the deadline for it is the beginning of June. It's going to be really weird writing the final book in Alex's adventure, especially as I don't have a clue what's going to happen to him! Keep your fingers crossed for a happy ending...

I'm also working on an exciting new project, a publishing company called Inkling Studios. It's something I'm setting up with Lynsey and Lucy, and although it's still in its very early days it should hopefully be great fun! I've put the logo below, and I'll tell you more about it soon!



But first, a couple more days of chillaxin'!