new projects

To answer your query, Cody - and thankyou for posting a comment - firstly, I'm really excited about the publication in the US next month of Blue Flame, the first part of the Perfect Fire Trilogy, which I hope readers will like. Set in the stunning south west of France, it is a story of love in a time of fanaticism, with some twists and turns that even I, as the writer, did not expect.

Then, I have such a neat idea for my next book, although it is still at the bubble stage, i.e. try to catch it too firmly and it may vanish. It will be different from the Perfect Fire Trilogy, different, too, from the de Granvilles or even the Hangman. The overarching concept is about truth: what it is and how we see it. If I tell you I've been reading Don Quixote, which, shamefully, I had never read, that might provide a clue. So - a kind of Don Quixote-ish (very 'ish') novel of high romance set during the 100 Years War, which is the time of Chaucer or, perhaps more popularly, the time in which the film The Knight's Tale is set. Lots of chivalry and ransoming and pennants and lances. But it will not be a comedy, just as Don Quixote is funny but not really a comedy.

My narrator is currently a dog and I'm finding his voice. The heroine I'm keeping under wraps. A freebooter, a kind of medieval mercenary and more Alan Rickman than Heath Ledger is hoving into view.

This is the stage where anything could happen, and probably will. I have opened a new notebook - always a good sign.