Dave Seeley Update.

The absolutely superb multi-talented artist Dave Seeley dropped me a line to let me know he's updated his website http://www.daveseeley.com/ with all his current artwork, which also includes the two covers designs he's created for my novels War Machine and Biohell.

Here, also, are examples of his Luke Skywalker for Del Rey, and an Alien and Predalien. Cool stuff, I think you'll agree.

To see the full range of Dave's artwork, check out his new improved website.

DAN WALSH.

'I get my bum pinched by a tranny, my pocket picked by a grifter and a gun pulled on me by a one-eyed, one-armed midget who’s upset cause I winked at him. These are the days that must happen to you.'

OK. Dan Walsh- the best writer in the world. Period. He has a new book out in July 2008. Buy it. You WILL NOT regret it, I promise, having read his escapades in BIKE magazine for years.

Amazon seem to have the best deal, but you can log on to http://www.dan-walsh.co.uk/ and input the promotional code WALSH. So there.

'Riding a bike removes the need for clutter, toys, rubbish that other men have to take on holiday. If I want adrenaline, I’ll rush a giddy overtake, not rent a jet ski.' The world through the eyes of Dan Walsh is never less than Technicolor, and always uninhibited, rebellious and on the edge. Not since the days of Jupiter's Travels has one man embarked on such an angry, narcotic-fuelled bike trek around the world. 'For me, Chile will always be South America’s supermodel sister – very beautiful but too long, too skinny, and too expensive to ride, and despite the groovy exterior, unpleasantly right-wing underneath.'Dan has travelled the length and breadth of the world; in Africa, on his XT Desert Rat; across the American continent, on a BMW F650 GS Dakar. Along the way he's visited Buenos Aires, where ‘revolutionary’ means the angry poor invading the presidential palace, not a really small phone that’s also a camera. He's crossed the dry sub-Saharan savannah, which is like riding across a piece of toast with a mouthful of crackers. He's been mistaken for a bum in New York, bashed by deadly tequila in Mexico, contracted typhoid in a dilapidated Bolivian hotel, visited The Most Beautiful Road in the World in Peru, been kidnapped in Kenya and finds that downtown Soweto is about as threatening as Stockport. 'I get my bum pinched by a tranny, my pocket picked by a grifter and get a gun pulled on me by a one-eyed, one-armed midget who’s upset cause I winked at him. These are the days that must happen to you.' Soaked in adrenaline and coruscatingly funny, Dan Walsh is the rightful heir to Ted Simon as the pre-eminent biker-rebel of our generation.

HARDCORE.

After much deliberation and consultation with Solaris, the new, official title of my next novel (working title Sick World) is...... HARDCORE. So there. And, yeah, if I get any more butch I'll be joining the Village People... ;-) Patrick.

Brmm brmm.

Thought I'd share with you my new bike. It's pretty low powered, only a Suzuki 650 v-twin, but tuned with a sports can it puts out about 80BHP which is not bad for something that weighs in at 162KG. It'll do 0-60 in about 3.5 seconds, so Ferrari speed, then. I've done the Big Bike Thing, I had a Ducati Monster 900, a 750SS, a Bandit 1200 and an Aprilia RSV-R 1000. However, they just end up sat in the garage costing me money whilst I write bookles. So I went for summat a bit lighter on the crocodile-skin wallet. This bugger only cost me £77 to insure!!, and yet gets to 100MPH 5 times faster than my 1.9TDi Passat. Big GRIN times are a-coming. Knee down, cruise the backstreet bends, take out sportsbike riding monkeys. Hoho.

Liverpool University.

I've been invited to speak to the MA Science Fiction group (+others) tomorrow at Liverpool University, and am very much looking forward to the experience. Andy Sawyer, the MA course leader, also runs/ collates an incredible resource known as The Science Fiction Foundation Collection, and the website is http://www.liv.ac.uk/~asawyer/sffc1.html. I recommend you check it out this minute!!

I have been promised the fee of beer and pizza. Ha! If only they knew how much I can drink (and indeed, eat). I have not been continually referred to as "fat chump" for nothing.

Mind Meld.

I was recently asked to contribute to SF Signal's Mind Meld series. This episode deals with underrated authors... It can be found here http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/006576.html.