Back when I was 12 or 13, I wandered through the local library looking for something dark and other than Stephen King (even he admits he only has 3 or 4 plots and just repeats them). Way back in the dusty corner of the library, an infernal region 'Horror' sections always seem to be consigned to in towns where churches almost outnumber the streets, I found a thin book called 'The Hell-bound Heart' by a writer I had never heard of: Clive Barker. Taking a chance, I checked it out.
I was engrossed by the time my mom rolled the car into the driveway, and had devoured the thing a few hours later.
Fifteen or so years later, I have read almost everything the man has published and cannot wait for his current project: 'The Scarlet Gospels', supposedly a confrontation between Barker's paranormal P.I. Harry D'Amour and the unnamed lead Cenobite of 'The Hell-bound Heart', better known by his legion of fans, some of whom I assume actually possess functioning brains, as Pinhead.
Some fun facts:
For those of you that don't know, Harry D'Amour is one of the main characters in "Everville" and also is the sort-of-hero of the movie "Lord of Illusions". (One of my favorite horror movies, and one I forced my wife to watch in an effort to prove to her that there are better horror movies than "Jason vs Freddy". So far I cannot claim success.)
Barker originally started writing a short story in which Pinhead is killed off in reaction to seeing "Hellraiser: Inferno" and hating it. Basically, he wants to kill Pinhead off so no more pathetic movies can be made. <We really need a standing ovation emoticon around here.>
The proposed short story is now in a third draft and at last report, that I could find, is over 3200 pages longhand in length. Math time! 3200 x 200 words (average human longhand production) = 640,000 words or about 1600 published pages. That's how it's done. Love a book that doubles as a blunt object!
Thankfully, Barker has stated that he is largely ignoring anything added to the mythology of Pinhead after "Hellraiser II". He is also ignoring most of the comic book additions as well. Thank God! And yes, he CAN do that. As much as some little chodes may whine, the entire idea is still Clive Barker's and his to play with or end. How would it look if someone added to Lovecraft's Cthulu stories...oh wait, yeah, mostly crap.
Barker has revealed in interviews that part of "The Scarlet Gospels" will be about the creation and machinery of Hell, and Pinhead's place within it.
Is anyone else waiting on this book? Or I am the lone weirdo on this one?

I LOVE Clive Barker's books, and like you, I've read all of them except his new one coming out. I thought 'Galilee' was probably one of his more disappointing works, focusing a little too much on gratuitous homosexual liaisons, but the rest of his novels are fantastic - especially 'The Great and Secret Show' and 'Everville.' I also liked 'Weaveworld' and I hope he writes another one day along that vein. Barker has a terrific ability to bring the reader into the worlds he creates and he was silent for a long time, making me wonder if he'd given up writing altogether. Glad to hear he's got another book coming out - I'll be sure to pick it up -

Thanks,

Jillian

No problem.
The thing doesn't have a release date yet, spent an hour searching for one yesterday.
Amazon.com has it listed as August 1, 2005. Guess he has been working on it for a while.
I think each of his novels have been better than the last.
Even 'Galilee'. I'm racking my brain and I'm not coming up with much as far as 'gratuitous homosexual liasons'. Unless you mean the Civil War journal? I would argue that subplot was necessary, as it better defines the power the Barbarossas have over ordinary humans. Same goes for Zelim's gang-rape early on in the novel, as it shows how one must suffer on the road to enlightenment, a major theme in the novel for me.
And what do you mean by silent? His last adult novel was "Coldheart Canyon" -- a truly awesome piece of work -- in 2001 or so, but he has put out two Abarat novels since then and those he has been a little slow on, because he has to write them and do all the paintings as well.
While I was poking around yesterday, I did come across a hint about a sequel to 'Weaveworld', but at the pace he works, that could be a decade off.