Hey there Readers,

I'm so sorry for the delay in bringing you this column, but I have a really good excuse this time -- I have not only just delivered my next novel, Seven Ancient Wonders, to my publishers, but I have also just finished a brand-new 100-page novella called Hell Island to be released in August! That's right, there'll be two Matthew Reilly books this year! I am also producing a movie. Yep, pretty busy.

To find out the details, read on...

Yes, as they say on the covers of his books, I have 'discovered DeMille.' And he's awesome! Many readers over the years have recommended Nelson DeMille to me, including the MD of Pan Macmillan Australia , no less. So late last year, I decided to give Night Fall a go.

In short, not only does Mr DeMille give you a good thriller/mystery, he's also bloody funny. No, really, laugh-out-loud funny. His hero (in these books), John Corey, is simply fantastic -- witty, droll, brilliant, and he knows it!

Night Fall addressed the downing of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, and was a brilliant balance of humour amid a real life tragedy.

The Lion's Game was an awesome idea, but was (in my humble opinion, and since Mr D has sold 53 million more books than I have, it is a very humble opinion) too long. The basic premise: a Libyan terrorist who lost his family in a 1986 US air raid on Libya comes to the States to wreak his vengeance on the pilots who carried out the raid, plus a whole lot more.

Plum Island is the first book to feature John Corey. It is smaller, less epic in its scale and scope, but perhaps it is the best. It centres around the deaths of two scientists working at the biological facility at Plum Island . Funny, very clever, and just a good read.

As for me:

2005 - THE YEAR OF TWO MATTHEW REILLY BOOKS:

Yes, the next book is in!

Currently titled Seven Ancient Wonders (although the title might be different in the US), it features a brand-new hero, a kick-ass fella named Jack West Jr, who is like a cross between Scarecrow and Indiana Jones! The book deals with a desperate hunt to find the remnants of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and is, well, pretty big, easily the biggest-in-scale book I've ever written.

As for the second book for 2005, the novella, Hell Island , well it's part of the (excellent) Australian Government initiative called Books Alive. Earlier this year, I was commissioned by the Australia Council to write a 100-page novella that will be given to readers for free in August of this year when they purchase one of 50 recommended "great read" novels.

The whole point of Books Alive is to get people reading, and with Hell Island I have pulled out all the stops and written an absolutely rampaging actioner featuring Shae 'Scarecrow' Schofield. The basic premise: Schofield is parachuted into Hell Island , a remote Pacific island that was the venue for fierce fighting in WWII. It seems all contact has been lost with an entire aircraft carrier that stopped off at Hell Island . Mother is in it, too, and the villains will be like nothing you have ever read!!!

To other matters, I thought I'd address some questions that are coming via emails:

1. CONTEST MOVIE - WHAT'S GOING ON?

As some of you may know, I am currently in the process of producing and directing a movie version of Contest . This is my non-book project for 2005, a kind of mental break from novel-writing. I've done the screenplay and am just putting the pieces together. Updates to come, maybe even a video-diary on the website!

2. ICE STATION MOVIE - WHAT'S GOING ON?

Sadly, the option Paramount Pictures took out on Ice Station has lapsed, so the rights have reverted to me (and I got to keep Paramount 's option money!). So, no movie on the horizon, I fear. There were several reasons why the film didn't eventuate, the main one (as I saw it) was that the key executive at Paramount who optioned my book left the studio, and so my book was left without a 'champion' at the studio. Bummer, really, but it happens.

4. A BLACK KNIGHT NOVEL?

Lots of readers are asking if my next book with feature Aloysius Knight, the bounty hunter known as 'the Black Knight' from my book Scarecrow. The short answer is, he doesn't appear in Seven Ancient Wonders , but I am now deciding whether to make my next novel after that (Book No.8!) a Schofield book or a Black Knight one. Haven't decided yet...

5. ORIGINAL CONTESTS - ARE THEY OUT THERE?

An increasing number of readers have been asking about the availability of the original self-published edition of Contest . I'm sorry to say that they are very hard to come by. I only printed 1,000 and even then I only distributed them (myself) in and around Sydney . So if you're not in Sydney , they'll be very hard to find. Occasionally one turns up at a second-hand bookstore, and I know of one selling for $200 in Mosman, at John's Bookshop. Last December, I heard from a fan at a signing that an original self-published Contest sold for $1,200 on Ebay!

That said, 35 copies of the original Contest were stolen from my car in Canberra in November 1996. So there could some in Canberra somewhere, if you can find those dirty thieves. They obviously saw the future and beheld the rise of Ebay and the value of these editions on it...

Anyway, better run. Got movie-making to do!

Very best wishes,