Steven Savile's Blog: The Erratic Mumblings of Steven Savile - Posts Tagged "debbie-viguié"
The NEXT Big Thing
So, last week, the talented writer, screenwriter and brains behind the fabulous horror show Ghostwatch, Stephen Volk tagged me as part of the next big thing round robin blog – you can see his here – http://www.stephenvolk.net/page2.htm
And so here are my answers on my Next Big Thing!
Q: What is the working title of you next book?
The title of the next big novel is The Harrowing. Before that there’s a collaboration with Steven Lockley due out in paperback in the US, The Sign of Glaaki, but for the purposes of this blog we’ll talk The Harrowing.
Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?
That’s not an easy answer, as like most things it originating in a dozen places, but the core of it began to develop about this time last year. I was in London visiting my agent, Judith Murray, to talk about a Templar series we were thinking of developing – The Last Son – I’d done all the research and had put together the outline but something wasn’t working. I went to a concert – The Fountains of Wayne – that night with Scott Andrews, and midway though the third or fourth song it hit me… it’s not HIS story, it’s HER story… and suddenly it was a complete transformation of ideas. I sent an email mid concert to Judith, one of those by god I think I’ve cracked it, emails… and she agreed. Of course I hadn’t actually cracked it, I’d got a 15,000 word outline for Aisha, which was a reworking of part of The Last Son, and part new… but again something wasn’t right. So during an email to Judith I commented, ‘you know… all the problems of timings etc we’re having with this monster wouldn’t be there if it was a fantasy novel rather than an historical one… the dates are tripping things up, and the key points in history we have to hit…’
So I went away, redid it as a fantasy and it completely sucked. I mean was awful. So bad, in fact, I wound up throwing it all away save for the two main characters. I started jotting random notes, and in a weekend The Harrowing was born.
Q: What genre does your book fall under?
I’d mentioned on Facebook a while back that I had a hankering to get back to my roots after a lot of time tinkering with thriller stuff like Silver, Solomon’s Seal, WarGod, and now The Prophet… I wanted to do a big fat doorstop of a fantasy novel, something the size and scope of the Vampire Wars stuff, but in my own world, in a single volume.
Q: What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
It’s not something I give any thought to. I don’t actually ‘see’ the faces of my characters when I’m writing them, I’m not very visual like that. Plus to be honest everyone will give them their own faces and I rather like it that way.
Q: What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Do you have any idea how terrible I am at that? My one page synopsis ran on 100 pages… hmm. One line.
Three hundred years ago the magicians sacrificed the last remnants of the earth’s power to bury a city so vile, so corrupt, that it threatened to tear the land apart. Last night a cataclysmic earthquake tore a hole in the desert plains, opening a path for that long buried evil to seep back up to the surface. When a painted man staggers out of the desert claiming to be one of the knights who buried that city… well, it all goes to hell.
Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The Harrowing is represented by Judith Murray of Greene & Heaton. http://www.greeneheaton.co.uk/index.asp with the very detailed pitch package and sample chapters just going out, so it’s very early, relatively, in the process.
Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I’ve been fairly rigorous in the planning—so even the outline phase has taken a long time, I’d say about two months. The actual writing I expect to take 6-8 months solid work, just me and a very dark land.
Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I’d probably not, but I’d like to think it will be of the scope of a Thomas Covenant, but gritty like a George RR Martin, with the heart of a Stephen Lawhead, not all tied up in thees and thous and flowery prose, but bringing back some of the sensibility of the thriller genre stuff I learned working on Silver.
Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’m very driven in terms of writing. But I’m also frustrated in that fantasy is my first love, and there’s no original Savile fantasy novel out there. The closest thing is The Black Chalice, in which my remit was basically they’ve discovered a new set of Mallory tales, go wild. So it has always felt like despite the fact I’ve had a lot of success with Warhammer, with Chalice and most recently with the new Risen novel for Penguin, I’ve never really told MY fantasy story. It’s an itch I really had to scratch. So that’s it… this is my series, for me… and I’m just hoping everyone else enjoys the ride.
Q: What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, here’s a little peak at a few lines from the pitch:
As the black veins of the Harrowing spread people become convinced it is down to magic bleeding the earth dry. Seeking to nourish it they have begun 'witch-hunting', seeking out the weak Ravellers, stoning them to death and burning their bodies in offering, scattering their ashes. They hunt for sacred relics, weapons anything with supposed ‘power’ and melting them down to feed them into the earth in offering, hoping appease Croakahn the Torchbearer and stave off the Harrowing by replenishing the magic in the earth with more sacrifice.
They don’t realise that they are ruining the only hope they have of fighting back.
Okay, so that’s me talking vaguely about my next book – I’ve had to tag five others. Next week you’ll hear from Jonathan Green, Debbie Viguié, Lee Battersby and David Niall Wilson and one super secret other… I phrase it that way because Hurricane Sandy rather disrupted Aaron Rosenberg and a couple of my NYC based friends I wanted to tag… so eyes peeled. I’ll update this post when it moves from Goodreads over to my Website later in the week and put the tags here.
Curious about them? Here's some links to whet your appetite.
David Niall Wilson: http://www.davidniallwilson.com
Debbie Viguié: http://debbieviguie.com
Jon Green: http://jonathangreenauthor.blogspot.c...
