Hey there everyone!

As many of you will know, as of this year, I have (sadly) dropped the "Thoughts for the Month" section on my site. Sometimes, you just need to freshen things up. As such, I am replacing it with this "From the Desk of..." column, which I will use to update you all on interesting things that are happening in the world of Matthew Reilly. Rather than just write on any old topic every single month, I'd rather put up news when it happens.

And this month, have I got some news for you!

On Tuesday, I held a press conference, at which I announced to the Australian media the imminent publication of my next novel, Hover Car Racer.

As regular visitors to MR.com will know, Hover Car Racer is a full-length novel that my publisher, Pan Macmillan, is releasing on the Internet for free. The novel is being sponsored by United International Pictures (UIP) and Canon - on your computer screen it will look just like a paperback book, only in the header and footer will be discreet ads for UIP's latest movie and Canon's logo. (You can print it out, email it to a friend or read it on your screen. Your choice!)

It is also a serial. Hover Car Racer is divided into 8 cliff-hanging parts, each part to be released every fortnight from 04.04.04 (they will be released on the 4th and the 20th of each month, culminating in the gigantic final part on July 20). And if you know my love of cliffhanging chapter endings, then you can imagine what's coming!

It's also the fastest thing I've ever written. Even faster than Scarecrow. It starts small, and then it just expands and expands, until it is absolutely epic in scale by about Part 4. By Part 8, you won't believe how big in scale the story has become! I guarantee you've never read anything like it before.

The basic story: in the near future, our hero, Jason Chaser is a 14-year-old racer of hover cars. He is invited to attend the prestigious International Race School where the other racers are all 18-plus. There, in his trusty car, the Argonaut, he races in all manner of hover car races - lap races, gate races, match races, enduros, sprints; and at speeds of up to 810 km/h - and who knows, maybe at some point, he'll get to race in the heady world of the International Pro Circuit where every racer is a superstar and everything is about speed.

Anyway, I have to run. See you on 04.04.04 at www.hovercarracer.com!