Well it’s taken me 9 years and 4 months end to end, to finish The Third Rule. That’s not because I’m lazy and it’s not because I’ve been in prison either. I broke off writing it to concentrate on other writing for six of those years.
And now, apart from minor titivating, it is finished. Without doubt, this is the most complex tale I’ve written so far. Stealing Elgar and No More Tears were mighty creatures to tame with lots of storylines and subplots, a myriad of characters all seemingly heading in different directions, but The Third Rule takes it to a new level.
Of course, there are still many characters, more than I’d intended; but one of them stuck and refused to leave. His name is Christian Ledger, an artist. He was supposed to quickly illustrate (no pun intended) the flaws in the new government’s policy on crime. And he still does, but his was such an exciting tale, that he stayed around and became embroiled with all manner of nasty things.
Our lead guy, a SOCO called Eddie Collins is the star of the show. But he’s not your usual superhero. His fall towards disaster began six months before the story starts when he tries to do the decent thing and almost dies for it. His life is in tatters but he has the chance to bring it back again, when a truly distressing thing happens. From then on, he wants out, and almost succeeds with the help of a vacuum cleaner flex. Fate, or bad luck, intervenes and he’s still alive!
Anyway, I’m reluctant to give away too much. Except to say that the talking point of this book (and I’m sure it will be a talking point) are The Rules themselves, and the government that created them. They thought the people wanted justice at any cost. But killing innocent people wasn’t one of them.
I had such a blast writing this story. I really let my imagination go; I created some outlandish characters and set them free into a world that no sane person would want to live.
