A few updates, but first: it turns out I really need to work on my elevator pitch for Modern Magic.
There have now been several occasions where a friend or colleague has announced to someone that I have written a book. This is usually followed by: “What kind of book?”
At which point the pitch descends as rapidly as a ton of steel where someone has pressed the wrong button and I mumble something along the lines of: “Erm… fantasy?”
This often leads to the whispered and wide-eyed question: “Is it romantasy?”
It isn’t. Not because I have anything against romantasy, but because, despite my editor’s repeated requests for “more heat!”, I am incapable of writing anything steamy while conscious that my parents are literate and possess Amazon accounts.
It’s not cosy, either. Or grimdark. Mostly because the world is a scary enough place already. It doesn’t need me adding to that by attempting either genre.
It does contain a city, so urban fantasy rings true, although it’s a very paperwork-heavy kind of urban. Am I selling it yet?
At a recent lunch, when the dreaded question was posed, a friend stepped in and said: “Think Harry Potter meets Suits.” It’s not perfect, given that my mages are more likely to be found behind a desk than in a cupboard, but everyone nodded, visibly relieved, and continued eating.
An agent once told me she loved the manuscript but didn’t know where she could send it, which may be the most accurate description of the book I’ve heard.
If pressed, I would now say this: it’s a sharp, witty fantasy about what happens when magic needs rules, and when it doesn’t.
There are dragons. There are auditors. There are spells with terms and conditions. It turns out quite a lot of people enjoy that combination, including a surprising number who like to tell me they “don’t normally read fantasy,” which I think is a compliment.
Now for the update: the second novel in the series, Modern Magic: Trading Futures, is finished. It’s currently undergoing its final proof before we move on to covers and other exciting things.
This time the problem is not a mysterious tree in the foyer, but something rather worse: Hop Pockett is investigating again. There are some curious goings-on at the Citadel’s Futures Exchange which will result in consequences that can’t be filed away this time.
More on that very soon.
And if that’s not exciting enough, book three is about a third written and, for the moment, appears to be going as planned. Admittedly, what I think I’m writing at this stage and what eventually emerges tend to be only distantly acquainted. But that’s half the fun.
In the meantime, if anyone has a better elevator pitch for Modern Magic than “Harry Potter meets Suits, but with dragons and questions of legal compliance,” do let me know. I would like to stop answering the dreaded question as though I’ve just been caught doing something mildly illegal. Which I probably have been, given I’m still meant to be full-time lawyering.
On which note, back to the cupboard.