My Locus colleague Tim Pratt has some terrific news over on this journal. The good folks at Bantam have committed to the third and fourth books in his new ‘Marla Mason’ urban fantasy series. This means we’ll see Blood Engines in October 2007,  Poison Sleep in April 2008, Dead Reign in October 2008, and Grift Sense in April 2009. This is colossal news for all sorts of reasons. First, Tim is a lovely guy and a good writer, who deserves success. Second, it means Bantam are really committing to these books, so they should be successful. And, finally, Tim and his partner Heather are part of the Locus baby boom. Liza is going to have a little girl in June, and Tim and Heather should have their baby in time for World Fantasy, which is awesome! I’ll get to meet both of these newest Locus-folk when over in the US later this year. All I need to do now, is to work out what the perfect little-person gift is to bring from Australia.