Phoebe
Fortune
looks like a great science fiction/time travel book. Do you plan for
this to be part of a series?
Yes.
The plan is for this to be the first of three Phoebe Fortune
adventures. This first book leaves Phoebe in what I hope is a very
intriguing place for readers. I have a clear outline for book 2 which
I intend to start writing soon. It’s currently titled “Phoebe
Fortune and the Cardiac Conundrum” but that could change! Book 3
will be guided a lot by where Book 2 takes me. After that? Well,
we’ll see at that point but I think there could be more. I might do
something else first though.
What
do you think makes a great story?
It
needs to be fun, a bit scary and have at least one really good twist
(ideally a few). I like adventure stories and for those, the plot
guides everything else. I’m not that keen on stories that tackle
“issues” head on as they have a tendency to preach instead of
encouraging intelligent, reasoned thought. That said, it’s
important for a good story to have an overarching theme which the
plot can hang off and the characters can really react to.
What
inspired you when writing Phoebe
Fortune?
Three
words. Railways. Geocaching. Disney. The first two came together, the
third came a bit later. I live in the UK where the construction of a
new high speed rail line (HS2) is a controversial topic right now.
While out with the family a couple of years ago doing our family
hobby (Geocaching – a high tech treasure hunt) we visited a
historic site that will be destroyed by HS2. It was a creepy
abandoned church in woodland. That’s where thoughts of a story
about technological progress emerged. Later that year we went to
Disneyland Paris. That got me thinking about visionaries like Walt
Disney and what a creative mind can accomplish. This evolved into the
story of Phoebe Fortune and our responsibilities to the past when
building the future.
What
are your ambitions for your writing career? Full time? Part time?
Who
knows!? It’s a hobby right now. It has to be! I’m definitely
going to keep writing (there’s at least two more Phoebe Fortune
novels) and I enjoy the process. I think I’d love to do it full
time but that will depend on success. For now, it’s something I do
as often as I can.
When
did you decide to become a writer?
Like
many people, it’s been a thought at the back of my mind for a very
long time. What really got me started was a desire to write something
for my two kids that we could read together before they grew up! They
like it. So in a way, that’s mission accomplished. If I find a
wider audience, that’s great. If not, I’ll keep writing for them!
When
writing Phoebe
Fortune
did anything stand out as particularly challenging?
Two
things. Firstly, choosing to write about time travel for my first
novel was perhaps ambitious. There’s a whole heap of additional
considerations when you’re writing non-linear narrative and cause
doesn’t always come before effect. Secondly, is the editing
process. It’s really really hard to take a first draft of around
70k words and remove over 30k of them. Phoebe had a sister in the
first draft. It was hard saying goodbye to Imogen (amongst others).
Heartbreaking!
How
did you come up with the story of Phoebe
Fortune?
This
is a hard question to answer. When I started over two years ago I was
not very structured. I made the mistake of taking my very broad ideas
and just started writing. I soon realised that I needed to spend a
good amount of time plotting the various elements. As I did so the
pieces fell into place. Eventually the time travel element provided
some necessary restrictions that, I think, actually assisted the
plot. Sorry, this is a vague answer but, even today, I’m not really
sure where the story came from. As least I haven’t attributed it
all to my muse!
What
do you like to do when not writing?
As
I mentioned earlier, I’m a very keen Geocacher. I love the outdoors
and a good puzzle. Geocaching scratches those itches for me.
Wondering through the woods looking for treasure might not be the
actions of a ‘normal’ grown up but, hey, that’s probably why
I’ve written a children’s novel! I like both finding and hiding
them. Hiding provides a great chance to further exercise the creative
part of my mind. I’m also a life-long massive Doctor Who fan. Now,
why did I write a book about time travel!?
You
can follow me on my Amazon Author page at http://amzn.to/2wPTm4H
and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mykey987