Newsletter: Yule Approaches

Books, rubbish, and interviews

Exhibition

One of my local shops is running their “In The Braw Midwinter” exhibition, and features my work (along with other local artists) for purchase. I think my books look good on their own shelf. :-)

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Litter

I wrote a short post on my other blog, about litter-picking and various items I have dragged out of the river: Leave The World A Better Place. The photos of me in that link are not very flattering!

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An Interview (Part One)

I’d forgotten to share a link to an interview I did during the summer. I’ll include some of the questions here, and the rest in my next newsletter. These ones focus on my best-selling book, Lost Solace.

“What inspired you to create the universe of Lost Solace? Were there any particular books, films, or personal experiences that influenced you?”

I was between projects and wanted to write a book for myself: something fun, tense, exciting, thought-provoking and scary. I never expected it to be so successful that it spawned two series! As a lifelong fan of speculative fiction books, films, and games, the list is too big to pick from. But imagine Alien crossed with Event Horizon and Pandorum, and you have a flavour of Lost Solace.

“Which character in the Lost Solace series do you feel the most connected to, and why?”

Athene, the ever-evolving super AI. She sees human culture from a fresh perspective, cutting through our prejudices and blind spots to get to the core of where we’re going wrong (or right). It matches how I often think. Good writers ask questions and challenge predominant world views, it’s our job.

“What technological advancement from your Lost Solace series do you wish existed in real life and why?”

The specially enhanced Nulldrive which would let me escape everything and live a simpler life on a pristine planet. Starting again, but this time with a culture that was non-violent, would not expand or destroy, that controlled its population and lived in peace with other life forms. (Of course, in reality we should learn to do all that on our home planet. We shouldn’t expand until we have become a worthy species. Don’t export your problems elsewhere.)

“What’s the strangest or most unexpected thing that has inspired a plot point or character in your books?”

I’m a creative writing teacher, editor and mentor. I always explain that any writing rule can be broken as long as the end result works. So I like to do that in my books. A simple example: the reader should always know what the protagonist wants. That goes near the start of a story. But in Lost Solace I reversed it, and challenged myself. Can I make a reader care, and keep them engaged, even though they have no idea what the protagonist really wants? That was my goal.

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May your days be warm and peaceful,

Karl