So, what does a writer do when they have one book nearly finished and another one in second draft needing a lot of work to finish it? Answer: they start another novel of course!

I must be mad. I mean, I have spent a lot of time recently on finishing ‘The Blade’s Fell Blow’, the final part of my Sorrow Song Trilogy. It is almost there. Just a few more touches and I will have the finished article ready for submission. As this book was coming to an end I started another one, tentatively titled, ‘The Queen of the Mountain’. Whereas the Sorrow Song Trilogy is historical fiction recounting England’s saga of 1066, ‘The Queen of the Mountain’ is a fantasy novel, I have written previously about jumping from one genre to another. In fact my last blog examined my reasons for doing this. Of course ‘Eugenica’ is an alternate history book, so I have covered three different genres there.

My new book is yet another departure, into the realm of science fiction. I have commented before about how I find most modern science fiction rather unimaginative. I was thinking then that if I ever tackled a science fiction novel then it would be very different from what appears to be mostly ‘space operas’. Well, it is. I must admit that the original idea came from someone else, an internet friend who lives in Switzerland. She gave me the germ of an idea that has, quite simply, taken root. As the book is still in the very early stages of development I do not want to give too much away about it at the moment. What I can say is that it involves a future society that is not based on capitalism, time travel, and dinosaurs. My friend suggested that I include them because they are a passion of mine. I really liked that idea!

It is not enough to have the ideas, however. I am currently in the process of developing the themes of the story, along with the characters, and of course the plot. Some of the themes are going to be quite deep, I expect, touching on population control, natural resource management, a civilisation that does not depend upon money, ecology, alternate agricultural techniques, energy supply, and various other related topics as and when they seem relevant to the story.

I already have a good idea about one of the central characters, a woman who combines all the traits that I admire, courage, intelligence, femininity, etc., who will be thrust into a situation that most humans have never experienced before; surviving in a time of dinosaurs! This is not a ‘Jurassic Park’ clone, however (pun intended by the way). My dinosaurs will be real, by which I mean, I consider myself an amateur palaeontologist, therefore I will be writing with as much scientific accuracy as I can muster, and not cutting corners or compromising fact for impact like Michael Crichton did in his book.

So, that’s my immediate writing future mapped out for me then!