Back from Florence now, and it was absolutely fantastic. I loved the food, I loved the sightseeing, and I have a stack of souvenirs such as local paper, a personal seal, some prints, and a lot of books from the museums . . .

There’s less than a month to go till the release of The Mortal Word, and as you can probably imagine, I’m trying not to count the days. Or at least, not too much. Or too audibly.

For people in America, here’s a giveaway for The Mortal Word (till the 6th November):
https://sweeps.penguinrandomhouse.com/enter/the-mortal-word-dedicated-giveaway

And for people in the UK – I’m delighted to let you know that The Lost Plot ebook is currently on amazon at just £1.19 – so you can catch up on the Perils of Irene before we hit book five. (Hit the ground running, as Irene might put it . . .)

I’ve just finished the first draft of Library book six. Still lots of work to be done on it – some of which I know, and other bits of which I have yet to run across (think of it like a car tyre hitting a bed of nails) – but at least I’ve got to this point.

And it’s just in time for me to take a holiday! I’ll be spending next week in Florence, in Italy, which should be absolutely awesome. Time for some research, some self-indulgence, some awesome food . . .

Here’s an interview (of me) by Ingram – it has a few potential details about future books, if anyone’s interested . . .

(The sharks are probably definite.)

Back from the Nine Worlds convention, back from my holiday, and back to regular day job and to working on book six. (And incidentally visiting the Great Northern Quilt Show last Saturday and coming away with far too many fabric purchases. I blame the fabric. It throws itself into my bag as I walk past.)

Good news, or at least cheap news: both The Invisible Library *and* The Masked City ebooks are at 99p on UK Amazon at the moment. Apply here for your heroic librarians, great detectives, suave seducers, dragons in distress . . .

Also, if you’re a German reader, The Masked City is available for just 1.29 euros on German Amazon, as part of this month’s Kindle deal.

And I’ve just seen the cover for the Taiwanese version of The Invisible Library. It looks gorgeous! More details later . . .

I’m afraid I’ve been rather quiet lately. First there were the UK proofs for The Mortal Word, and then there were the US proofs for The Mortal Word, and in the background I was slogging away at book six . . . and in a most depressing heatwave, too. (I know that by a lot of standards, the recent UK temperatures are comparatively minor – especially in the north of England, where I am – but trust me, it was quite bad enough for my tastes.)

I’m going to be at Nine Worlds in London at the end of next week – so if you’re there as well, do say hi. I will be doing a presentation on the Takarazuka Revue, though given it’s 9am on Saturday morning, I will understand if you can’t be there – I know I’m going to be hitting the coffee heavily beforehand . . .

I’m delighted to share that my American publishers (Ace and Roc Books) will be publishing books six, seven and eight of the Invisible Library series in the US.

No dates yet, I’m afraid, but they will be coming . . .

Just a quick note to say that The Invisible Library is currently at just 99p on amazon.co.uk – apologies to other areas. You can find it here:

The Invisible Library

I think the offer’s only going to last for ten days, so if you want to buy a copy for yourself, your friends, your enemies, your librarians, your wombats, or any other connection, then seize the opportunity . . .

And here are my personal favourites.

Estonia – my definite favourite so far, and got through to the final – impressive voice and dress

Belgium – an interesting minor tune. Didn’t get through to the final, but was fun.

Finland – got through to the final. Perky and entertaining.

Denmark – got through to the final. Strong manly bearded Vikings striding through snow and singing. Manfully.

Serbia – also got through to the final. Somewhat weird but entertaining and pleasant to listen to.

France – automatically gets through to the final. But I like the tune.

Who would I ultimately like to win? Estonia’s my favourite, but I suspect it’s unlikely to come first. Still, one never knows. And Denmark might be an interesting dark horse.

It’s been a quiet month so far. I’ve been working on edits of book five and on the first draft of book six, but there isn’t much I can say about that: the actual details of staring at the computer screen and whimpering are never that interesting to other people. At least the weather here in the UK has finally – finally – turned nice, and I’ve been enjoying sunshine for the last two days. (What is this strange yellow ball in the sky, say English people, and why is the sky blue all of a sudden.)

I’ve been reading a number of excellent books – including Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera, Melissa Caruso’s The Defiant Heir, Ruth Ball’s Rebellious Spirits, and Rebecca Kuang’s The Poppy War, among others. All of which are very good indeed. (And I need to find and reread my copy of The Investiture of the Gods before the sequel to The Poppy War comes out, just in case there are any clues in there… Even if it’s not a very good translation. I’ve never got over the use of the phrase “unholy bronze toaster”.)

Upcoming things include, yes, the Eurovision Song Contest! (See also Valente’s Space Opera, mentioned above. Eurovision in space!) Semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday this week, final on Saturday. I love Eurovision. It’s silly, it’s entertaining, it’s brilliant. And even if there is some political voting, the people who come at the top are usually emphatically the ones who deserved it. So yes, I’ll be sitting in front of the television, with my latest quilt in my lap so that I can work on the binding, and I’ll be enjoying myself. If you watch it, I hope you do too.

The Italian translation of The Masked City, La città segreta, will be released tomorrow (18th April) in Italy.

It’s still astonishing to think that I’m being published in Italy – and given that part of the story is set in an Italy, I only hope that the readers enjoy it and that I haven’t failed too badly in portraying it. Venice is a beautiful city. Any faults are my own.