Update: working on a new book

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.

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...

My local library, complete with remains of fresco.

And home research...

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)...

History and the present weirdly collide sometimes.

And, you'll be pleased to see, some actual writing...

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.