As you know I have been incredibly busy writing Volume VI of the Owners series. But now that I'm more than half-way through, I think it's time to finish editing my series for children aged 8-10 and finally get them out on the shelves.

The Mellillia books are funny and quirky and are very different to The Owners books. But that is only part of the appeal. Writing books for children requires a certain mind-set - a way of looking at things differently from how we normally view them. It's a refreshing take on our lives as adults and I find myself smiling even as I write.

With The Owners, the writing is more intense, more frenetic and I barely have time to breathe as the words hurtle themselves out of me and onto the screen.


And then there is my adult book which still requires me to sit down and get on with it. This is very different again from either of the two series I have previously mentioned but is just as intense as The Owners but in a very different way.

Finally, there are the other eighty odd stories I still have to write. By my calculation that means I will have to live to about 120 just to get them all out there...

Now where did I put those multi-vitamins again? And why did I just make coffee with cold water...guess the brain won't hold up to 120 after all ;)

I'm coming to the close of Volume VI : Blood Sky and am feeling a little uneasy. Perhaps I should explain.

As you already know, Volumes I-III have already been released but Volumes IV -VI have been deliberately held back. This is because they were all so closely linked, so tied-in together, that I wanted to release them all at once...to give the reader the fullest experience of the journey the characters must undertake.

But that journey has now reached its final destination and this part of the epic tale that is The Owners, is done.  

I have birthed these characters, given life to them through my own blood, sweat and tears and now it is almost time to say goodbye to them and my heart quivers with fear and grief. I will miss them dearly - the sounds of their voices in my head, their easy way with one another and their solidarity in times of trouble. But most of all I will miss their willingness to share their story with me, the eagerness with which they jumped into every plot and how they filled every line with their vitality.

But it is time to bring forth the new blood...the characters who will strut their stuff in Volume VII and inhabit my thoughts and dreams as much as Jack, Georgia and all the others always have.

And of course, there, right at the end of the path, Little, Loni and San are waiting for me, waiting eagerly to come back and finish their part of the saga...and how can I deny them?

The Owners Volumes I-X

Nothing will ever be quite the same again!