Five Things About My Works In Progress
To co-incide with the paperback release of the quite excellent novel by Gavin Smith The Age of Scorpio, the author has kindly agreed to provide SFBook with his thoughts on "five things about your work in progress".
So this five things about your work in progress meme thing has been doing the rounds, and I’ve never seen a band wagon that I didn’t want to jump on (that’s not entirely true) except…I don’t really discuss works in progress any more than I absolutely have to. Not even my editors. Though my agent keeps on asking me pointed questions. He uses words like "commercially viable", apparently this is different from commercially successful. He also uses words like "not just fucking insane". I cling to words like "just".
I am not really sure why I don’t like talking about my works in progress. Perhaps I have a secretive nature. I suspect it comes from a fear that someone might try and stop me, probably motivated out of a sense of goodwill. (Space fish-trolls are a good idea!) On the other hand if it’s good enough for Justina Robson (And if you haven’t read her excellent Quantum Gravity series then get ye to a bookshop or library, c’mon now, none of your nonsense!) then it’s good enough for me.
So I have two works in progress we shall refer to them by codename to alleviate my borderline paranoid personality: The codenames are Marigold, and the Beauty of Destruction (which is the working title for the third book in the Age of Scorpio trilogy).
1). I am trying to work out how to fuse apocalyptic (not post or pre), cosmic horror and noir at the moment, and reading a lot of James Elroy (as research).
2). Physics is refusing to cooperate with the plot of the Beauty of Destruction and as a result is in disgrace until such a time as it becomes significantly more cooperative. I am searching for alternatives, I like ether but magic is so convenient, though I understand that there are some genre issues when I invoke (see what I did there) magic. (Don’t worry it’s probably just a spat but for something so theoretical physics can be very bloody minded at times!)
3). The secrets of the Brass City will be revealed in the Beauty of Destruction.
4). Marigold, despite its terrifying codename, is science fiction, and space opera, but will not in any way be dystopian. Well I hope not anyway, though it’s a little ridiculous to suggest that an author is somehow in control of anything he writes, or indeed in anyway legally responsible for it.
5). Marigold posits something positive arising from the flames of a massive interstellar war fought among humankind far in the future.
5.1). And this a freebie. One day I’d like to be able to write a novel that doesn’t have druids in it.
News Archives
- August 2024
- July 2023
- April 2023
- February 2023
- September 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- July 2021
- June 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- January 2021
- October 2020
- September 2020
- June 2020
- March 2020
- May 2019
- January 2019
- November 2018
- January 2016
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
- October 2014
- June 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008