New Year Greetings and January Meetings

Just a couple of things to put in your diary for the New Year:

Meet Sheffield author
M.F.W. Curran

who will be signing, reading and giving a talk on his new novel

THE HOARD OF MHORRER

on Thursday 8th January 6:45-8:30pm at Waterstones, Orchard Square, Sheffield

Tickets £3, redeemable against purchase of the book on the night.

To purchase tickets please call 0114 272 8971 or buy in store.

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And on the 16th January, the book launch of The Hoard of Mhorrer will take place at Goldsboro Books, Cecil Court (off Charing Cross Road). For more information please click here. (By the way, if you love signed first editions, bring some extra cash with you – Goldsboro Books is an Aladdin’s cave!)

In both cases author and books will be in attendance. Hope to see you there…

Happy New Year

MFWC

More news from the Secretariat

I’m delighted to announce that Goldmann, an imprint of Random House, have secured the German Language rights to The Hoard of Mhorrer.

Needless to say I’m very pleased with this - after the significant deal for the first book, Goldmann’s faith in this series continues with a great advance for the second.

There’s no definite date for the German edition of The Hoard of Mhorrer, though it will probably hit the shelves some time in 2010.

The Hoard of Mhorrer: the Secret War book 2 (preview)

An extract from The Hoard of Mhorrer is now available to read courtesy of Bookspot Central. Just click here to read the entire opening chapter from the second book in the Secret War series...

Merry christmas!

MFWC

What a giveaway!!!

Christmas is no longer coming, it’s pretty much here! Pan Macmillan has nicely donated five sets of the Secret War books 1 and 2 to Fantasy Book Critic. The first five names pulled out of the hat will get both the paperback of The Secret War and the hardback of The Hoard of Mhorrer.

Just click on here to whiz yourself over to the Fantasy Book critic site…

Series-ous writing

From the start - the moment I put fingers to keyboard - I was aware that writing a series of books is both a curse and a blessing. The blessing is pretty obvious – a series allows the writer to keep churning out book after book with the same characters, allowing enormous story arcs and if done right, a series can recruit legions of fans. And, at the moment, publishers do love a crime or fantasy series.

But there is also the curse. You see, once you start writing a series, you have to see it through to the end, usually without any interruption, which can be slightly annoying if there are other projects you want to pursue alongside the series. And not just annoying for the writer, but for the reader too.
Any Clive Barker fan or Stephen King fan will tell you that they’ve been chewing their fingers to the wrists in anticipation of the Third Book of the Art, or in King’s case the completion of his Dark Tower series (which he has now done, but after countless interludes from other books). You can’t just keep palming off your readers while they wait at the edge of the cliff. As often happens, the readers tend to walk away, losing interest (more so these days – we are a generation, it appears, blessed with a wickedly short attention span).

As a relatively young writer – a new writer – I am in the lucky position of being allowed to make fundamental mistakes with my writing career (I’m not being ironic here either, I do feel lucky that I am in that position of being able to choose a writing path, living and dying by it). I made a decision early this year to take a break from writing the third book in the Secret War series. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I thought a break in the series would refresh my imagination. Too often, I’ve found third acts feel jaded – a tired writing and plotting of a writer that has done too much too soon on one storyline. I didn’t want that. The Traitor of Light will be an ambitious novel, perhaps not in length (we’ll leave that to book 4: The Fortress of Black Glass) but definitely in scope. I wanted to come to it invigorated, to make book 3 the best book so far (that’s my ambition – for each book to be better than the previous).
However, part of me wonders whether or not it was a good idea. I mean, lets say Pan Macmillan do take book 3, it will probably mean a publishing date of 2011 at the earliest, more realistically 2012. That’s over three years away. Can readers wait three years for another book in a series?
This lag would reduce somewhat if I was writing full-time, true, but being realistic unless, The Secret War and The Hoard of Mhorrer hit the bestseller lists in the next six months or so, I won’t be giving up the day job.

So, I guess the question is this: should a writer devote his time singularly to a series, as Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time) did? Or can a writer get away with diverting his energies once in a while, promising to return sharpish to the series at hand?

There is also another question alongside this: is it a wise idea to start a large writing project knowing too well that a baby is around the corner and disruption is inevitable?

