The grass is greener

I’ve had Joe Abercrombie’s Heroes on my shelf for more than a week now, and yet I’ve not broken page 30.

Believe it or not, I’ve passed over Curnden Craw and Prince Calder for King Edward VII.

I’m not a non-fiction person, I swear. (Goodreads confirms that 86 of the last 99 books I’ve read were fiction.) I don’t even follow half the politics discussed in Roy Hattersley’s The Edwardians.

Admittedly, Hattersley has a bit of an edge (just a little one): He is a former deputy leader of the British Labor Party and former Cabinet minister.

Yet, I’m fascinated by Edwardians. Most of the political fantasy novels I’ve read have a manageable number of politicians, obviously. But, Hattersley doesn’t shy from mentioning the dozens of MPs and ministers and whatever-you-call-them that influenced Edwardian England. I’m intrigued by the seeming triviality of the scandals that blackened King Edward’s name. I’m excited to move beyond the political aristocracy and learn how the middle/lower classes lived and what they did and how they did it.

I picked up Edwardians because I got this new idea for a historical fantasy fiction book. I’ve been typing away at my current project since November and have given myself a June deadline for the manuscript, and my enthusiasm is starting to show wear. I catch myself outlining for the new book, amassing characters and their foibles.

It is all very concerning.

The novel I was writing last summer died prematurely after I started daydreaming about my current project. Ideas For Novels are too alluring. They grow so fast — the first situation or character trait or snatch of dialogue sets off a hundred other ideas. One of my favorite things is that characters and plots feel so free and malleable before I’ve attached them to real prose.

Anyway. I keep on telling myself (and that copy of Heroes on my shelf) that I should get a feel for Edwardian times as soon as possible, if I’m to start this new manuscript in June.

Right?