Just surfaced from four month head down bash on novel and now have time to blog.
Returned to a world of spam so sorry if I accidentally deleted anyone’s message – 2000 odd comments, and couldn’t bring myself to check each one.
Can now say a bit more about my novel. It’s called Wolfsangel and it’s set in the early Viking period. It is, as I’ve said before, about a werewolf.
It’s being published by Gollancz under a pen name – MD Lachlan. The reason for the pen name is that I’m known for romantic comedy in the UK, so we don’t want readers being confused.
My original book jumped between WWII and the Viking Age but we decided it worked better as a series, going through history up until the present than it did hopping about in a single obok. Hence, I rewrote it. This was quite a challenge, as the Viking material was only 20,000 words of the original. Now it’s 140,000.
Have done 3 drafts – first – no self-editing as I go, just write it to get it down,
second – trim and shape, rewrite plot elements, spice up or remove boring bits, drop characters who are uninteresting or over-complicate plot. This takes exactly as long as writing the first draft did, in my experience – about 3 months. I always think this is going to be a 2 week job and it’s always much longer.
3 Fine tuning – I go through looking at each sentence, making sure
a It makes sense
b It’s active
c It’s the best it can be.
I am having a week’s holiday now, and another week doing other things, before going on to draft 4. This is the scary bit – I come to it with ‘cold eyes’. This is the point at which I decide if it works or not. It’s often the ‘oh God!’ moment, when you ask ‘why doesn’t the hero just Fed Ex the ring to Mount Doom?’ or some other such question which blows your plot to tatters. I don’t think that will happen with Wolfsangel because, unusually for me, I plotted the novel out after draft 1. That is, I did a synopsis. This is very useful at this stage (not before you begin) because it really shows up any problems.
Anyway, it’s just sold rights in Germany, which is very pleasing as it’s a very good deal. Fingers crossed on rest of world.
I’ll stick the first chapter up here when it’s published – Summer 2010. Hope it doesn’t clash with the Thor film, though I don’t think that will be a problem. I’m just hoping to avoid one of those terrifying coincidences writers suffer sometimes – ‘Oh dear, the plot’s exactly the same as mine.’ It’s easy to get paranoid at such points but I do believe in zeitgeist and, if I can pick up on it, others can too.
Here’s a bit about Wolfsangel from the Fantasy Book Critic blog:
In news, Gollancz are delighted to announce that they have acquired world rights for the first three novels in an exciting and innovative historical fantasy series that recounts the trials and triumphs of an eternal werewolf living through the ages of human history. The first book is entitled “Wolfsangel” and is slated for publication in the Summer of 2010.
The deal was negotiated by Judith Murray at Greene and Heaton on behalf of her author M.D. Lachlan.
Simon Spanton said: “As soon as I started reading Wolfsangel I knew that Judith had sent me something special. A tale that combines the Vikings, Norse Mythology, the myth of the werewolf and a narrative that spans centuries was always going to be ambitious. That Wolfsangel realized that ambition while also giving you vivid and believable characters, that it was as good in its evocation of atmosphere as it was in its depiction of action marked it out as something very special indeed. I’m delighted to welcome M.D. to Gollancz and look forward to making his series a long-lasting success both here in our markets and in translation.”
NOTE: This news has me excited for a couple of reasons. One, Gollancz always does a great job of discovering new talent and Lachlan sounds like he will continue that tradition. And two, I think the market could use a great werewolf epic 
Just read a great book I’d recommend to anyone – Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Explains exactly how medical hoaxes like Homeopathy work and how they manage to deceive so many people. It also explains the dodgy practices of drug companies, nutritionists and the press. It’s funny, informative and will have you asking questions such as ‘exactly what made me believe fish oil boosts child IQ? Why didn’t I know there has never been a single study that says raising your anti-oxidant levels is good for you? Who told me those things?’
Anyway, more post soon, I hope.