The journey to 'Quintus Hopper of Nevada'
The last novel, from start to finish, took me about three years to write. However, the spark for it came years before then - what happened in between that spark and the actual writing of the novel ... well, it was life - and other novels!
I don't know about you, but I have stories rolling through my mind at all times. Thoughts come and thoughts go and sometimes they're noted down. Little by little, notes pile up and stories keep knocking, waiting to be written. For me, every novel is an entirely fresh adventure, an exploration into unknown territory where I invariably meet a host of characters living their lives as best they can. Last time around I physically went to the place of my novel and wrote it then and there, within the space of a single month - it was one of the most creative experiences I've ever had. If you're interesting in the results of that fantastic (and fantastical) time, check out The Sweet-Maker of Connemara.
The Sweet-Maker was published in late 2019, just a short while before the pandemic turned the world upside down. As always when I'm done with a novel, I take a short break and read and watch other people's stories. Before long, however, my mind inevitably begins to itch. The urge to step into a next world, and to meet and live with new characters, soon compels me back into writing more. I know myself and I know my writing instrument. If I don't play the instrument, I'm not happy. And so, before long, I dug through my notes and picked my next world. This time around, it so happened, I was transported to the early years of California and Nevada.
The spark for 'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' happened way back when in 2014, when our family visited an old mine in Eldorado Canyon, a good distance south of Las Vegas. There, on the wall of the shop where we met our guide, I saw framed pictures and read about the infamous Queho, apparently a mad Native American Indian who had killed a great many people in the early years of the 20th century. There was a picture of a posse, a picture of a slain woman, a picture of Queho's bones, found in a cave. I was intrigued. Not because there seemed to have been an Indian serial killer (fascinating as that is in itself), but because Queho was never caught despite the hundreds that hunted him over the course of many years. What struck me most was the man himself, a man choosing to live, for decades, on his own in the most inhospitable place imaginable. What had been his life? His reasons? And why did he do what he supposedly did? From that initial note, years passed and were wondrously spent in the worlds of other novels.
Shortly after the publishing of the Sweet-Maker, work on this new novel finally began. And I quickly discovered two things: one, that no one had ever actually witnessed Queho killing anyone and two, that the world I was entering into was a great deal larger than that of Queho alone. Fast forward to today. 'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' is undoubtedly my most ambitious work - so far. It is historical and supernatural fiction and has become a tale of epic scope that weaves the life of fictional typesetter Quintus Hopper with that of real-life people (such as Mark Twain and Sarah Winnemucca) in a story about the early frontier years, the years of gold and silver rushes, the world of frontier newspapering and, at its core, the plight of Native American tribes as white man's progress wreaked havoc on their world.
In the coming days and weeks and months, I'll be sharing more about the novel. If you're interested, check it out here > Quintus Hopper of Nevada
I don't know about you, but I have stories rolling through my mind at all times. Thoughts come and thoughts go and sometimes they're noted down. Little by little, notes pile up and stories keep knocking, waiting to be written. For me, every novel is an entirely fresh adventure, an exploration into unknown territory where I invariably meet a host of characters living their lives as best they can. Last time around I physically went to the place of my novel and wrote it then and there, within the space of a single month - it was one of the most creative experiences I've ever had. If you're interesting in the results of that fantastic (and fantastical) time, check out The Sweet-Maker of Connemara.
The Sweet-Maker was published in late 2019, just a short while before the pandemic turned the world upside down. As always when I'm done with a novel, I take a short break and read and watch other people's stories. Before long, however, my mind inevitably begins to itch. The urge to step into a next world, and to meet and live with new characters, soon compels me back into writing more. I know myself and I know my writing instrument. If I don't play the instrument, I'm not happy. And so, before long, I dug through my notes and picked my next world. This time around, it so happened, I was transported to the early years of California and Nevada.
The spark for 'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' happened way back when in 2014, when our family visited an old mine in Eldorado Canyon, a good distance south of Las Vegas. There, on the wall of the shop where we met our guide, I saw framed pictures and read about the infamous Queho, apparently a mad Native American Indian who had killed a great many people in the early years of the 20th century. There was a picture of a posse, a picture of a slain woman, a picture of Queho's bones, found in a cave. I was intrigued. Not because there seemed to have been an Indian serial killer (fascinating as that is in itself), but because Queho was never caught despite the hundreds that hunted him over the course of many years. What struck me most was the man himself, a man choosing to live, for decades, on his own in the most inhospitable place imaginable. What had been his life? His reasons? And why did he do what he supposedly did? From that initial note, years passed and were wondrously spent in the worlds of other novels.
Shortly after the publishing of the Sweet-Maker, work on this new novel finally began. And I quickly discovered two things: one, that no one had ever actually witnessed Queho killing anyone and two, that the world I was entering into was a great deal larger than that of Queho alone. Fast forward to today. 'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' is undoubtedly my most ambitious work - so far. It is historical and supernatural fiction and has become a tale of epic scope that weaves the life of fictional typesetter Quintus Hopper with that of real-life people (such as Mark Twain and Sarah Winnemucca) in a story about the early frontier years, the years of gold and silver rushes, the world of frontier newspapering and, at its core, the plight of Native American tribes as white man's progress wreaked havoc on their world.
In the coming days and weeks and months, I'll be sharing more about the novel. If you're interested, check it out here > Quintus Hopper of Nevada
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