Lady Friday

The newest in the Keys of the Kingdom series will be out March 1. Whoo hoo! Says Nix:

The first real copy of Lady Friday (The Keys To The Kingdom) just arrived at my office. I never know whether the US, British or Australian advance copies will arrive first. This time the Aussie edition is the early bird.

I've been writing for 24 years and my first book (The Ragwitch) came out in 1991, but I still get excited when a new book of mine arrives. There is nothing quite like the real article, though galleys, bound proofs or advance reading copies are also welcome harbingers of impending publication.

This is my 21st book (I think) or 25th (if you count the tiny VERY CLEVER BABY books which may one day make a reappearance) and as always I wonder how I managed to finish it and also how on earth have I managed to write so many books. The answer, is of course, that it's taken almost a quarter of a century of constant work. Even so, I am still pleasantly surprised. I'm also greatly relieved that I started young :-)

In other news, I am delighted to have sold a story to Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling for their forthcoming fairy tale villains anthology which is yet to find a title, I believe. My story is called "An Unwelcome Guest" and is a sideways look at the Rapunzel story.

I also have quite a long story -- almost a novelette -- coming up in
Wizards: Magical Tales From the Masters of Modern Fantasy , edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. There are some great contributors in this and I'm happy to be one of them. My piece for this anthology is called 'Holly and Iron' and is kind of a Robin Hood story. Only Robin is a girl and it takes places in an alternative Ingland shortly after that country's conquest by Normans and their iron magic. Which like nearly all summaries of stories sounds dumb and boring . . . the real story is much more interesting, I assure you!