(…A long pause, and then…stuff)

I’m still alive. I know I am because I’m breathing and these are my fingers typing out these words.
Just thought I’d let you know that.

For the past two weeks I’ve been doing stuff. Stuff to do with writing, stuff to do with work, stuff to do with admin/paperwork/promotional work, and obviously family stuff too. The family stuff forms most of the stuff I’ve been up to and Baby Daniel has been a big part of that stuff. He’s been doing stuff like keeping Sarah and I awake, but he’s been doing cute stuff as well, like gurgling, smiling and generally being adorable, so I can’t complain.

On the writing stuff, I’ve knocked out two more short stories; one has gone to a reader, while the other is being refined before submission. A third story is being redrafted, and in the little time remaining, I’ve been looking over the Black Hours again. But it’s all good stuff, and it’s keeping my imagination ticking over nicely before I start writing the third Secret War novel in August.

I’ve also been reading stuff too. A lot as it happens. That’s the thing when you have a baby and you don’t get much time to write stuff; you read more stuff instead. Such as China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun, Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual and now I'm reading John Christopher’s Death of Grass (which is more unrelenting than Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). I seem to spend more time reading than watching telly, just to relax; though the Death of Grass is hardly a relaxing read, it’s better than watching the mind-numbing and dispiriting banality of terrestrial telly, something sleep deprivation makes you more aware of (or perhaps less tolerant of).

Anyway, that’s about it: stuff. As Aliya mentioned on my Facebook, I’ve made a few sentences so my brain is still intact, even if physically I’m a bit below par and time is running for the hills. I’ve been doing plenty of stuff, but very little blog stuff. I just don’t have the time. And blog entries will become fewer and fewer as soon as I start The Fortress of Black Glass. So there’s plenty of stuff I’ll not be able to do in the near future, including promotional work, school visits, internet based endeavours etc.

But I will post here on occasion, if only to tell you about the stuff I am doing…