Fans of Glasgonian Fantasy author Hal Duncan will be pleased to know he is currently at work on his fourth science fiction novel. His previous novels include Vellum: The Book of All Hours 1, (UK edition: Macmillan, August 2005 / US edition: Del Rey, April 2006), Ink: The Book of All Hours 2, (UK edition: Macmillan, February 2006 / US edition: Del Rey, February 2006), and Escape From Hell!, (US edition: Monkeybrain Books, 2008). Vellum is a Spectrum Award winner, and was nominated for the Crawford, the BFS Award and the World Fantasy Award.
Suite 101: What are you working on right now, tell us more!
Hal Duncan: I've got a retelling of Gilgamesh I've been working on for a while now, but it's turned out to have a longer gestation period than I was hoping for. It's a complex mother****er with a multi-threaded narrative, and it's the sort of thing that has to be handled right; and at the moment, it's sort of telling me to back off; let it brew for a while.
I'm playing with some ideas for sequels to Escape from Hell!-a second book called Assault! On Heaven! and a third book called Battle! For the Planet! Of the Dead! (Yes, I'm incrementing the exclamation marks with each book. No, I'm not ashamed of the bare-faced pulp of it.) I've got pretty much the whole plot in place for book two, (with a lot of the key scenes sketched in) and the basic set up for book three, but I don't really want to give away the plot. I will say I'm envisaging Jesus as played by Vincent Gallo. Like... angry, foul-mouthed, storming-the-temple Jesus H. Christ, where the "H" stands for Holy-shit-did-I-get-shafted!
About Hal Duncan
Hal Duncan was born in 1971, brought up in a small town in Ayrshire, and now lives in the West End of Glasgow. A member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle, his first novel, Vellum, won the Spectrum Award and was nominated for the Crawford, the British Fantasy Society Award , the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. As well as the sequel, Ink, he has published a poetry collection, Sonnets For Orpheus, a stand-alone novella, Escape From Hell! and various short stories in magazines such as Fantasy, Strange Horizons and Interzone, and anthologies such as Nova Scotia, Logorrhea, and Paper Cities.
He also collaborated with Scottish band Aereogramme on the song “If You Love Me, You'd Destroy Me” for the Ballads of the Book album from Chemikal Underground, and is currently attempting to sucker fools into helping him score his "gay punk Orpheus" musical, Nowhere Town. You can keep up to date with Hal Duncan and read more about his books and other publications at Notes From The Geek Show, his blog at which he regularly updates with all manner of interesting topics, rantings and ravings..
Read More of Suite101's Conversation With Hal Duncan
Hal Duncan: Inventions He'd Like To See
Hal Duncan: Superhero For A Day
Lynne Jamneck - Lynne Jamneck lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Short listed for the Sir Julius Vogel and Lambda Awards, she has published short fiction in ...
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