The Good News for Modern Man/Woman

Various writing friends/acquaintances/colleagues (delete as appropriate) have been receiving some good news over the past few weeks and, being the good-natured soul that I am, I thought I'd share it with you.

Declan (no relation) Burke, he of the excellent Crime Always Pays blog, has just been given a deal for his latest book, currently titled The Baby Killers.
'So what?' I hear you say.
Well, not only is Dec a might fine writer (check out 'The Big O' if you don't believe me) but he has decided that any profits from the new book will be donated to charity - more than likely the children's wing of a local hospital. A mighty fine proposal, yes?
Congrats to Dec on both the deal and his altruism - and of course you'll all go out and buy it when it comes out, won't you?

I've banged on in the past about the online critique site YouWriteOn, where The Third Pig received its first serious critical airings. Eventually it was placed third in the 2007 Children's Book of the Year competition on the site.
Yet another 'so what?', I hear you say.
The winner of the competition that year, Justine Windsor, has just landed herself an agent so great things will happen. Watch out for her.
Congrats Justine, it was only a matter of time.

Vanessa O'Loughlin of Inkwell Writers' Workshops has just launched writing.ie, an online resource for Irish writers. It's chock-full of articles, interviews, news, links, events, blogs and more information than you could comfortably shake a stick at. If you're starting out in the writing game, it's well worth a look - and, if you're not, it's still well worth a look!!

Finally, another YWO winner that I've parped on about before, Guy Saville, has finally seen his first novel The Afrika Reich, hit the bookshelves - and it's picking up boffo reviews. My own copy is being clutched in my grubby little fist as I speak (actually it's not, it's difficult to type and hold a book at the same time, but you know what I mean) and I'll post a review as soon as I'm done with it.

So then, much good news to report.