Origin Earth: Book One follows humanity’s last survivors as they land on a new planet, where a curious young girl, her scientist mother, and a divided crew must decide who will lead and whether history will repeat itself. How did you approach balancing the science and environmental ethics with the human drama?

First and foremost, a novel has to entertain. That is its primary function. Without entertaining the reader, the story will not be read. So, introducing science and environmental ethics into a story at the beginning was something I considered at length. It is the main reason Anu is eight years old – innocent, yet old enough to understand, and her innate curiosity would ask questions. My thinking was, if I can get the reader to embrace Anu, she can explain the science with simple clarity. For me, it all rested upon Anu’s shoulders right from the first line. Every novel I have written, I have placed complete trust in the main character(s). In the first novel I wrote, Raw Nerve, I learned quickly that, as the author, I needed to sit back, shut up, and let the characters get on with telling their story.

As an author, I’ve learned to set the stage, people that stage with characters and trust in the creative process. Put a bunch of people together and you’ll end up with drama.

For me, every aspect of a novel has to be believable, regardless of genre. If a reader can believe, then the writer can capture the imagination, and through the imagination, the characters can tell the reader anything, literally – excuse the pun, couldn’t resist.

Juno’s distrust of authority feels timely. Were you consciously drawing from modern political tensions?

Absolutely, and also historical leadership, or rather, lack of. I recall a line in another novel I wrote, where the character stated, “There’s no such thing as good and evil, there’s just people.” Juno is clearly a bully, and, not wanting to spoil book two for the readers, but that stems from a bullying father. His ego blinds him. In my life, I’ve met many very interesting individuals, and the few who have left the most powerful imprint on me are the people, men and women, who don’t have anything to prove to anyone. These are individuals who can sit in the midst of chaos and smile and offer a helping hand where needed. I call them powerful, because they are people who have no desire to impose their perspective or opinion on anyone else, unless asked, and then they’ll offer it with a hug and an open hand without attempting to influence or control any particular outcome. These people are powerful because they are comfortable in their own skin. On the other hand, there have been dangerous individuals I’ve met who feel they have everything to prove to everybody and use their own ego to batter others over the head with their opinion, their hate, and their neurosis in whatever form that neurosis takes.

The human community on Earth 2 faces huge challenges, and when we confront challenges, bonds are forged. I personally fought in a war, and the bonds that were forged with the men I stood shoulder to shoulder with are unbreakable; the strongest relationships I have yet experienced. Regardless of faith, political ideology, or race, the bonds are forged upon respect. In the First and Second World Wars, men and women forged bonds on the battlefields and at home in the communities. Immediately after the conflict had ended, the people helped each other (I’m considering community/society in the UK). They pulled each other up, often by the scruff of the neck, and the whole family/community would benefit. In large part, I would argue, that was due to the bonds forged during serious hardship. Communities and society as a whole grew stronger due to those brutal times. Back to the community on Earth 2, or The Sanctuary, as the phen call the planet. They have a blank canvas, a new page, if you like. These people really do begin a new life and have the freedom to write their own future. And as I write, the conflict within the community grows – how do they set up this new society so they can all live together in freedom? One individual wants to pull in one direction and another in the opposite direction… I don’t want to spoil the story for the readers, but I’ll explain one very simple scenario to clarify:

A couple of people are killed by alligators or crocodiles. Individuals stand up and demand weapons. These are people who stand up with good in their hearts because they consider it their duty to protect the community. Anu is their only contact with the phen people, who have very advanced technology, and they have seen that the phen people have shared some of their technology with Anu. So, it is through Anu that they demand the phen people help them with weapons. Anu simply asks how many other individual life forms do they want to kill…?

Just as an aside: only the other day, I was reading an article about Gaza. I imagined Anu asking me what it was about. I scratched my head and tried to explain as best I could about hate about what causes hate, and how it drives people to do awful things. I began to explain the word genocide, but she stopped me. She had tears in her eyes and just looked at me in the inimitable way she does and said: “Humans. I don’t like humans.” Then she leapt up into the trees to be with the mantou. Anu has the gift of telling me in very few words what the problem is.

Phoos, the phen president in the novel, says, “With knowledge comes understanding…” Is that true? I think in a future novel, she’ll need to revisit that statement.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

I’ve been redrafting a novel I wrote over ten years ago. It’s a thriller set in Wales. Actually, it’s more about preparing a second edition rather than a redraft. I used terms like smartphone, which is very dated now, so it’s been about cleaning up little things like that. I’ll publish the second edition within the next week or so, and then it’s onto book four of Original Earth. I’m hugely excited about where Anu is taking the story in book four, because, spoiler alert! We’re returning to Original Earth around about one hundred and fifty years in the future. What will she discover? Is Earth a cinder? Have humans survived? If so, how have they survived? What sort of societies are there? Are humans still at war? Is there any habitat left for other life forms (beings)? … So many questions, and it’s going to be great fun to spend time on, what I can only imagine will be a very different planet Earth than the one we exist in today. And, of course, I get to spend a lot of valuable time with Anu and Sonri … My plan is to publish early next year. Possibly January.

And, yes, there will be a book five, six, seven, eight, etc.

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