Did more work on Hell's Horizon today -- the twists are starting to kick in loud and fast!!! I got to wondering why I was enjoying this one so much compared to Procession of the Dead. Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed going back to Procession, and I think it's a very strong book. In fact, it's the more imaginative and inventive of the two, and I suspect quite a few fans will prefer it when they read and compare the pair. HH isn't quite as spectacular a serving, having quite a traditional detective-style story as its structural backbone. But what it has, and what I like so much about it, is a far smoother flow. As I've often said here, writing is a learning process -- you have to keep writing and trying before you figure out how to do things. You can't just be taught or told. I'm sure lots of you who write to me looking for advice get frustrated when I say, "Just keep writing!" but that really IS the only way to improve!!!

Procession is a step-by-step novel. What I mean by that is, each chapter features a certain scene or dramatic moment, and as the book goes along, each one builds on the foundation of the others, meaning it's a bit of a jerky ride, i.e. you read chapter one and learn this; then you read chapter two and learn that; then you read chapter three ... and so on. It's how I think most writers start, and it's a very good way to start. When you're planning a first-time novel, my advice would be to break it down into chapters and write a short paragraph saying what you want to happen in each chapter. Try and have something important happen in all the chapters, so that eac one has a focal point, something that you can shape the chapter around. I think the hardest part of writing is the middle section of a book -- it's easy to get lost after a promising start, to find yourself mired in a sea where nothing much is happening fast, and characters don't seem to be going anywhere. If you have a specific goal for each chapter at the beginning, that will make your job easier. And that's what I had for Procession -- twelve chapter headings, with something strange or shocking in each chapter. The book underwent many elaborations in later drafts, but the structure didn't alter much from the very first draft, written way back when I had just turned 21.

Hell's Horizon, as I said yesterday, was a far more chaotic affair. The first draft didn't work. Nor did the second. That meant I had to rewrite, re-structure, bring in whole new segments and characters, junk a lot of what I'd written, play around with scenes and chapters and entire sections. It was a chaotic, messy affair -- but out of the chaos, the story grew. And as a result it's far more fluid than Procession. The story ebbs and flows, moving steadily in a forward direction, but with a less rigid structure. I think it's a smoother, more natural read, one that will probably suck you in more quickly than Procession, and have you turning the pages a bit faster. Where reading Procession Of The Dead is like walking up a staircase, reading Hell's Horizon is more like travelling on an escalator. Now, some people prefer stairs to escalators, but there's no denying that on the whole esclators are a slicker, easier, more enjoyable way of getting from the bottom of a drop to the top. Likeways, though I'm sure some fans will prefer Procession to HH, there's no doubt in my mind which is the better book. And I think Hell's Horizon was the first time that I fully realised that flow, that I went beyond the step pattern and created something more flexible. And that's probably why I enjoy it so much. It's not my first literary child -- nowhere near -- but it was the first to take a jump, not just walk on its own two feet.

Anyway, in other matters ... I re-worked my annual Shanta Claus story and have posted it to my web site, but it won't be up there for very long, so check it out ASAP!!!! This is the link: SHANTA CLAUS I always have fun going back to this one, and this year I included a relatively long new chapter set in Lord Loss's kingdom!! Just don't go reading too much into the new scenes -- they're intended to be enjoyed, not analysed for clues as to what's going to happen in the series!!!

I've been answering lots of fan mail recently, so if you've written to me during the last month or two and haven't received a reply yet, you probably will early in the new year!!! Bas and I went to see a band called Biffy Clyro in Limerick last night. They're quite well known, and have a very strong fan base, but we didn't think much of them -- in fact, we left halfway through!!! Lots of the fans there were obviously loving the gig, moshing like mad, so maybe we're just getting old and cranky, but it just sounded like noise to us!!!!! Nothing wrong with loud bands of course -- I'm a big fan of Metallica and The Pixies -- but I do like a degree of sophistication too, and I just didn't get that last night. Oh well -- horses for courses ...

I've been watching season 4 of Oz. It must be the bleakest, most violent TV show in history!!! I definitely don't recommend it for younger viewers, but it's compelling stuff for older fans, and perversely hilarious in a very dark, twisted sort of way!!! Something else that's perversely hilarious is a 1968 Czech film called The Cremator which I saw tonight -- it's about a cremator in 1939 who starts to lose his mind just prior to the Nazi invasion, but in a very weird way. It was a horrible film at heart, but done in such a wacky way, you couldn't help but laugh, even in the midst of its most tragic scenes! Worth checking out if you're into global cinema and fancy a taste of something different ...