Lee Battersby: http://www.leebattersby.com
And Jon, you'll notice is a complete tinker and has also played fast and loose with Sarah Pinborough... cheeky sod.
And so here are my answers on my Next Big Thing!
Q: What is the working title of you next book?
The title of the next big novel is The Harrowing. Before that there’s a collaboration with Steven Lockley due out in paperback in the US, The Sign of Glaaki, but for the purposes of this blog we’ll talk The Harrowing.
Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?
That’s not an easy answer, as like most things it originating in a dozen places, but the core of it began to develop about this time last year. I was in London visiting my agent, Judith Murray, to talk about a Templar series we were thinking of developing – The Last Son – I’d done all the research and had put together the outline but something wasn’t working. I went to a concert – The Fountains of Wayne – that night with Scott Andrews, and midway though the third or fourth song it hit me… it’s not HIS story, it’s HER story… and suddenly it was a complete transformation of ideas. I sent an email mid concert to Judith, one of those by god I think I’ve cracked it, emails… and she agreed. Of course I hadn’t actually cracked it, I’d got a 15,000 word outline for Aisha, which was a reworking of part of The Last Son, and part new… but again something wasn’t right. So during an email to Judith I commented, ‘you know… all the problems of timings etc we’re having with this monster wouldn’t be there if it was a fantasy novel rather than an historical one… the dates are tripping things up, and the key points in history we have to hit…’
So I went away, redid it as a fantasy and it completely sucked. I mean was awful. So bad, in fact, I wound up throwing it all away save for the two main characters. I started jotting random notes, and in a weekend The Harrowing was born.
Q: What genre does your book fall under?
I’d mentioned on Facebook a while back that I had a hankering to get back to my roots after a lot of time tinkering with thriller stuff like Silver, Solomon’s Seal, WarGod, and now The Prophet… I wanted to do a big fat doorstop of a fantasy novel, something the size and scope of the Vampire Wars stuff, but in my own world, in a single volume.
Q: What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
It’s not something I give any thought to. I don’t actually ‘see’ the faces of my characters when I’m writing them, I’m not very visual like that. Plus to be honest everyone will give them their own faces and I rather like it that way.
Q: What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Do you have any idea how terrible I am at that? My one page synopsis ran on 100 pages… hmm. One line.
Three hundred years ago the magicians sacrificed the last remnants of the earth’s power to bury a city so vile, so corrupt, that it threatened to tear the land apart. Last night a cataclysmic earthquake tore a hole in the desert plains, opening a path for that long buried evil to seep back up to the surface. When a painted man staggers out of the desert claiming to be one of the knights who buried that city… well, it all goes to hell.
Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The Harrowing is represented by Judith Murray of Greene & Heaton. http://www.greeneheaton.co.uk/index.asp with the very detailed pitch package and sample chapters just going out, so it’s very early, relatively, in the process.
Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I’ve been fairly rigorous in the planning—so even the outline phase has taken a long time, I’d say about two months. The actual writing I expect to take 6-8 months solid work, just me and a very dark land.
Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I’d probably not, but I’d like to think it will be of the scope of a Thomas Covenant, but gritty like a George RR Martin, with the heart of a Stephen Lawhead, not all tied up in thees and thous and flowery prose, but bringing back some of the sensibility of the thriller genre stuff I learned working on Silver.
Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’m very driven in terms of writing. But I’m also frustrated in that fantasy is my first love, and there’s no original Savile fantasy novel out there. The closest thing is The Black Chalice, in which my remit was basically they’ve discovered a new set of Mallory tales, go wild. So it has always felt like despite the fact I’ve had a lot of success with Warhammer, with Chalice and most recently with the new Risen novel for Penguin, I’ve never really told MY fantasy story. It’s an itch I really had to scratch. So that’s it… this is my series, for me… and I’m just hoping everyone else enjoys the ride.
Q: What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, here’s a little peak at a few lines from the pitch:
As the black veins of the Harrowing spread people become convinced it is down to magic bleeding the earth dry. Seeking to nourish it they have begun 'witch-hunting', seeking out the weak Ravellers, stoning them to death and burning their bodies in offering, scattering their ashes. They hunt for sacred relics, weapons anything with supposed ‘power’ and melting them down to feed them into the earth in offering, hoping appease Croakahn the Torchbearer and stave off the Harrowing by replenishing the magic in the earth with more sacrifice.
They don’t realise that they are ruining the only hope they have of fighting back.
Okay, so that’s me talking vaguely about my next book – I’ve had to tag five others. Next week you’ll hear from Jonathan Green, Debbie Viguié, Lee Battersby and David Niall Wilson and one super secret other… I phrase it that way because Hurricane Sandy rather disrupted Aaron Rosenberg and a couple of my NYC based friends I wanted to tag… so eyes peeled. I’ll update this post when it moves from Goodreads over to my Website later in the week and put the tags here.
Curious about them? Here's some links to whet your appetite.
David Niall Wilson: http://www.davidniallwilson.com
Debbie Viguié: http://debbieviguie.com
Jon Green: http://jonathangreenauthor.blogspot.c...
Lee Battersby: http://www.leebattersby.com
And Jon, you'll notice is a complete tinker and has also played fast and loose with Sarah Pinborough... cheeky sod.
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