Russell KirkPatrick.com

It's my month for it. I jumped over a fence to reterieve a golf ball this afternoon, only I didn't see the uneven ground and sprained my ankle.

Now in fantasy I'd have the hero wince a little and walk on, albeit with a limp. We all know how laughable that is, right? Well, not only did I wince and then limp on, I played the last three holes in par. It was only when I took the weight off my foot that it swelled up.

This is a pity, as the goal this week was to defend my University Golf Cup from the ravening horde of profs, clubs in teeth, seeking to usurp my throne in Friday's championship. I'm determined to play, even if I have to hire a cart.

I didn't tell the doctor. 

Not long received the artist's cover design for Dark Heart. Have a look at this.

Whaddya reckon? 

Not much of a one for hospitals, me. So when I found myself yesterday in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, I wasn't happy. My doctor had last Friday changed my medications and my heart acted up - seems I have an irregular heartbeat. Lovely. A night in hospital, dartboard for the nurses. Woo.

All better now, I'm back at home and back on deck, ready to take every suggestion in my naming competition extremely seriously.

The publisher has emailed me asking what I intend to call the third book in my current trilogy. "You were thinking of a title change for this one weren’t you?" she says. "The other two titles are more dramatic and ‘dark’ and Waking Every God does sound a bit too light in sounds and intention."

The trilogy is called Husk (The Broken Man in the UK/USA when it comes out). The first book is Path of Revenge, the second Dark Heart. I was intending to call the third Waking Every God, but the problem is by the end of Dark Heart the gods have already awoken.

Now I'm scratching my head. So this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna run me a competition. Anyone's eligible to suggest a name for the third book. I'm going to offer a prize for the best and another prize for the funniest. Both prizes (boringly) will be a signed book. Should I actually use someone's suggestion they will get a clear credit in the acknowledgements and a complete set of my novels to date.

You'll probably need to know something about the story, so maybe have a read of the first book. The story is dark, so the title will need to reflect that. It's about widespread mayhem. So here are a few starters:

- The Broken World

- The Shattered World

- Rack and Ruin

- The Coming Void

- Death of an Empire

etc etc.

I'll let this run for a few weeks. My (faulty) judgement is final. 

Before you get all envious, this is Mesopotamia Station, a large high country run in the South Island of New Zealand. It's on the opposite side of Rangitata valley to Mt Sunday, where the Meduseld scenes were filmed for Lord Of The Rings. Glorious country.

I was down in Christchurch, my old home town, visiting my youngest brother. His family invited me to come with them for a weekend holiday at Mt Peel, from where his father in law took me to Mesopotamia.

The landscape is so raw. There's something about it that evokes fantasy - which is why that one valley hosted LOTR and has two famous high country stations called 'Mesopotamia' and 'Erewhon' (supposedly 'nowhere' backwards, though if that's the case then Samuel Butler, himself a novelist and owner of the station in the nineteenth century, couldn't spell). I found my writing batteries thoroughly recharged by the weekend away. There was the larger-than-life setting, and also the companions I went away with. Now I have something to write about, I'll get down to it. Book 3 begins tomorrow.

Just have to think of a name for it ...