Skulduggery pleasant fan book

Grrrr....

Good news and bad news people
good news: the paperback edition of armaggedon outta here is out
Bad news: ITS GOT 3 STORIES THAT THE OLD VERSION DOESN'T HAVE IN IT!!!
THANKS A LOT MR LANDY NOW I HAVE TO BUY ANOTHER COPY!!!
Sometimes I just hate him.
but hey! Why hear it from me when you can hear it from the golden god himself? Here it is people...

<begin transmission>

Right now, though, we are gearing up to release the Armageddon Outta Here paperback in two days. As usual, I found myself in a Catch-22 position. I had a paperback coming out of a book most of you already bought in hardback (or trade paperback - the hardback-sized paperbacks), and I know a lot of you would want every edition available - because you're uber-geeks, just like me. So I wanted to give you an extra story or two (or three, as it turned out) to make it worthwhile. Of course, by including new stories, it kinda also makes people who were NOT intending to buy the paperback want to buy it, cuz they want the new stuff.

I don't like making my readers buy multiple copies of my books. If you want to, hey, go right ahead, I won't stop you, but I've never wanted anyone to feel left out if they don't buy every edition. There are some things, unfortunately, that I can't win no matter what I do. So apologies, for those who feel like they ARE missing out. That was not my intention.

But what ARE these new stories? Well, for those Billy-Ray fans out there, two of these stories are about him. They were sequences that just wouldn't fit in the last few books. Death and Texas throws our favourite hit man deluxe into a Texas Chainsaw Massacre situation, with a notable twist. Eye of the Beholder, meanwhile, explores some of his history - including how and why he lost his eyes.

And then there's Theatre of Shadows. The original version of this was written in an afternoon, behind the scenes at the roleplaying event in Dublin last year. It was at this time that I learned one very important lesson about writing - don't try to write and publish a story in the same day.

The original was flawed. This new version is radically different, and it takes the original's place in canon. So that story that was sent to everyone who took part is now a one-off, never to be reprinted.

There are some other, minor changes to one or two other stories in the collection. For instance, I noticed a mistake too late in Across a Dark Plain, which made a mess of where the story sits in continuity. This mistake is now fixed, as will be a corresponding mistake in one of the books. Remember when the Dead Men were talking about the war, and Shudder's birthday? There was a pretty significant typo that I hadn't spotted, which basically set that story a hundred years after I had meant it to take place. All that is now changed, and once again the stories make sense. I think.

<end transmission>

Oh well. Vote if you are officially annoyed.
Comment if you're such a hardcore fan that you were going to get the new version anyway. if you were then I have massive respect for you. Good job.