Temple: Incarnations

[StevenSavile]

A new book - a short and not-so-sweet novella is out today from Apex in the US, and available on Amazon both sides of the world... I'm pretty pleased with this one, and it isn't a bad place to start if you are curious what I am like but don't want to read Warhammer/Slaine etc. It ran as a serial over 2006 and got some pretty nice reviews. There are segments inside this that are perhaps the best things I have ever written... so I hope a few folks will drop by Amazon and take a risk - the publisher is only a small one, but the product is very nice.

Amazon.com: Temple: Incarnations: Books: Steven Savile

A man awakens in a filthy bedroom with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. Seeing an old Gideon bible on a nightstand, he finds a name to call his own - Temple. This is the story of Temple's quest for identity and purpose in a dying, decaying world. By turns heartbreaking, enlightening, and surreal, British fantasist Steven Savile has created a story that T.M. Wright describes as "a story about Death written by a man who has clearly consorted with devils." This novella comprises the four part Temple series published in Apex Digest issues five through eight, with a special introduction from T.M. Wright and an Afterword from the author.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It sounds intriguing, Steven.

 

[StevenSavile]

It was quite a challenge to do - I commited as a favour to a friend, to write four 10k stories, one a quarter, that together formed a coherent 40,000 word single story... without having a CLUE what it was going to be about. I normally write with pretty rigid guidelines mapped out for myself so I don't meander and get lost too often... but with Temple it was pretty much writing without a net - and a fierce deadline

I enjoyed it a lot... but would never do it again heh.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm not sure that I could promise to write four consecutive stories with a particular word count ... well, I could promise, but could I deliver? You must be a far more disciplined writer than I am.

The structure of this intrigues me as much as the premise. I really think I am going to have to buy it.

 

[StevenSavile]

It was a moment of madness, plus to be honest I have always wondered what it would be like to try a serial - especially knowing that each story needed a satisfying resolution because it was a quarterly mag and leavig someone up in the air for that long... well, that's a bit of a nightmare.

Thing is, I kind of fibbed to the editor and proclaimed that of course I knew where it would all go - where in truth the real appeal was knowing it HAD to work, to fit, and not knowing episode to episode what the grand finale resolution would be....

In terms of discipline, actually having written 6 novels in shared worlds on 10 week deadlines, I've actually got myself pretty well trained to spin stories to hit length as well as the simple (or not so simple) act of putting the backside in a chair. It's a whole different experience to writing my 'own' stuff, that I will admit.

 

[StevenSavile]

J.L. Comeau just posted a rather flattering review of Temple over at her Count Gore website, some of the highlights being:
Kafka would applaud this dark novella of a man who awakens in a foul bedroom without a clue to his past.


This is a beautifully written meditation upon inner desolation outwardly manifested.


... a grand and terrible novella from an author from whom I shall expect more great and wonderful dark fiction.


needless to say I am quietly chuffed. It's very different from my IP work, darker and more 'serious' if that doesn't sound too pretentious, so it is rather gratifying to see some nice ink for it.

 

[StevenSavile]

And the publisher, being a softie, just stuck a pretty decent slice of the opening up on the website: Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest