GENESIS

People often ask me how INVINCIBLE came to be. I thought it might make for an interesting enough topic for my first blog post so...due to popular demand, welcome to a post I, with only limited delusions of grandeur, choose to call...GENESIS.

In the beginning there was only the seed of an idea: I am sure I could write a book. Sadly that seed remained inert for decades, moribund in an untended, overgrown garden, overshadowed by aggressive competitors for the thin light of a faltering sun. A scruffy place, the backyard of my mind, where the most noxious weeds of all were my natural inclination to laziness and my genius-level talent for procrastination.

Then I found myself unemployed for a time. For reasons too dull to discuss here, I knew I was going to be out of work for some six months, so for once in my life, I had time to do something. As it was spring-sliding into-summer time, I parked myself outside beneath a tree, armed with pens and a series of notebooks.

I am sure I could write a book.

And I did. It took most of those six months, and the first draft was written entirely by hand. I later found out that my first outpouring amounted to some 150,000 words and that the worldly and wise folk of the publishing universe would view it as far too long for a debut novel, but at the time there was great satisfaction when I reached the point where I could write, in big, emphatic capital letters: "THE END."

Where did the ideas come from? Not entirely sure. Most of them have been buzzing around my brain forever. I've worked out I have enough ideas for 4 more volumes of the Tanner Archives, and then another enormous bank of ideas for an historical fantasy series which I am certain I will never have the time to use. (Which, I will insist, is a tragic loss to the literary world.) I believe creative ideas emerge from the melange of all the stories - fact or fiction - we've ever heard or read, all the plays and films we've seen, the events we've known, the times in which we live, all the people we've ever met, all the dreams and nightmares of our lives. If that means everything that is written is somehow derivative, then so be it. It works for me.

One source of inspiration was all the marvellous tales of the age of sail, and if Jack Tanner reminds you somehow of Richard Bolitho or Jack Aubrey I make no apology for it. And if those names mean nothing to you, start googling now. You do not know what you are missing.

Star Trek and Star Wars can also be blamed, as can Dr Who, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. Not to mention everything ever written by Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert and all the legends of the genre. You will even find, without having to look too hard, an homage to James Bond and a respectful nod to Harry Potter...

Now, I’m told blog posts should be kept brief, or at least not meander on, so I’ll stop here for now. Next post will cover the editing process and the neverending quest for a decent title…

I know…the suspense is killing you. Go watch a rerun of Game of Thrones. Or something.