The New Planet Policy follows a man facing personal and professional struggles who seeks salvation in space only to end up enduring mental experimentation from an alien race. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

​It would be easy to say that I was inspired to write Ian’s journey as a response to the isolation and uncertainty brought to us by the COVID pandemic, but this obvious answer is not true. In fact, this book was initially titled Cometh the Behemoth and was at draft complete status in 2015.

Somehow, that draft did not satisfy me and I could not release it. I felt Ian’s interior journey was inadequately written, and the manuscript was set aside. I expected it to ripen in my unconscious as it lay fallow. And it did.

Come early 2024, my attention shifted back to the book as finally some inspiration regarding Ian’s development gripped me; now I knew where he had been, what had happened to him, and how his experiences would shake up his settled personality, giving him a new chance at life. Within only a few days I removed approximately one thousand words, added in two thousand, and the book was done. (Well, the first chapter had to be updated to account for new technology that could not be ignored as the book is eternally set ‘twenty years from the present day’.

Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?

The first chapters of the novel were written as far back as 1981. It began with only a tone in mind; the plot was entirely unforeseen. I had been writing a comedic novel and had wanted to revolve and explore a more darkly atmospheric universe. The sources of that darkness remained nebulous for many years until the off-world chapters were completed. As the action-oriented chapters were written, the focus modulated towards SF and away from horror/fantasy, as indeed this is where it culminates.

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

In The New Planet Policy I explore themes of isolation, personal relationships and how they evolve, or don’t, as well as the rebirth of hope that can be achieved with personal transformation. Ian meets many interesting characters during his travail, with a scant few of them being quite what we expect, and this reflects the actual reality of human complexity, the great puzzle which leaves any simple analysis wanting. Ironically, Ian learns a lot about humanity from all the non-humans he meets.

Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?

When I wrote this novel, I had no inkling or inclination towards a sequel. It was only later when my focus had shifted from looking at Ian’s intrapersonal journey that I finally contemplated the actual results of his journey and how it had changed him. The last thing I wrote was the book blurb and it hints at this realization: [The story] ends with calm, but is it a prelude for something far worse? Things may still go very wrong for Ian and planet Earth. In fact, it seems inevitable that the happy ending will not endure. This adds a final, discordant note of realism: as with all life, any happy ending is ultimately transitory.

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