The third and final installment of Death & Elsie will also be out soon, but I’m taking a break from that for a little while to go back to working on the next book. I promise you won’t have to wait too long for D&E 3. I’ve just got some plate juggling to do. Not literally, though. I like my dishes too much to throw them around (they have octopuses on them!). Anyway. What was I saying? Oh, right. Busy! I am busy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOSynJuN1M

(Part 1 here)

More news:

• As usual, whenever I release anything, I get a lot of questions about Boy. Boy is still in the works, though I’ve had to put it on hold for other projects. Death & Elsie is something to keep you all entertained for a while as I work on those other projects, which, at the moment, include another novel. But I’m reallyreallyreally going to try to put Boy out before 2012 is a distant memory! Cross my heart!
• About that other novel: the one I’m currently working on is not a sequel to Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow, but I think it’s something you’ll all like if you liked Carousel. I can’t say much about it right now, but I’ll continue to make posts now and then about the process.
• By the way, I get a lot of questions about an audiobook of Carousel. I’m not aware of any plans for an audiobook right now. The excerpts I posted were just a little something for the people who weren’t able to attend the readings I did when the book first came out. If it ever does come up, however, I’ll be sure to announce it. If my daydreams came true, Tim Jones would get to do the honors.
• Death & Elsie Part 2 is called An Elephant’s Memory and should, cross my fingers, be ready by this weekend. Part 3 will be out soon after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_PXaDBIPR8

Part 1 – “Death ‘n’ Elsie”

Part 2 – “An Elephant’s Memory”

Part 3 – “A Parting Gift”

A Parting Gift

It is always here, the gateway into the Hereafter, but no one living ever notices. There is no angel chorus heralding the entrance. It is neither gleaming nor made of pearl. Rather, it is a lonely row of hedges with a modest wooden door just low enough that even the greatest men must enter with heads bowed. Many are they who have entered with nasty bumps on their foreheads.

Here the three travelers stood and pondered what ought to be said. This would normally be when Death wished his companions well and gave them some idea of what to expect on the other side, but his throat felt curiously lumpy now.

Elsie took Death’s hand and patted it gently.

“You be all right,” she said softly.

Before Death could reply, the gate before them creaked open and swelled to a size just large enough for a humble circus elephant. From within came a hum that only the right sort of person or creature could understand. To Elsie, it was someone calling her name. To Barcas, the distant trumpeting of his kind. To Death, it was nothing but empty air.

“They’re waiting for you,” he said and then, “Mind your heads!”

But Elsie and Barcas were already passing through. Soon, the gateway was small again. Its little wooden door then closed with an unceremonious thud.

“Oh,” said Death.

He sighed and nodded to himself. This was as it should be. It was his job, after all, and now it was time to move on.

Just as he turned around, something light and papery fell from above and landed between his feet. It seemed to the Reaper as if it were intended for him.

It was only a leaf. Just a dried up crinkly thing. But it looked very fine tied to his scythe with a stray bit of thread.

Perhaps, if you are lucky – or if you are not – you will see it yourself one day.

And this series of Seven Skary Sins by Ashley from Canada:

And much more over on the fan art page!

I’m in the middle of a new illustration that I can’t wait to show you – that should be up by this weekend – and I’m still pondering how the Death and Elsie saga should end.