Irons in the fire
It's been a pretty productive year for me so far. As soon as I finished writing The Memory of Trees in March, I started writing The Lazarus Prophecy; a novel that involves a dark biblical secret and a spate of serial killings related to it in London in the 1880's and the present day.
I finished that in July and in September began a novel with the working title of The Lucifer Chord. In it a young woman is paid to research the life of rock god Martin Mear, leader of the band Ghost Legion, who died at 27 in 1973 when they were the biggest stadium act in the world.
Martin was heavily into drugs, debauchery and black magic and there are many unanswered questions about his departure from life and his plans to return. 100 pages in, I'm happy with it. Anyone who has read The House of Lost Souls will remember the Fischer House, which Martin visits prior to writing and recording the Legion's début album. I've always wanted to go back there.
By contrast, I spent the weekend going over the proof pages of The Summoning, my young adult fantasy novel scheduled for January publication.
This involves a secret war waged for millennia between ours and a shadow world
kind of its warped mirror image. The shadow world's campaign against us is called the undermining.
Many historic catastrophes are part of the undermining. One of these was the Black Death. Most of the novel is set in the present day. My favourite section, though, describes a medieval knight's quest to the shadow world to kill the alchemist there who created the plague virus.
He lost his wife and daughter to the pestilence, so it's personal for him.
I love history and it was interesting to try to get into the mind of a civilized man guided by the chivalric code, who is also effectively a killing machine schooled in battle since the age of 7, as we know they were.
I'm nervous about The Summoning, because it's a departure from what I've done before and what people have come to expect. I've never written specifically for a younger audience before this. People expecting ghosts will be disappointed; otherwise there's plenty of action, atmosphere and foreboding. There's the Miasmic Sea. There's the Kingdom of Parasites. And there's music, obviously...
I finished that in July and in September began a novel with the working title of The Lucifer Chord. In it a young woman is paid to research the life of rock god Martin Mear, leader of the band Ghost Legion, who died at 27 in 1973 when they were the biggest stadium act in the world.
Martin was heavily into drugs, debauchery and black magic and there are many unanswered questions about his departure from life and his plans to return. 100 pages in, I'm happy with it. Anyone who has read The House of Lost Souls will remember the Fischer House, which Martin visits prior to writing and recording the Legion's début album. I've always wanted to go back there.
By contrast, I spent the weekend going over the proof pages of The Summoning, my young adult fantasy novel scheduled for January publication.
This involves a secret war waged for millennia between ours and a shadow world
kind of its warped mirror image. The shadow world's campaign against us is called the undermining.
Many historic catastrophes are part of the undermining. One of these was the Black Death. Most of the novel is set in the present day. My favourite section, though, describes a medieval knight's quest to the shadow world to kill the alchemist there who created the plague virus.
He lost his wife and daughter to the pestilence, so it's personal for him.
I love history and it was interesting to try to get into the mind of a civilized man guided by the chivalric code, who is also effectively a killing machine schooled in battle since the age of 7, as we know they were.
I'm nervous about The Summoning, because it's a departure from what I've done before and what people have come to expect. I've never written specifically for a younger audience before this. People expecting ghosts will be disappointed; otherwise there's plenty of action, atmosphere and foreboding. There's the Miasmic Sea. There's the Kingdom of Parasites. And there's music, obviously...
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Wow you've been very productive in the last few months, and am really looking forward to reading them when they are published, soon I hope. If not could you send any bits of paper with bits scribbled on to suffice until they are published - am needing a hit of reading your books. I like the thought of a return to the Fischer House, I felt that there was a lot of sadness in the House of Lost Souls as well as the creepiness.Was a bit disappointed about the Summoning isn't available until the end of January 2014, as initially it was showing up as being available in mid December, I though 'that'll be a nice little xmas present to me'. Now grinding teeth in annoyance ;) It will be an interesting read. When my sons where younger I read a lot of young adult fiction to see what was available and found a lot of the books very enthralling. As a good story is a good story whatever the label it has on it and am sure will open up a wider fan base.
Whew. I was beginning to wonder when I was going to find an author like you. So now I have books I can't wait to devour. Thank you.
You've been extremely busy there FG! I'm looking forward to reading The Summoning, it will be very interesting to read something written by you that is a little different than your "normal" novels. Both The Lazarus Prophecy and The Lucifer Chord have whetted my appetite and I can't wait! Keep up the good work FG!
I'll also be reading The Summoning just because everything I've read of yours so far has been superb.
I hope that it also opens you up to a wider demographic because the books you write were exactly what I was looking for when I was a younger adult haha.