All change!

Well, here we are at a time of transition. My first four novels have all been horror thrillers for grown-ups, and my next novel is due out in September, under the different moniker 'SA Patrick'.

It's a children's book, being published by Usborne.

When I tell people that, they tend to look puzzled. Given my love of cosmic horror, maybe they expect this:

(Thanks to my daughter for that one!)

What they're actually going to get is this:

A Darkness of Dragons. It's based in the world of the Piper of Hamelyn, and it's firmly a tale of Adventure. Horror creeps in here and there, but then that's the way it should be. What kind of adventure has nothing scary in it?

I'm not sure that 'Adventure' is counted as a book genre, but genres are tricky things. When my first book Reviver came out, I'd often be asked which genre I thought it belonged to - Horror or Crime. "Thriller," I'd suggest, but that didn't seem to count. Crossovers had to be put in their place!

Maybe there's a book equivalent of the OCEAN personality traits (you know, the Big Five traits that gives Facebook a scary insight into who you are, just because you did that stuff about what kind of pasta you love and which My Little Pony you are). I know that Adventure would be one of the traits. I'm not sure I could get it down to five, but I think it'd be easier to find agreement. And who knows, it might even prove more useful than genre.

Back to the new book, though! Publication day is only a few months off. Preview copies have been sent out into the world, and the nervous wait begins to see what people make of it. Because for a writer, that's the most terrifying part of the publishing process.

I'll sit here and chew my fingernails for a while, if I may...