Catherine Banner
  • About
  • The House at the Edge of Night
  • YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
  • News & Events

Update: working on a new book

9/9/2016

0 Comments

 
So this isn't really news, since I've been working on it on and off for more than a year, but over the past couple of weeks it has finally become a real thing rather than a vague collection of notes and sketches. It's official: I am working on a new book.
Picture
Part One...
The strange thing that no one tells you about writers is that those of us who work for publishers (as opposed to self-published or uncontracted ones) work to an odd, time-shifted schedule. While readers are just in the process of discovering your new book, you are usually already working on something new. This is mainly because of how the publication process works. In an ideal world without unexpected illness, family emergencies, other jobs, kids, writer's block or procrastination, writers would deliver a book every two years. This rarely happens, but it's the aim. Since it takes over a year for a publisher to prepare a book for publication, to keep to this schedule you actually have to hand in your new book around 9-12 months after your previous one has been published. This means writers are always looking two ways simultaneously (think of it sort of like a parent with one kid preparing to leave home and one just starting pre-school). Commercial and genre writers have a harder job, because they are often trying to hand in a second book before the first one is even released, to keep to a one-book-a-year schedule. All of this is really to say that I haven't spoken much about this new project yet, because most people - understandably - want to talk to me about the current book, not some awkward future one which is still in note form on my desk. But it has been happening, invisibly, alongside the work I've been doing for The House at the Edge of Night. And for the next year, the plan is to work on it more or less full time. As a writer, your projects are not as separate as they might seem. They are actually chain-linked together by theme and purpose, part of a body of work which goes beyond one particular book, so it's been a relief to finally start some serious work on this new one, which picks up a lot of what I started, creatively, with The House at the Edge of Night.

So far, the process of working on the new book has involved many things. Among them, library research...
Picture
My local library, complete with remains of fresco.
And home research...
Picture
Writing wouldn't be writing without books and papers spread all over the floor for at least twelve months at a time.
And more research (this late-night reading session got a bit creepy when I realised I was reading about my own apartment building, which was built in 1937 and is apparently part of a new social housing development built by the Fascist government)...
Picture
History and the present weirdly collide sometimes.
And, you'll be pleased to see, some actual writing...
Picture
Old-school writing with a notebook.
I'm looking forward to telling you more about the project over the coming months. What I can say is that it's another historical story, following a small community over a period of twentieth-century history towards the present day, and it involves the Italian partisan movement, a small town, its factory and one extended family with an extraordinary history, two world wars, and a weird miracle which no one knows what to make of.

Meanwhile, I am chronicling a year of my writing life via an Instagram story in 365 chapters. I started the project mainly as an experiment to see what a year of a writer's life looked like, but I think this next few months will actually be one of the most interesting parts. If you want to see how a book gets made (I hope it's going to be a chronicle of that, rather than of writer's block, but you never know!), you can follow here: www.instagram.com/catherinebanner. Now back to the new book.
0 Comments

    Subscribe for updates

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from brewbooks, Kurt:S, gruntzooki, quinn.anya, Quasic, Tilemahos Efthimiadis, Vox Efx, Bright Meadow, hjconti