Time’s Repairman takes a calculated risk

Today I christened the new book by writing 6,500 words on the opening chapters. By the end of the week I will have written 10,000 words on THE FIXER OF CLOCKS, and you know it hasn’t been so difficult so far (ack – kiss of death!). Compared to past projects, there’s very little research needed, other than asking a few friends about working as nurses in their respective hospitals, and the internet has been a good source of information too (in the absence of actually going to Manchester to do the research – something I’ll be doing in the coming weeks – Google street map is a damn fine way of taking a walk around a neighbourhood you've never been to).

I tell ya, it feels good to be writing a contemporary book for once too, not having to worry about what people wore, what they said, what they ate and drank, and that no one has TVs, or internet or mobile phones and you can get around in things that are more efficient that hansom cabs or ponies. Life is more complicated true, but the 21^st century is a place I’m more at home with I guess.

(Image: www.freeimages.co.uk)

Other stuff I can divulge about the new novel is that it is set in Wythenshawe’s university hospital, as well as the town of Altrincham and Manchester city centre, and the main character is called Alan Walsh, a charge nurse looking after an amnesiac who once “repaired time.” Other than that, I can say it’s an apocalyptic story that’s as much about taking things for granted as it is about the end of the world, but it’s also about hope and realising that if shit happens, it won’t happen forever. Life repairs itself, as well as time. So yeah, it’s an uplifting story too – but grim. Desperately grim in places.

For the next 9 to 10 weeks I will be fixated on the FIXER and I can’t think of a better way to spend my time, even more so as I’ve reduced my day-job hours again to cope with the pressures of writing. By dropping my hours I’m dropping my wage, but family Curran is taking a calculated risk. In-goings and out-goings have been ruthlessly investigated and even if this writing malarkey goes pear-shaped, we won’t be in the shit, so that’s one thing. After all banking your livelihood on the publishing world surviving troubled times such as these, is like betting on a horse with three legs. It’s not so wise, yet writers are passionate people, and inventive. We’ll get our writing out by whatever means necessary, and even make it pay – so don’t worry folks, transmission will resume on one channel or another.

But the real bonus is balancing work with my writing and my family. Now I’ll be working just 24 hours a week, writing for 10 hours, and spending the rest of the time with my wife and son. How it should be done. I might even be able to squeeze some publicity time in somewhere (like this blog for instance). So all in all, it’s a fucking great way to start 2011 and a positive step forward into a year which is uncertain for so many reasons…

New Years revolutions

This year, for the first time in many, I haven’t made any new years resolutions. Is not that I’m shit at them, lasting but a few weeks mainly, but because life is too complicated and regimented enough without feeling obliged to chuck in a resolution or two for the sake of tradition. I have stealth resolutions, if you will, ones that I adhere to for the sake of my art, my health and general sanity. Ryan David Jahn has a good set of writers resolutions up on his blog, and I realise that I pretty much do most of these by default anyway, though admittedly I need to be healthier when time allows it. I walk a lot, so it isn’t all bad, and anyone who knows Sheffield knows that walking up and down its hills with an infant’s buggy will definitely burn those calories. But it’s the writing calories that I worry about more, the imaginative love-handles that collect during the down-time, especially the Christmas period, and I’m just itching to get lean again.

This week I handed in the rewrite of The Black Hours, a book I’m pretty pleased with and one that has improved in leaps and bounds since my previous publishers took a pass at it. I’m like a dog with a Frisbee with projects I believe in, and thankfully my agent agrees that this is a book worth persevering with. With The Black Hours done and dusted, however, that leaves me with a quandary for 2011’s project.

Those who have visited the blog before (and I should start 2011 with an apology to regular readers who may have noted a dearth of blog entries here – sorry folks, but a man has got to write his books to get by, right?), will know that in 2010 I completed the first attempts on two projects: the third Secret War novel (The Traitor of Light) and the start of a new series of books called Purgatory. Both projects were difficult to write, being completely different beasts to each other and written under tough writing conditions. I was happy with these attempts but with Purgatory I knew it was a roughly hewn rock even then, than a polished attempt at a new story. So after discussing the project with my agent, it’s been left to gestate underground for a little while longer, before the sediment settles and I can get a better diamond out of it.

The Traitor of Light is a different – ahem – story altogether. I’m very happy with how this has gone and it doesn’t need as much work on it as Purgatory, but I’m very much aware that the Secret War is a series without a home and rather than knuckle down for a year writing something that will not see print for some time, we’ve come to the conclusion that starting afresh, as I have done with The Black Hours, would lay more groundwork on snaring a publisher for the Secret War books. That doesn’t mean the Secret War series is dead, it’s just sleeping, as vulcanologists put it (- damn, I should stop with these geology references!).

What this means, is that 2011 will be the year of THE FIXER OF CLOCKS, a novel that will be a new direction for me. For one, it’s the first book I’ve written for about 15 years that is set in the 21^st century (though it will be one that leans towards the 1980’s in tone), and for another it will be more science fiction than historical fiction or horror or fantasy. It’s quite a different animal, quite grim as well, with a very downbeat conclusion, but then I think it’s healthy to pursue different directions in ones writing, to kept it fresh, you know?

As for my writing regime, well due to various pressures both in my domestic and day-job life I’ve had to cut down on the publicity side of things (as is apparent from my lack of blog entries here) and there are things going on in the background to secure more time for family life as I balance everything whilst getting this book to you, the faithful reader.

There are no resolutions here, just the norm. Just the same 10,000 words a week I do during any other project, and THE FIXER OF CLOCKS will be no different.

But we will see what the year brings as change is something I’m used to. I know that other projects in the pipeline (including a proposal to Black Library) will change much in the coming months if they go ahead this year, including pointing me towards the exit in my day-job – which can’t come any sooner for both myself and my long-suffering writing-widowed family – and would secure a future for my books to come.

Like 2010, 2011 will be an interesting year. Unlike 2010, this year will be better managed and even though the outlook for authors and publishers alike is far from rosy, people still like to read books, and hopefully they’ll want to read the next MFW Curran novel – whether that’s The Black Hours, The Fixer of Clocks or The Secret War book 3.

Happy new year to you all

---MFWC