"A TARGET NUMBER OF WORDS": ROGER MORRIS INTERVIEW PART THREE

More from my interview with Roger Morris.

7] Did you originally plan to do a series of novels? Is there another book in the pipeline?

I wrote the first book and my agent said "You know, publishers quite like it if you have a series,so can you think up some other storylines ?" So I did. I cam up with three other storylines, of which A Razor Wrapped In Silk is the third. I'm working on the fourth, The Superfluous Man at the moment, and that is scheduled for release some time in 2011. That will bring me to the end of the quartet I originally planned.

My feeling is that I will leave it there as far as Porfiry Petrovich novels are concerned. It feels right to stop at that point.

8] Which crime fiction book would you like to have written?

The Talented Mr Ripley.

9] How long does it take to write one of the books? Do you write every day, what is your regime?

The time taken has varied. A Razor Wrapped In Silk took just over a year, I think A Vengeful Longing took longer, but I had a day job when I was writing that, so I had less time to spend writing. I do write every day, apart from weekends-usually-though there are times when I squeeze in a bit of writing at the weekend.

I walk my son to school at around nine o'clock, getting back just after nine. Then I have until ten past three when I have to pick him up again.

So I do have this very limited section of the day in which I can work without interruption[provided the phone does not ring, or someone come to the door]. On a good day, the time limit can be conducive to work because it focuses the mind. On a bad day, it can be very depressing because you see three o'clock approaching and you know you haven't written nearly enough.

My most productive period, usually, is the morning. I set myself a target number of words to write a day, which used to be 1,000 but increased recently to 2,500. I've been driving myself fairly ferociously with the new book.

[To be continued]