SiP follows a twelve-year-old boy with aquaphobia whose father’s naval ship is sucked up a giant drinking straw into space, leading him to join forces with his uncle, pirates, and aliens to try and save the Earth. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I had one of those daydream “Wouldn’t that be a cool idea” moments where I imagined an enormous straw drinking the oceans, like a juice box, and the idea grew from there. Earth is mostly water after all, and water is relatively rare in the universe so the idea that something might come and drink it was an interesting starting point.

In many contemporary coming-of-age fiction novels, authors often add their own life experiences to the story. Are there any bits of you in this story?

I’m not the strongest swimmer. I can swim, but I don’t float. My body is not naturally buoyant. Jim in the story is slightly different, in that he is a strong swimmer who experiences a trauma that creates a fear of the water. I think some of Jim’s fear stems directly from my own lack of confidence in the water, and from the challenge it creates for him as the hero in the situation he ultimately finds himself in.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

Family, friendship, humanity, inner strength, love. I wanted the story to be a positive, uplifting one. I tried to avoid violence or the ‘good vs evil’ trope in favor of telling a human story.

Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?

The story deviates in book two and introduces new protagonists, a new conundrum, and an adventure that at first glance isn’t linked to the events of SiP. That all changes, however, when the story leads to the mysterious location which is also the title of the next book – AREA 52. The series is going to span seven books and will continue in the same vein as SiP – telling a human story using non-human, and extremely odd circumstances.

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