The Last Reef: a short review

I don’t often review books on this blog. I guess music and films are different because it’s not my paddling pool and I don’t feel bad peeing in it once in a while. But I don’t like to criticise fellow writers nor do I feel that comfortable hailing them from the mountain-top (though I will do a little pimping now and again). But there are some books that I feel driven to promote, especially if it’s a book not many will have heard of.

As I suspect will be the case for Gareth L. Powell’s anthology, The Last Reef (published by Elastic Press). This was a speculative buy when I was down for the BFS Con in September, and from experience some indie press publications have been a little hit and miss, confirming why they weren’t picked up by more mainstream publishers. But in the case of Powell’s collection of stories, this is really a missed opportunity from the big guns, and thank god Elastic Press had the foresight to gather these stories together. It’s a slim book, only 200 pages, but there’s more imagination crammed into these pages than you’ll find in an average sci-fi novel from a mainstream publisher.

And it’s not just his imagination either. Powell is a bloody good writer. His prose is lyrical and drips with vivid description, slipped into the text so it never feels like the rhythm of the writing is bogged down. It does mean that prose is economical but evokes enough in one sentence of description than I’ve seen in a paragraph from more seasoned writers. At times his stories remind me of Asimov, other times they remind me of Jonathan Carroll. The characters are strong for short fiction, and while at times they are little faceless (no bad thing though, it means the reader’s imagination works harder) they’re built outside of the stereotypes that usually blight short fiction.

There’s a refreshing diversity to the storylines too. From multi-national terrorism, to cyberspace anarchy, to redemption at the end of the universe, the collection is a journey into reluctant heroes and damaged relationships, flawed characters one and all. In particular, I loved the story “Arches” which could arguably be turned into a wonderful full-length novel.

All in all, this is recommended reading (by me, anyway), and in the past six months, one of just a handful of books that I’ve been inspired by.

Seeking shiny things and inspiration

I’m a seasonal writer, I’ve decided. For me, winter is not a good time to write. It’s cold, it gives colds and it’s a stressful time with Christmas lurking in the middle of it. It’s also a time when inspiration is not forthcoming what with everything being drowned in festive shopping, bunged-up noses, over-heated offices and freezing westerly winds that have been battering our lofty house now for the past two weeks.

But it ain’t all bad.

For one, I’ve recently finished the second draft of The Black Hours. For another, I have two books out next month, and for a third, it gives me time to do things that are on the periphery of writing books.

Last Friday I attended the “almost”- annual gathering of the Macmillan New Writers. Tim Stretton has written a lovely post here, so I won’t rehash what he’s already said. What I would say, is that it makes me feel damn lucky to be part of a writers’ circle that is devoid of ego, full of encouragement, and brilliant with advice. I’ve said it before, but I feel privileged to be part of it.

Also last week, I had my first interview for The Hoard of Mhorrer (out January 2nd, for those not in the know). Slipping for a moment into metaphor, giving interviews is like going on a first date. In the lead up to one, they don’t appeal (in fact I’d say they make me nervous) but once I get into the swing of talking (realising that actually, given the chance, I can talk about writing for England) I really enjoy the experience and the time flies by. As it did with this one. I’ll post more about it at some later date, but it went well and reminded me why I liked giving interviews in the first place (though I reckon that had more to do with the interviewer than interviews per se).

So what else is going on?

Well, over the next two weeks the official website will see a few changes. There’ll be more stuff on The Hoard of Mhorrer and The Secret War books, as well as The Black Hours and a blurb for The Traitor of Light. There’ll also be bits on public events, more photos and news on long-term stuff.
This blog too will see a bit of makeover. Other than the title (renamed to cover the sub-genre that got me here in the first place – it made sense, you know?) there’ll be more links on the right hand-side to reviews and other more immediate news that I can’t get quickly onto the website. I’ll also endeavour to post more pictures and shining things here too. It’s good to have pictures and shining things, I’ve been told. And I’ve got a brand-new shiny camera to take those pictures and shiny things, so I’d better make use of it!

Oh, and blog entries will be a bit shorter too. Little snippets really, but more regular ones hopefully than the once-a-week-if-you-are-lucky entries that seem to amble by here. So prepare yourself for musings…

…And perhaps a few shiny things.