THE NEXT BIG THING is a chain of book and author recommendations. One author tags five others, who then each tag five more, and so on. The idea is to spread the word — for ourselves and others — on all the quality new writing that’s just out or is coming soon, worldwide. There is a viral quality to the enterprise and hopefully it will allow readers to expand their reading horizons into projects that might otherwise have been lost in this world of continual internet noise. I was tagged by Leigh Blackmore, and now it’s my turn.
What is the [working] title of your next book?
Necropolitan
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
To be cosmopolitan is to be a citizen of the world. To be metropolitan, a citizen of the city – Sydney, in this case. To be necropolitan, however, is to be at home amongst the dead.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
I’ve been assured that it’s urban fantasy.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
As my protagonist Vicky, Liv Tyler
has the right look although she’d have to wear contacts. For her partner Jamal, I’d audition Khaled Abol Naga first with recourse to Oscar Isaac. 
The two necromancers are tricky, but given the need for personalities that would shine through the effects, I say David Gulpilil
and Tim Curry.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
“The witch is innocent, the city is guilty and defense attorney Victoria Ashe has just found a loophole in the law of death.”
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I do not self-publish. As for the other, it’s a little soon for me to say anything but there are prospects.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About a year, but that was five, long drafts ago.
8)What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
China Mieville’s Kraken and Tim Power’s The Anubis Gates approach the tone, but Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow is the only book that comes close to the setting.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Like most of my work: a nightmare, in which I walked the streets of a very different Sydney to the one most people see. And once I started researching, guess what? It turned out there was one.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Do you know which hotel now stands on the site of the Sydney gallows? The location of the two cemeteries that once lay within the CBD? How about the name of the brewery that drew its water from the Sandhills creek and didn’t stop after the burials began? And beneath it all lie the remains of a people destroyed by plague, whispering their anger in a dead language. Listen very carefully, and you may have sufficient warning…
Bio
Kyla (Lee) Ward is an Australian writer of speculative fiction, poet and actor.Ward was first published in 1994 with her poem “Mary” which was featured in the magazine Bloodsongs. In 2002 her short story “The Boneyard” was nominated for the Ditmar Award for best short fiction but lost to Lucy Sussex and Jack Dann. In 2006 she won her first award with the novel Prismatic, co-authored with Evan Paliatseas and David Carroll under the shared pseudonym of Edwina Grey. Prismatic tied with Will Elliott’s The Pilo Family Circus to win the Aurealis Award for best horror novel.Ward has also contributed to role-playing games including Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game by Eden Studios, Inc. and White Wolf’s Demon: The Fallen. Ward’s weird verse collection The Land of Bad Dreams (edited by Charles (Danny) Lovecraft)was published by P’rea Press www.preapress.com, 2011 and is illustrated by the author. The launch of this book was accompanied by dramatic readings by various theatre groups. Video of the performances is available at Kyla Ward’s website.
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/KylaWard.html
Blackmausoleum LEIGH BLACKMORE Writer 