Okay, most of the madness is over. For the time being I’m done running around to bookstores, and getting up at odd hours to do phone-ins with someone in Reykjavik (where, incidentally, one English language copy of my latest book is available at a dog sled stop in an ice field somewhere).
Time to go back to City of 4. Though I can stall a bit longer by telling you that a number of people very kindly sent e-mails to say they liked the idea of calling it book four in the City of Dreams series, and giving it another actual title. No idea what yet, but that’s a different kind of problem and much more manageable.
Now it definitely is time to write. And after this much time away, it’s really, really hard to do.
I was helped enormously by something I saw on PBS the other night. During their oh so boring fund raising drive, no less. The hook meant to keep you in place while they begged was a countdown of the top twelve favorite shows on Masterpiece Theater, and the shtick was hosted by Derek Jacobi. Of course I had to stay with it to see if my all time hands-down favorite, Upstairs Downstairs, made the cut. Bill said his favorite was The Forsyte Saga. Then he went to sleep, leaving me propping up my eyelids with toothpicks determined to know the result. (Yes, I know how stupid that is. I can’t help it. I’m compulsive about competitions of any sort.)
Hoo Ha! Comes the final four and the second most favorite was Forsyte, with number one being Upstairs Downstairs. And in the course of describing those two wonderful costume sagas to an audience among whom were probably many too young ever to have seen them, Jacobi, said two words that got me back to writing. Villain was one. Hero was the other.
I realize it sounds too elementary to be believed. Particularly from someone who’s been doing this as long as I have. But that just shows you how easy it is to forget the building blocks. Who I asked myself is the villain of 4? As soon as I posed the question I knew the answer. Samuel is the villain. Likeable, even sympathetic in some instances, but the villain of the piece nonetheless. If I don’t write him large enough in that regard, you are not going to enjoy the book. Very well, then who’s the hero? Kif, of course. Christopher Turner, the heroic doctor we meet on the battlefield at Gettysburg in the book’s prologue. Meaning I have to write larger a lot of the plot threads involving him. And give him a quest, and a mission, and obstacles.
Ah yes, I see it all now. This book is going to come together after all… Thanks to Derek Jacobi and PBS. Even their lousy fund drive. (Yes, I did give. I certainly owed them.)