You're going to notice a few changes on my page in the next few days. That's because everything is going JIMMY COATES.

I'm celebrating the launch of the new Jimmy Coates myspace page:

www.myspace.com/jimmycoates

It marks the launch of JIMMY COATES: SABOTAGE, the 4th book in the series, on Monday October 1st in the UK.

On the myspace page there are going to be exclusive competitions, videos, inside information on the characters and the story and a whole lot more.

So I'm urging all my friends to go to the Jimmy Coates myspace page and 'friend' him. Spread the word.

Check it out:

www.myspace.com/jimmycoates

And don't forget to order SABOTAGE! It's out on Monday!

Birmingham. Ever been? I'm talking about the place in the middle of Britain, by the way - not any of the other Birminghams that you guys might have hidden away in other parts of the World. (For example, Randy Newman often tells me that Birmingham is the finest city in Alabam'. I suppose I'll have to go check it out sometime. You never can tell when Mr Newman is pulling your leg.)

I was there today (Birmingham that is - not anywhere near Randy Newman's leg - OK that makes no sense). It's such a friendly place! I knew that already, but it was confirmed for me today, because I was wandering about an industrial estate, basically lost, and in an environment that in London would probably have been quite intimidating. But every stranger I asked for directions welcomed me with a smile, a pleasantry, and a relaxed expression of mystification. Nobody else knew where I was either - but they were all very nice about it.

And I love the accent. It gets a lot of unfair stick in England, but I think it's a musical and friendly lilt.

Nice work, Birmingham.

I'm a simple boy, with simple pleasures. All I ask is that every once in a while somebody blows me away with a moment of inspiration. Or four and a half minutes of it. Like this:

Oscar Peterson, genius.

Wanna hear what I sound like when I put on my poshest voice and act all 'BBC'?

Of course you do.

And the BBC knows it too, so they made a little programme about me.

Check it out. Click here, then click 'Listen To The Word' and the show should start - but you'll have to skip forward cos I don't turn up until you're 19 minutes into the programme.

It's dark down here in my dark den of darkness.

I thnk all the Jimmy Coates books from now on are going to end up with even more scenes at night, or set on very dark days. I've just started writing the fifth book in the series, and this will be the first one I've written at this new house.

Maybe I should blast myself a hole in the wall and call it a wind-ow.

Or not. It's also cosy and comfortable down here. And mine. Nothing in here but crazy me things and my mess. Who needs natural light to see that? It's a feeling. It's there even with my eyes closed.

So now I shall type with my eyes closed.

OK, just tried that and it didn't come out so well. I think readers deserve a book with at least some readable English words in it.

I used to love the Sherlock Holmes stories - no wait, what am I saying? I still love them. But I used to read them more regularly than I do now, and then I got into the many different movie versions there are of the Holmes stories.

My favourite was always Basil Rathbone. You can't beat him. Go on. Try. You won't be able to.

Tonight I was reminded of one those Basil Rathbone movies - The Woman in Green. There's a point in the movie when it becomes very important that we know a particular woman is wearing, you guessed it, green.

It's a black and white film.

I remember spending a long time thinking about this. Did it matter that we couldn't see what colour the dress was? Did it ruin the story that one of the characters had to suddenly exclaim something like, "Look at her dress - why, it's green!"

I don't know.

But tonight I watched Green for Danger. It's not a Sherlock Holmes story - it's an English crime thriller with Alastair Sim in a fantastic role as a detective who's a bit like Hugh Laurie in House: witty, brilliant, eccentric, offensive, insensitive. Loved it.

But my point is this. It's a very cleverly plotted film that sadly is less gripping than it should be, for two reasons. One - a significant twist is given away in the title. Or at least, a fact that you might otherwise think is insignificant is given massive importance in your mind when you watch it because it's in the title. Then when the twist comes, you've been expecting it for half an hour.

The second thing is that the twist involves something being, um, green.

It's a black and white film.

"Look! It's green!"

Er, yeah, thanks. I'll assume you're saying that for the benefit of the many, many colour blind characters. Not for the audience at all. No no. That would ruin the illusion that what we're watching is real. We wouldn't want that.

Right at this very moment, there are hundreds of very talented authors consuming gallons of champagne at a top secret location in central London. There are canopes wavering only briefly between waiter's tray and author's lips. There are celebrities spotting other celebrities, editors making charming small talk, and agents making sure everybody is talking to the 'right' everybody else.

Yup, it's the HarperCollins Summer bash, and I'm missing it all because I'm hard at work promoting my books in Bradford. Well, actually I'm sipping an oolong tea at a really lovely hotel. It's not all elbow grease. In fact it's hardly elbow grease at all. I have very un-greasy elbows, even when I type reallyreallyreally fast.

Right, time to fight with hotel sheets.

I've just seen how many hits I've been getting on this  blog - it's about twenty times more than I get on my regular blog, and I don't even post anything on this one.

So this is a bit of an experiment. I'm going to start posting one or two things up here just to see whether the number of hits goes up or down. If it goes down, I'll try not posting on my other blog either, and see whether that also gets more hits.

I expect it will. There are so many sites I don't contribute to, and they all seem to be ticking along quite nicely, don't they? So maybe the way forward is to completely stop writing anything on the internet, and the number of hits I have will go through the roof.

OK. That was easy.

I'm a bit worried now that this might also apply to life. I'm pleased to say that sales of the books I've written have been going up, but at the same time, there are loads more books that I didn't write, and some of them have been selling in huge numbers.

The Da Vinci Code, for example. Sells a lot of copies. Harry Potter. There's another one I didn't write. The Bible. Didn't write that either. (Though a kid did once ask me to sign a copy. I politely refused. Drew a picture of god in it instead. Looked a bit like a doughnut. So did the kid.)

I think this could make for a very productive day. I might extend it to include meals I haven't cooked, music I haven't composed and countries I haven't run.

So check back here once in a while to see how I've been getting on. Or don't - the blogs you don't read have got to be the best, haven't they?

Jimmy Coates: Revenge has just hit the shelves here in the UK.

It's the third book in the Jimmy Coates series, and I've tried to make sure it's even more packed with action and twists than the first two books.

I feel like I'm improving as a writer bit by bit, so I'd love to hear what you all think of the new book.

I've just been stacking up a few piles of the hardback US edition of my first book, so it reminded me to tell you all that the paperback is now available all over the US. It should be in your local bookstore now! Go and have a look.

It's called 'Jimmy Coates: Assassin?' - an action thriller. It's sort of 'The Bourne Identity' for kids. That's how a few reviewers have described it, anyway.

Here's a link to the page on amazon, where I also blog every now and again:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060772654/qid=1140312546/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-6850993-9675315?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

And in case you didn't already know, I have a more regular blog at my main site, which is here:

www.joecraig.co.uk