In case you were wondering, that’s a reference to an old-timey Australian song in which the singer, er, has a friend named Duncan.

Anyway, as it happens I also have a friend named Duncan – specifically, my fellow Voyager author Duncan Lay, who I believe I’ve mentioned here before. We’ve met several times and we get on very well. We also have a lot in common. Besides both being Australian fantasy authors published by Voyager, we each released our first book through Voyager in the same year, and have been equally successful. And the parallels just keep on coming, because this April both of us are releasing the second instalments of our second trilogies. And finally, both of us will be launching them at Conflux/Natcon here in Canberra (I decided to hold a second launch – the initial launch will still be at the Co-Op bookshop like all my previous ones).

Having found this out, we decided to have a combined launch at Conflux, at which we would launch each others’ books. Which means that, for the first time ever, I’ve been invited to launch someone’s book! I’m a little daunted by the prospect, but excited as well.