(In the interests of transparency, I should add that we did actually know about this )

• Peat’s ‘Peephole In My Skull‘ has a wonderful pictorial blog entry detailing his joy at hitting the Sunday Times list.
• Peat’s primary agent Joshua Bilmes at the JABberwocky Literary Agency considers the differences between the US and the UK markets in light of THE DESERT SPEAR‘s figures.
• Peat will be in London during the London Book Fair and will be signing at London’s Forbidden Planet flagship store on Friday April 16th at 18.00. Details here.
• He’s also lined up to sign at Goldsboro Books earlier that same day. Check out their website.
• And here are a few links to rave reviews of THE DESERT SPEAR…
  • Sacramento Book Review
  • SFF Chat
  • Superfast Reader

I’ll post further reviews in due course. Meantime, well deserved congratulations to Peat, Joshua, Emma and all the Voyager team.

‘Paksenarrion wasn’t planning to submit to an unwelcome marriage and a lifetime of poverty, so she left her village with a plan and her grandfather’s sword. And a few weeks later, she was installed as Duke Phelan’s newest recruit in a company of soldiers for hire, her arms training about to begin. But when Paks sees combat, she’s stabbed with an ensorcelled knife and barely survives. Then the near-misses start mounting up, raising questions about this young fighter. Is she attracting evil because she is a danger to them all? Or is there another reason malignant forces seek her life? Paks will face the spider-minions of the Webmistress Achrya, orcs and the corrupted men who serve blood mage Liart, Master of Torments. She will also earn the gratitude of elves and of her Duke. And through conflict she will learn she has powers of her own and a destiny. To become a gods-chosen Paladin of Gird, and a target for the ultimate torture.’

Be sure to check out the Orbit blog where Elizabeth has recently contributed this guest post.

What’s a day in the life of Lavie Tidhar like?

I’m practising the old Indian Bead Trick at the moment – you might know it better as the Needle Swallowing Trick that Houdini made popular. It’s when you swallow needles and thread and then bring them back out with the needles all threaded together. Wonderful illusion. I’m too chicken to put needles in my mouth though, so I’ve been using safety pins! Ha! Definitely not as glamorous.

Which is to say, very dull, really. I get excited if I go across the border to Thailand because they actually have supermarkets there! I think heaven is a supermarket, all clean and shiny and bright. And they have a Mister Donut!

I’m easily pleased.

• Read the rest of the interview here.

“It’s an irresistible question, because truly comprehending what goes on in someone else’s mind is impossible, intangible, and all the more fascinating for it. Truth is, I don’t always know where my own ideas come from. They seldom arrive fully formed, but tend to develop in a tree-like fashion, usually in need of considered pruning. But what makes us want to write in the first place?”

Freda’s novel Elfland, published by Tor Books is due for release mid-August.

“‘I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them.” Diane Arbus’s photographs of people, many of whom were on the margins of life, were rooted in an understanding of the relationship between photographer and subject. Attuned to the small tragedies of contemporary life, she was to photography what Raymond Carver was to literature. As John Szarkowski, organiser of the Museum of Modern Art’s landmark 1967 “New Documents” exhibition, said: “The portraits of Diane Arbus show that all of us – the most ordinary and most exotic of us – are on closer scrutiny remarkable.’”…

Chris Schuler

“It is June 1940. In a Berlin apartment, Old Persicke, a drink-sodden retired publican, and his ambitious Nazi sons celebrate the fall of France. Their quiet, middle-aged neighbours, Otto and Anna Quangel, have just learnt that their only child has been killed in that campaign. On the top floor, an elderly Jewish lady tries to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, while in the rear tenement, Emil Borkhausen, blackmailer and pimp, is sniffing around for a chance to turn a quick profit…“

Notes in the Margin can be found here.

And here are  a couple of links to an in-depth, two-part Lou Anders’ article on the Tor.com website all about Chris’s work….

• The Myriad Worlds of Chris Roberson: the Celestial Empire
• The Myriad Worlds of Chris Roberson: the Bonaventure-Carmody universe

• Reviews are starting to come in for Iain Sinclair’s new book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire and we’ll be posting news of them here as they come in. For starters, here’s a four star write-up from today’s London Metro paper.

• Check our previous post for details of specific Hackney related events that are coming up and don’t forget to listen to BBC Radio 4 next week, when Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire will be being featured as Book of the Week.

• The Observer carried a wonderful interview with author Iain Sinclair on February 8th , 2009. ‘The brilliant chronicler of uncharted, often unloved, parts of Britain has stayed close to home for his latest epic – a bittersweet love letter to the London borough of Hackney. He takes Rachel Cooke for a stroll round his patch – no ordinary walk, as the visionary author beautifully evokes the area’s rich history while reflecting on his own memories of the urban landscape.‘ The piece is available here online.

• And if all this coverage is wetting your appetite for the book (and how can it not?) the publisher Hamish Hamilton has made an except of the book’s opening chapter available online. Click this link for the pdf.