The arrival of Viscera

Viscera

A few years ago, after submitting the Morrigan Tetralogy to my publisher, I planned to take a few years off to complete my PhD thesis. However, Simon pointed out that I tend to do my best work when working on concurrent projects, after all, I’d written the last two books of the tetralogy whilst doing my PhD.

He suggested that I take a step back from working on obsessed, absurdist epica and try my hand at proper literature that focuses on real people and their relationships to prove that I’m not just a New Fablist. Having never been so insulted, I didn’t talk to him for at least a week before deciding that doing so might be a good way of shutting him up while also proving to the literature community, including my former agent, that I do have some credence beyond absurdism.

Not that there is anything wrong with absurdism, as it's a highly imaginative form of creative writing. However, the freedom that absurdism allows is so wanton that it can easily become an excuse, or a cover, for an inability to understand the nuances of human relationships. Unlike absurdism's boundless escapism, traditional literature does not rely on an unconstrained imagination with made up rules but is instead strictly constrained by a heavy weight of convention.

So I wrote Viscera, which is now complete and being recorded as an audiobook (with elements of Cinematics) to be available in print, ebook and (Cinematic) audiobook editions. I’m glad I wrote it, as I believe it proves that I have something of literary merit, and goes some way to providing credence for my supposed writing abilities. What it has proven, however, is the importance of absurdism in my novels.

So, for those of you who are interested in what a New Fablist can also interpret, then I hope you find Viscera a significant change from the dark humour and absurdism that my books are marginally renowned for. By the way, I think it's extremely unfair of Simon to say that it's proven an understanding of realistic human relationships, given that their utter distortion through absurdism can only arise with a deep and naunced understanding. Indeed, if I didn’t have an understanding of human interaction, then The Wrong Books wouldn’t have achieved cult status (according to Scribl.com). I think next time Simon makes such a comment, he could consider writing something first, rather than making disparaging suggestions that I prove my literary ability after a million words have done so already. Still, at least he's kinder than that wanker, Malcolm Shrot-Faith.