As I said in my last post, I’m taking a short break from writing after finishing Frozen. I thought I’d go straight into the next project, but my mind is still on that ancient, rusty icebreaker, circling the southern icecap. I need to read a lot (which I’m doing) and explore the world a lot and look at interesting things and daydream, so that the wells of creativity will refill.

In the meantime, of course, other things always come up. I’m off to Melbourne in a couple of weeks to visit my brother and sister-in-law, and make a couple of publicity videos for Allen & Unwin, my Australian publishers, and talk to them about Frozen. Hoping to visit a few bookshops while I’m there as well.

So now I’m trying to write the text for the videos, and Jyy-Wei Ip from A&U has also reminded me that I need to create some extra content for the series website – stuff that is specifically to do with Path of Beasts. I started trawling through a few ideas last night – found an out-take that I think will work, a rather cute scene that I wrote for the first draft but later cut.

Here are a few thoughts for other website extras – I’ve no idea which ones I’ll follow up on. I feel about as creative as a soggy pudding at the moment.

Pounce’s instructions on how to escape when there’s an army chasing you.

How to make fake silver coins.

How Mince lost his nose. (This will make more sense when you’ve read book 3)

Princess Frisia’s instructions on how to treat battle wounds.

And for those of you who are always looking for good book recommendations, I found this excellent site the other day. It’s got some terrific older books on it, as well as new ones. I’ve read a lot of them and I agree with the site owner. Go and have a look!