Battles and Ruby Keys

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been to war. I’ve fought over the same ground for days, standing in blood and muck, watching as men I’ve known for over a year are struck down, some never to rise again. I’ve faced cannon fire, volley after volley of arrows, the clash of steel and giant warriors capable of pounding men into the ground with their bare fists.
And I’ve reworked this battle over and over and over until it’s invaded my dreams and taken over my everyday thoughts…

… I’m now emotionally and imagination-ally spent...

I have never thrown so many hours into a chapter before. Even without the time spent on previous drafts, I’ve worked out that chapter 20 has taken a further 18 hours of my life. But now that it’s done, I’m pleased. Tired, yes, but happy. I have only the last couple of chapters to revise and then it’s finished, so it’s quite possible I’ll beat the deadline of Christmas to return the revisions of The Horde of Mhorrer to Macmillan - with a month to spare.

And after that… well, I’m looking forward to a nice break in novel-writing until probably March next year – which is plenty of time to get some research done for The Black Hours.

As part of preparations for the new project, I’ll be “bedding in” my main character – Silas Eldritch - by writing a 2,000 word short story called “The Key with the Ruby Eye”. And I’ll be publishing that short story here on this blog, or maybe even on the official MFWCurran website.

It will be the first piece of fiction I’ve completed not set in The Secret War-universe for four years, and the first piece of completed fiction I’ll have published on the internet. Which can be risky, but I have my reasons:

The first is to see whether my main character engages with the readers of this blog. I wouldn’t say the entire book rests on his shoulders (he is not the narrator, and unlike The Secret War and The Horde of Mhorrer, The Black Hours regularly shifts viewpoints between several groups of characters). But if Silas Eldritch isn’t engaging then much of the drama and intrigue will be as effective as a chocolate fireguard.
As ever, visitors here will be allowed to comment on what they think of him as a character, and this could inform Eldritch’s nature in The Black Hours.

And then there’s the mood of the writing. The Black Hours will be a dark adventure, and while The Key with the Ruby Eye will be set in France, I want to get that whole atmospheric-thing I’m planning for London going in this prose. The story will be gloomily-lit, but I want the smog of industry to be in the back of the reader’s throat, the sounds of civilisation grinding endlessly forward in their ears, and their heart pounding as the intrigue mounts. There’ll also be a ruthless streak of black humour in the story, something I haven’t tried writing before. But then, isn’t that part of writing? To stretch yourself and write-out of the comfort-zone?

None of this will occur, however, for another six weeks or so, but it’s going to be fun throwing Mr Eldritch into Paris of the 1890’s…
…Not to mention reading what you lot think of the potential saviour of Victoria’s London.

The ‘Hours start ticking in 2008…