books to read and TV to watch

While at Octocon at the weekend I had the chance to catch up with friends, and participate on several panel discussions. It was an enjoyable convention: relaxed, friendly, and with a good buzz.

I bought the latest book by the supremely talented Michael Carroll, one of the guests of the convention. It’s the second novel in his New Heroes trilogy, and it’s called Sakkara. Attentive readers might remember me praising the first book, The Quantum Prophecy, back in the mists of time known as January. I’m going to be away for a number of days of intensive writing, and all I’m bringing with me are my laptop, sketchpad, and Sakkara (oh, and husband, dog, clothes, food… ). I’m expecting the book to be a damn fine read, just like the first.

Michael was in Galway yesterday and entertained a class of 13-year-old boys in the local library (no easy feat). He read from The Quantum Prophecy, and managed to intrigue many of the console generation with the prospect of engaging with dead-tree technology.

His books will be launched in the USA in April next year, where the series will be entitled The Quantum Prophecy.

Irish author Michael Scott (not all male writers in Ireland are called Michael – just the good ones) was featured on the front page of Variety a couple of weeks back. His new six-part young adult series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, has been optioned by American producer Mark Burnett, who is best known for his popular TV reality show Survivor. The first book in Michael’s series, The Alchemyst, will be published by Random House in May next year. Best of luck to Michael with that project.

I love to see talented and hard-working people do well.

Finally, I want to draw attention to a superb comedy series that was shown on BBC 3 called The Mighty Boosh. You can watch episodes on YouTube. I highly recommend Nanageddon, which should appeal especially to horror fans. Of course, if you like the show you should order the DVD box set and support the writers/actors, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. They deserve their royalties for creating such a surreal and funny series.

Now, I’m off to write.