The Next Big Thing

I’ve been tagged in The Next Big Thing by the fabulous Roisin Meaney. Apparently, I have to answer some questions about my WIP and then tag five other authors about their Next Big Thing. Any chance to procrastinate from actually writing the thing is always welcome so fasten your seat belts and welcome to my world!

What is the working title of your next book?
The Maths Man Prophecies. My husband came up with the title when I told him what it was about. He’s brilliant at naming things. Apart from pets. He actually had a cat called Tibby. I need say no more.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I had watched a documentary about a savant who was brilliant at maths and wondered what it would be like to look at the world and instead of seeing it the way I do, as stories waiting to be told, you saw it as a series of equations? This then led to me wondering if a really talented mathematician could predict the future using maths. I know there is a science where you can predict what a society will do using crowd maths or crowd statistics or something, but I started postulating what would happen if my protagonist could predict little things using maths. This eventually morphed into a maths teacher having ‘visions‘ which he interprets as prophecies.

What genre does your book fall under?
Dark, bitter, twisted and funny. What do you mean, that’s not a genre…?

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? 
The actors whose photos are on my Scrivener files are James MacAvoy for Sean Bentley and Karen Gillen for the 17 year old Fiona. And Sean Connery as himself.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A maths teacher with OCD and a thing for one of his students has visions which seem to offer him an escape from his humdrum life, over-powering mother and bossy girlfriend.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I am currently un-agented and open to offers. I’d ideally like a trad pub deal, but if I’m not successful with that, I have faith enough in my story to self-publish. Self-pubbing my short story collection, And The Angels Cried and other stories on Amazon has given me the confidence to do it myself.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I’m still writing it! I reckon it will have been a year in all. But I have been doing other things inbetween.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
In my most ambitious dreams I’d like to think that some day, someone might mention me and Christopher Brookmyre in the same breath. Without laughing.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
An image I had of a man seeing the world as a series of equations.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s a bit filthy, but funny filthy so I think that’s OK. And when I wrote the end – which I usually do first – I cried and I hope the readers will cry too.

So, that’s The Maths Man Prophecies. And I hope you will soon hear about the Next Big Thing from Gary Parkin, Cameron Lawton, Elpi Pamiadaki, Avery Caswell and Lexx Clarke.