Writer in Residence

In the years 2005 to 2007

I wrote four novels back-to-back without pause for breath. They weren’t my first novels and it’s not a huge amount of novels for anyone to write within the space of three years, but it was a period of very intense concentration for me and of extremely hard work. During a large portion of that time I had two jobs: a day job where I was minding children, and an evening/night job where I was working in a supermarket. I would get up at 6.30, start my day, work until eight or nine at night, spend some time with my family, write until three or four in the morning, grab a couple of hours sleep, then start all over again.

At the end of that I was lucky enough to get a contract for my four novels and I spent the next two years (2008 and 2009) in a crazy-intense state, editing the three Moorehawke novels one after the other, doing promotional work for my editors and then starting the rewrite on the Ghostbook. In the meantime I also started my next novel.

I loved every minute of it. It’s been one of the most satisfying, productive and intellectually stimulating periods of what has (so far) been a very satisfying, productive and stimulating life But it almost killed me. I emerged from it a pale, flaccid wreck; unhealthy, absent-minded, ever-so-slightly out of touch with reality. For almost five years I’ve been living in my own head, the world has been hardly more then a thin veil drawn across the more interesting world my characters inhabited. My once well-cared-for body has suffered horribly – I used have an almost compulsive exercise regime ( one hundred situps, push-ups, and crunches a day. Along with advanced isometric exercises that kept my sometimes frail health very much within my control) All that fell by the wayside once I dedicated myself to finishing the books. I quite literally fell down a rabbit hole and all the real things in life fell away from me. Now I’ve emerged the other side I barely recognise myself!

I‘m just about to start writing again, once I have the Ghostbook rewrite finished I’m planning on throwing myself right down the next rabbit hole. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. But I’m tying a lifeline around myself this time. I’m bringing an alarm clock. I’m going to do my exercises. I’m going stop working at the same time everyday. I’m going to stay attached to real world. Will I stick to this plan? God I hope so. Will it affect the work? God I hope not. But I know I need to try.