Alan is very much his own writer. However, if you like Gormenghast, but wish it had a faster paced plot, or like Clark Ashton Smith's vision, but wish he'd had a better writing style, then Alan's  Deepgate Codex is probably the series you've been waiting for, even if it has got  a typo, the which Alan discovered only as he read out the passage (see right.)

And, if you also like book launches with free European lager, rather than the usual vinegary white wine, then you really had to be there last night at Waterstones - and the Traverse Theatre bar afterwards. 

I interrogated a pro writer about the market, had a fantastically pointless conversation with an agent - the fault of a flamboyantly inebriated editor - set the world to rights with my writers group colleagues, talked at length with escapees from the games industry (there's a bullet I'm glad I dodged), and reminisced about Thailand with a couple who'd been off round the world.