Hi there everyone!

Sorry it’s been a while since I last blogged, but what with the Writers Strike, my US book tour and writing the next book, I’ve been – well – busy as all hell.

THE NEW NOVEL: THE SEQUEL TO THE SIX SACRED STONES

Well, the emails are coming in thick and fast now! I’m happy to report that they are overwhelmingly positive and nearly all readers have been cool with the big cliffhanger ending.

It’s nice when people “get” that kind of thing, and many readers have actually said that it’s nice to wait for something, for a change. The anticipation for the next book is, naturally, very high, and I think about this a lot as I write it: I’m determined the make the wait worthwhile for my loyal readers!

I’m currently halfway through the next book (The Five...) and am absolutely loving it. It’s great to be back with this group of characters and to explore some new ancient places.

As a quick little exclusive clue to the next book, Natalie and I are about to travel to Easter Island for some research...

I’ll be announcing the title of the new book soon, here at MR.com.

MY TV SHOW, LITERARY SUPERSTARS...(SIGH)

Unfortunately, the fate of my TV show, Literary Superstars, is not looking good.

Despite actually starting casting in November last year, the recent Writers Strike didn’t help – when the strike dragged on, all activity on the show ceased and when we got back to work three months later, many rewrites were ordered by the network and, well, they didn’t work out.

Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to be rewritten. The answer: it’s part of the game, really. While it’s not fun to see your work revised in directions you may not like, it’s part and parcel of working in Hollywood. If you don’t want to be rewritten, write novels. If you write screenplays, however, until you earn a studio $100 million, you have to expect to be rewritten.

It’s all very disappointing, especially given all the trips I made back and forth from Sydney to LA, but unfortunately that’s sometimes how things go in Hollywood (even when you have Jenna Elfman and Darren Star on board). But it’s a fickle business and you have to roll with the punches. I’ll just have to come up with another TV show idea!

As with the initial rejection of Contest, I’ll just have to bounce back. As I’ve often said in speeches: it’s not how you deal with success that defines you, it’s how you deal with failure.

SOME THINGS I’VE BEEN WATCHING:

It’s been a while since I’ve commented on some new movies and TV shows, so here are some thoughts on what I’ve been watching lately:

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (DEVELOPED FOR TV BY JOSH FRIEDMAN)

I have mixed feelings about this show. When it’s good, it’s awesome; but when it’s average, it’s really, really average. But more often than not, I like it – just when you think the story is getting predictable, it springs a clever time-travel twist on you.

Summer Glau steals the show as the female Terminator sent back to protect John Connor. She was fantastic in Firefly and Serenity, and her role in them was clearly great preparation for this show. Acting as a Terminator is not as easy as it appears (some of the male Terminators in this series are pretty weak and the female one in T3 was okay) and Ms Glau is easily the equal of Arnie and Robert Patrick.

THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (DIRECTED BY SETH GORDON)

As many of you will know, I like a good documentary. Spellbound was awesome; Bowling for Columbine and Super Size Me also reinvented the genre. If you liked any of those, then go and see The King of Kong, perhaps the best doco I’ve seen in the last twelve months.

It’s about the (very small) world of arcade game enthusiasts and the “world records” they hold on classc 1980s arcade games like Donkey Kong and Galaga (I loved Galaga as a kid). Anyway, one guy has held the record for Donkey Kong for over 20 years and he’s a living god in the arcade game community.

But then suddenly, a fellow comes along and beats his record and upsets the whole community. I wouldn’t dare give away what happens next, but it is a great tale of small tight-knit worlds, the concept of celebrity in those worlds, hero worship, hangers on and how you verify a world record on an arcade game. Go and see it. You won’t be disappointed.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD (DIRECTED BY PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON)

I don’t usually like to bag movies in these pages. I prefer to be positive, and tell people what I like. But damn it, I want the two-and-a-half hours of my life that I spent watching this movie back! This is one of those movies where the Best Actor Oscar is assured, but the movie around that actor’s performance is pretty ordinary. The bowling alley scene at the end is one of the silliest things I’ve ever seen.

ROBOT CHICKEN (DIRECTED BY SETH GREEN AND MATTHEW SENREICH)

If you like Family Guy, go and watch Robot Chicken right now! It is simply the funniest thing on TV at the moment – nothing is sacred. From the World’s Most One-Sided Fistfights to The Educational Wrestling Federation, all the skits are done with action figures animated by stop-motion techniques. It is just incredibly clever.

And now I’d better get back to the new book!

Talk soon.