What are you up to, Brian Ruckley?

Every week I’ll ask a writer, musician, director, actor or other person one question: “What are you up to?” and post their answer here.

This week’s entry comes from Brian Ruckley, author of the “Godless World” trilogy, published in the United States by Orbit Books.

“I’m closing in, bit by bit, on the finish line for my next book, “The Edinburgh Dead,” due out next year from Orbit. It’s a fun ride (for the author, anyway): I’m transplanting some of the tropes and vibe of heroic fantasy into 19th century Edinburgh, and playing with some famous and not-so-famous bits of the city’s decidedly grisly history. Real people (Burke and Hare, anyone?) and real events mixed up with dark magics, ex-soldiers, nefarious goings-on, dead bodies. Lots of dead bodies. And seriously, some of the stuff people did with dead bodies back then … well, it makes your toes curl. Some might uncharitably suggest I’m biased, being Edinburgh born and bred, but I scoff at such accusations: it’s clearly one of the world’s great cities (if a little damp and breezy at times), and giving its past a fantastical, horror-tinged gloss is a lot of fun.

Other than that, my main occupation over the last couple of weeks has been perfecting the art of being ill. I got really quite good at it. Coughing. Streaming nose. Continuous flaccid exhaustion. Stumbling about the house like a zombie who’s been working as Mike Tyson’s sparring partner. I now feel at least partially human again, which is nice. And as is often the way, I figured I might as well make some sort of use of the experience, so I’m thinking that one of the characters in the book I’m working on should probably be afflicted with my own symptoms. Just for a bit of added verisimilitude. So it may become a book about dark magics, ex-soldiers, dead bodies … and mucus.”