Random quickfire question round
Favourite colour: Red (sometimes blue)
Favourite song: Aces by Carol Bayer Sager
Favourite film: The Neverending Story
Favourite species: Sauropod
Favourite place: Yosemite National Forest
Favourite tree: Favourite tree? This really is random! Redwoods, see above
Favourite time period: 1920s if I were rich, Mesozoic if I were invincible
Where do you live? London
Where do you want to live? San Francisco
Why? Have you been? I love San Francisco
What made you get into writing?
Nothing, I’ve just always been a writer. From the moment I put crayon to paper, I’ve been writing. Although I use a computer these days and have improved somewhat over the years.
You’ve just published your first novel, what’s Refraction about?
Have you ever had a dream so real, it’s still been there when you’ve woken up? Something so vivid, you wished you could bring it back into the real world? Refraction takes that thought and expands on it. It’s set in modern-day London with relatable characters in real-world lives and situations who are brought together by Silicate, a company in the heart of London who have the technology to see and record people’s dreams.
Now imagine there was such a company, what dreams can you imagine being projected into our world? For me, I’m a huge geek for movies, animation, music, history, dinosaurs… Hmmm, maybe I’ve said too much!
You chose a diverse cast of characters for your book.
I did. I felt it was important to have strong females, racial diversity and same-sex relationships yet not have any of that pull focus away from the story. The characters are simply who they are, like all of us. We don’t run down the streets shouting at strangers, “I have a third nipple” or “look at my acne scars!” They are just a part of us the same way a disability is or the colour of our skin or the sexual orientation we were born with. We are all human beings and it’s time we saw each other that way and not by the things that make us different.
How long did Refraction take you to write?
I came up with the idea in 2012, I wrote a few chapters and then left it. The thought of completing a full-length novel was daunting. It was easier to keep it locked away in a folder and pretend it wasn’t there. Every now and again, I’d go back and write some more and then leave it for months, sometimes years at a time, but my brain never let me forget about it. In January this year, I sat down at my computer, determined to finish it. In seven years, I’d only managed to write 30,000 words, six months later, I’d written an additional 90,000 words. After edits, the published book sits at around 103,000 words. In one way it took seven years, in another it took six months. I’m giving myself a year to write book 2, so we’ll see how that goes.
So, there is a sequel?
There will be two, it’s part of a trilogy. This book is The Present, the next book will be The Future and the final book with be The Past.
Wait, this is the middle book then?
(Laughs) It is. They can still be read as stand-alone books, with the trilogy being an over-arching story thread linking them all together. I felt it was important to start in present-day so people can relate to what’s happening. It doesn’t read like you’ve missed anything, probably because you haven’t. I’ve not written it yet!
Who would enjoy reading Refraction?
It’s not a traditional sci-fi novel, it’s more like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; real people in our world going on an extraordinary adventure together, through the impossible. Incredible things occur, yet I’ve written the book so that everyone can understand what’s happening. It’s the reason I wrote it through the eyes of four very different people of different backgrounds and ages; that way most people can engage with the story and the characters.
Where can we buy it?
At the moment, exclusively on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format.
First featured on https://andisbookreviews.blogspot.com/
About the book
Most stories start at the beginning; this one begins at the end. At least for Maria. Her sudden death sends shockwaves through her family and pushes her grieving mother to the very brink of insanity. After exhausting every avenue conventional medicine has to offer, Maria’s father, Henry, brings together the world’s greatest minds in the hope of carving out a new path. Months pass, and as Henry watches his beloved Elena slowly drift away, he begins to lose faith. It is only then that a solution presents itself. A discovery so momentous, it saves Elena and reveals the most important scientific and technological breakthrough in modern history.
Silicate is founded; a privately funded facility which delves deeper into the human mind, able to discover answers to questions we are yet to ask. Securing Silicate’s secrets becomes of utmost importance; even after treating hundreds of patients, the public are still unaware of the wonders and terrifying reality Silicate has unearthed . . .
The world you know is only half the story.