The Approach

It is Awards time again, and you can vote for your favourite Irish book of the year here- http://www.irishbookawards.ie/PublicVote.aspx

This year I’m going up against my good friend Sarah Webb and the wonderful John Boyne, so it’s going to be close. I’m also up against Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick- I haven’t met her yet, but I’ve heard great things...

Now, even though you are my Minions, and you would die horribly for my own amusement- which I DO appreciate- feel free to vote for whatever book you prefer. It doesn’t have to be mine.

There, now that THAT’S over, I can tell you what I’ve been thinking about for the past few days. I’ve been trying to figure out what the new book IS.

The first book was an adventure, through and through. Young girl snatched away from her ordinary life into a world of sorcerers and vampires and ancient gods… Yep, that’s adventure.

Playing With Fire was a monster movie of a book. You had the Grotesquery being reanimated, you had the Torment turning into that huge spider, you had a fight between the two and lots of running and screaming… Yep, monster movie.

The third book, of course, that was the Whodunnit- that was the murder mystery. Aside from everything else going on, there was a killer stalking teleporters, and a (possibly) surprise twist at the end… Definitely a Whodunnit.

Naturally, Dark Days was a revenge flick. That’s pretty obvious.

Mortal Coil was my Invasion of the Body Snatchers- a fantastic movie that I loved when I was a teenager. It’s also my version of The Thing, possibly the best horror movie of all time.

But what, I’ve been wondering, is the next book going to be? What handy little label can I give it? What approach should I take? And the more I thought about it, the clearer it got, and now, NOW, I have it.

The next book is the culmination of all the Necromancer stories and plots and themes, and so in one corner, we have the Death Bringer, and in the other corner, we have the person who has returned simply to DESTROY the Death Bringer- we have Lord Vile. Two hugely powerful people with astonishing levels of magic, battling it out. We’re talking tidal waves of darkness. We’re talking people being punched through buildings.

Add in the fact that now the twins know magic exists, and are making normal life tough for Valkyrie, and now she’s doing everything she can to protect her secret identity from the rest of her family.

Hugely powerful people. Secret identities. MASSIVE battles.

The next book is, let’s face it, the darkest superhero story you’re ever going to read. With a bucketload of horror.

Sweet.