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December 2007

Not the Best Year of My Life

I haven’t posted in this blog for some time, and I’d like to explain why. My partner and I have just had a very stressful year. I feel that my author blog should be bright and exciting, and when I got to the point where I just couldn’t be bright and exciting any more I figured it was better not to post at all. I didn’t want to bore my readers with one winge after another. (Friends, on the other hand, have sat through plenty of long winges – but that’s what they’re for, after all.) All the wonderful fanmail I’ve received from readers have kept reassuring me that the fight is worth fighting, and each time I read one I felt angry on their behalf, because the whole debacle we were going through was likely to cause the late release of The Magician’s Apprentice and that just wasn't fair – though I’m hoping that I between us, Orbit and I can perform some miracles and still get it out on time.

A few weeks back I wrote an explanation to post on my blog, but when I sent it out to friends or asked if it was a good idea to ‘go public’ many of them warned me against getting myself into a legal quandary. So there'll be no mentioning of names, of course, and I'm sticking to the parts of the story that relate to writing as much as possible.

To explain why this year has been so sucky I’ll have to give you a bit of back story. (See – I can’t even avoid recap when writing about the real world.) A few years back my partner walked into his garage and found himself in a cloud of swarming insects. They were termites. He had the house treated and we thought that was that. Then a year later the same thing happened, so this time the pest exterminators recommended by the Archicentre (official body of architects in Australia) were called in. The termites had eaten so much that the entire garage and part of the house needed to be rebuilt.

We knew that repairing the house would cost a lot and add no value to the house, but repairing the garage and adding some rooms on top would increase its value – and make it a little less dark and dingy. So we hired an architect, settled on a design and he found us a builder. Because the kitchen and bathroom hark back to the early 70s – and not in a good retro way – and are falling apart we decided to have them renovated as well.

I’d just finished the editing of Voice of the Gods and needed a rest. I figured the last thing I should do was launch into another large book while the house was being worked on. I’ve never been much good at concentrating while there are strangers in the house, especially if it means I’ll be interrupted for consultation and decisions. So when sorting out the details for the Black Magician Trilogy prequel and sequel contract I requested a six month break. My agent, bless her, decided to make it a year just to be sure.

The build start was delayed by six weeks. As the garage was demolished I worked on catching up on fanmail and updating my website. Six months passed and in September my break was over so I tried ‘warming up’ to writing again by working on a novella, but found the constant interruptions and distractions had exactly the effect I knew it would have. They broke my concentration and made the process slow and frustrating. So I put that aside.

By the end of the year the garage had been rebuilt and the new part of the house was structurally finished, but still required fixings like cabinetry and bathroom fittings installed and a balustrade added to the deck. That’s when everything started to go wrong. Without going into details, we wound up paying for work that wasn’t yet complete, on the advise of someone we trusted.

Over the next five months only about two weeks work was done. The decking, which had never been oiled, slowly bleached under our relentless Aussie sun from a beautiful red to a pale cream. The iron roof on the verandah, which had never been finished, had to be tied down with rope so when the northerly winds hit the neighbourhood wouldn’t be kept awake by the sledgehammer-like banging noise it made. The empty near-finished new rooms couldn’t be used while we continued on living with clothes on shelves in the lounge room and our bed in the family room.

I’d started writing The Magicians Apprentice in January but progress was excruciatingly slow. I was in a no-win situation. If tradesmen turned up to work on the house they broke my concentration. If they didn’t I paced the house, frustrated that the work wasn’t being done and knowing that the further into the book I worked, the more concentration it would demand and the worse the effects of interruptions would be. Still, I managed to finish Part One.

In May we started stamping our feet and about two weeks worth of work was done over the month. We got no explanation for the earlier delays. In June I stayed at Varuna Writers Centre for two weeks in the hopes that I’d get a good chunk of work done. The day after I arrived I got the flu and spent half of my stay staring at the ceiling and wishing I was home being looked after by my partner. I did get half of Part Two written, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

While I was at Varuna, no work happened on the house. Progress had dwindled to a dribble again. My partner met with a solicitor to find out what we could do, and the news wasn’t good.

July I worked on the book as best I could with the flu symptoms lingering on for weeks. The following months were a slog as I tried working on weekends to make up for the days I lost when we did have tradesmen here. Finally, after spending a day staring at the screen, I decided enough was enough.

Free of the contract, we’re now using our new rooms. Unfortunately this isn’t the end of the story. There’s still work that needs to be finished on the house, for a start. But nothing that can’t be done after The Magician’s Apprentice is finished. 

People say building a house or extension rates alongside organising a wedding or having your first child in terms of stress and upheaval. Naturally, it’s worse when you work from home. I knew I would find it difficult to write at my normal speed and concentration while work was being done, so I took time off to allow for it - and then more time. I also tried working at my old house (which we were using to store the contents of the garage) and Varuna Writers Centre. I looked in vain for an local empty office to rent, and tried working on weekends. Some of these ideas worked, some didn’t, but none brought me up to my usual writing speed.

Working within your own strengths and weaknesses is smart. Apparently some writers can churn out 300,000 word books using pen and paper while sitting in a noisy café and smoking a cigar. (Okay, the cigar is just for atmosphere.) I can’t. We all have different ways of doing what we do, at different speeds and with varying ‘ideal’ conditions. I’d never presume to tell another experienced, professional author when and how to write their books, though I’ll always offer suggestions and advice if they seek it.

I’m back at the computer reviewing the first half of The Magician’s Apprentice and taking heart from how good it has turned out so far despite everything. I’ve discovered that when I’m expecting to be interrupted any moment I hurry to get plot down, which leads to some very, very pacy writing. Unfortunately it hasn’t given me much room for world building, which I tend to build up slowly in the back of my mind as I go. I’ve tried writing details down, but found by the time I read through them I’d be interrupted and had to begin again by the time I got back to the computer. For the same reason, I haven’t quite got the interweaving of characters as tightly laced as I like to, either, but I’ve been fixing that as I’ve gone over the text.

If all goes well The Magicians Apprentice will still come out on time, if not it should only be a few months late. To catch up I'll probably have to keep neglecting my website and blog, but now that I can do bright and exciting again maybe I'll slip in a post now and then. I’ll definitely be thinking of all the keen readers of my books, from the new ones just discovering them to those who have supported me from the beginning, as I work at catching up.

Thankyou for your support. It’s kept me going when things were at their most trying. And if you’re contemplating any kind of building work, I hope you have a better experience than we had.