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Mark Billingham's Diary

AS OF FEBRUARY 13th...

I'm certainly going to be racking up the air miles over the next few months. I will be attending the Emirates International Festival of Literature in Dubai in March and telling some cheap jokes in Hong Kong and Thailand the following month. Before that though, there is India! I'm getting ready to head off next week on a British Council jaunt, taking in five different cities in nine days. I've really got no idea what to expect which is exciting and also a little scary. I've had all manner of jabs and spent a small fortune on mosquito repellent...

While I'm in India, filming will begin on the six part series of Thorne films for television. The cast and crew we've managed to assemble for "Sleepyhead" and "Scaredy Cat" is unbelievable and we've all got very high hopes for something special. I'm hoping that my own small but significant appearance will garner a host of international awards in the "blink and you'll miss him" category. I'll post up full cast details as soon as an official announcement has been made.

I'm currently working on a YA book - the fourth in the Triskellion series (or more accurately, the first in another trilogy) with my friend Peter Cocks. This one is set predominantly in 1593, which means a lot of very interesting research and is a nice break from DNA and police procedure. I haven't escaped that world completely however, as I'm also sketching out the next crime novel, which is likely to feature Helen Weeks from "In The Dark" as well as Tom Thorne.

Before that, "Bloodline" will be published in paperback on March 18th, followed in August by the brand new novel - "From The Dead". This is the book the necessitated an arduous research trip (holiday) to southern Spain as the last third of the story takes place on the Costa del Crime. At least Thorne gets to eat better food than usual.

So right now, there's just time for another chapter or two of Triskellion IV and a few more notes on the next Thorne book before I need to start packing...

Mark