Less than month to go before my book, Worst Nightmares, is released. Reaction's been great so far! Can't wait to get to America and touch base with my uber-agent (Curtis Brown, natch!) and publishers (Vanguard Press, it goes without saying) in New York. Always had that Sinatra song in the back of my mind..."if you can make it there...." So... can I? Hope so. I want to visit the coolest jazz clubs in NY. but right now I don't know where they are. If anyone knows the coolest places to hang out in the Big Apple, lemme know. AND cool restaurants - not the super expensive ones, but maybe the Italian joints in Little Italy where fat guys are 'packing heat' and sitting in a back room eating meat ball spaghetti; where you'll always find a handgun taped in the toilet. That's the real New York. Maybe I have to go to Brighton Beach for that kinda action?

My family are avoiding me right now 'cos they're worried that I am one dysfunctional SOB for having come up with a story like Worst Nightmares. "What the hell's going through your mind, Shane." They keep their backs to the wall when they see me coming. But really I'm a sweetheart... Ever seen 'Dexter'? That's a cool series.