Well, hi there everyone! It's been a little while between Thoughts - apologies for that - but in my defence, I've been really really busy!

First: I have a SIGNING THIS WEEK! It's at Borders Bondi Junction, here in Sydney. I'll be there this Thursday, October 7 , talking about Hover Car Racer and signing books from 6 pm . (I'll also have a few Hover Car Racer caps to give out to the first twenty or so people!)

Yes. I have indeed seen it, and yes - like those who have mentioned it to me - I have seen the...er...similarities it has with my books! I noticed elements of Ice Station and Contest in it and even my short story The Mine (where a giant pyramid is discovered buried underground). That said, I actually enjoyed Alien vs Predator in much the same way I enjoyed Jurassic Park III - sure, it wasn't as good as the originals, but it had its moments. It was also exceptionally well-made - I'll keep an eye on the director, Paul WS Anderson. And I loved being able to see both the alien and the predator creatures for long periods of time (especially the alien), to savour their appearance and just watch them closely. In the end, I'm a huge fan of both these series, and I had enormous fun watching the movie.

SO, WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN MY WORLD:

1. THE RACING HAS STARTED! HOVER CAR RACER IS IN STORES!

Yes, folks, my sixth novel, Hover Car Racer has been released in bookstores! (Well, here in Australia - UK release is next month and the US will see HCR early next year).

In short, it's the fastest thing I've ever written. I paid particular attention to the race scenes - I just wanted them to be the fastest thing ever put to paper. I hope it blows you away!!!

The Internet run of Hover Car Racer was a huge success, with 133,000 visitors coming to the HCR site. What I loved most about it was that it was free: readers could email the PDFs of Hover Car Racer to their friends and families - just as they would do with a book. I've already had one person come to a signing with Hover Car Racer printed out on a bound stack of A4 pages. Of course, I signed the cover sheet!

2. A FUNNY STORY - 'MATTHEW REILLY: BOOKSTORE CLERK'

I was at a Borders bookstore recently, signing copies of my books (as an author, sometimes - instead of a formal book-signing - you go into a store and hide in a corner and quietly sign piles of books). Anyway, I'm signing away in a quiet corner, surrounded by copies of my books, and a customer comes up to me and asks, 'Can you tell me where I can find Northern Lights by Philip Pullman?' It's at this moment that I realise I am wearing a black T-shirt, and thus look just like a Borders salesperson, so I just shrug and say, 'Children's section, fantasy.' And he said thanks and wandered off. (I quite liked Pullman's first two Dark Materials series, Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife . Didn't really like The Amber Spyglass .) Just call me a full-service author!!

3. MR AT THE BWF

Just a short hi to all those people who came to see me at the Brisbane Writers Festival. I had a great time in Brisbane - and quite a few people who came to my Friday morning session got Hover Car Racer caps.

4. THE 'D'

Yes, the stories are true. As was mentioned by Tim Smith on the Triple M breakfast show, I recently purchased my dream car, a DeLorean DMC-12, the very same car used in the Back to the Future movies. And it is just awesome! The gull-wing doors are simply stunning. It will feature in a story in The Sunday Telegraph 's motoring section soon (maybe even as soon as this weekend).

5. NEW BOOK, NEW STUFF

I am also 370 pages into a brand-new novel, which is just gigantic. It has a scale that far exceeds that of my previous books. With Scarecrow and Hover Car Racer I wanted to increase the pace of my storytelling, with this new one, I have kept that pace, but increased the scale of the locations and the story itself. It's big. Very very big.

Also, I have been in talks with some companies about doing some new story stuff next year - unusual stuff, new stuff. Keep an eye out! You'll hear about it here at MR.com first!

Oh, and a short ad for the Short Story section here at MR.com: sometimes fans miss out on my short stories (they get published in magazines or newspapers, and if you miss that day's paper, or that issue of the magazine, you miss the story). So all my short stories have been gathered together here at MR.com, in the Exclusives section. Check 'em out!

Anyway, I'd better run. I have writing to do!

Very best wishes,