Q&A about The Mars Migration

Q&A - The Mars Migration.

(Mars - Courtesy of Nasa)

Hello again friends! Following a really enjoyable and successful meeting of a new book club at Blue Sheep books in Wednesbury, I have decided that due to the amazing questions that people had for me, to write this post. Hopefully I can answer some of the types of questions that I was asked, or have ever been asked about my book.

Here are some of them, and if I get asked more, I will update the blog as we move along with our journey together. 

1. Q) Why do all of the residents in the dark space, have names beginning with V? 

A) This is a great question, and I do have a reason. When thinking about a planet (Earth for example in the long distant future) that has made the perilous journey through the black hole (in my story). The planet just about survives, ending up as not much more than a ball of scorched rock. 

Practically everything from its surface has been wiped out. Everything begins again from scratch.    

Now, it is my humble opinion, that if this happened to the Earth, then one could assume that at some point, the primordial mixture of some sort of life would "Possibly" start over. Whether you believe in Adam and Eve, or a chemical reaction - amino acids etc, mixing together to form the building blocks of life, then eventually civilisations would again evolve into existence, and again, in my view follow a similar path to what we know of today. I can justify this simply, by the technology that would be invented and become available to any creatures in early development. 

So just for example, similar patterns of life to the Cavemen, Inca's, Aztecs, Egyptians, Vikings, Romans etc etc. 

I believe that this would also happen in the Dark space. So which people was I more drawn to write about? The Vikings interested me. Yet the people and their ideas in our "Dark space" might not have necessarily evolved at exactly the same rate as they did in our not so distant past. So, Something for example the idea of the wheel, writing and language, diverting water, electricity, tools, could all have evolved there at a faster rate than they did for us. So, to cut a long story short - my apologies for rambling on, the names beginning with V, are all Norse names. 

I waffle, because their technology in my book, is obviously more advanced that ours. But this was the thought process behind why I did that. 

2. Q) Why did you choose Mars to write about? 

 A) Well, funny story (sorry, another long one)  - which I forgot to mention at book club, my apologies - it was difficult to think of everything on the spot. So about four years ago, long before any ideas of writing came along, myself and a good friend, were thinking about trademarks or web domains that might be good to invest a small amount of money in, in order to make our next fortune. 

Thinking at the time about an episode of South Park, where the kids trademark the name 'Washington Redskins' - due to the trademark for the football team lapsing. I wondered what the next big thing could possibly be, and I thought about Brexit. (At the time this was big news) But the boat had already sailed on that one. 

My next thought was quite literally "Mars Migration" At the time there was a lot of talk about the beginning of all the Mars manned missions in the next few years. So I checked, and ended up buying, the web domain -  "www.marsmigration.com. "

What I'm trying to get at, basically is that I believe the migration to Mars will become a big thing, and managed to build the name and some of the concepts into my story. Its funny how this became the working title for my book - The Mars Migration, nothing else just seemed close to being better than that. So the name for my book was actually born long before I started writing - which was very weird. That's why Mars!

3. Q) When Amber and Daniel move through Volya's advanced tech doorway, are they trackable? 

 A) Another great question - it shows that you're paying attention :) 

So, my explanation here is that yes, normally everyone that uses the doorways in the Dark space would be trackable - as they have a chip in their arm don't they? Well, when things all start to kick off, somebody whispers a tip-off into Daniel's ear when they're in the shelter, and then afterwards when they're back at Volya's house, somebody drops a tablet into Volya's doorway. Which burns up after being read - Mission Impossible style. 

Without the reader knowing what is said - and I think that Volya was too scared at this point to mention anything - (they're listening) it is basically hinting that he should turn a blind eye, something is happening and that everything has been arranged without him having to look guilty about anything.

So the doorways are one of the things that Secondary have taken care of. 

4. Q) Why spheres?

A) Well, it's not really a long answer for this one, (Reader breathes a sigh of relief) When looking out of my back door to my garden, I have long wished to see another UFO. 

There is also a school at the back of my house, and the same thing that happens in Daniel's chapter - with the object arriving from space is what I visualized when looking at this school.

A craft landing from space wouldn't really have fit in with the story I have in mind, neither would a meteorite. So a sphere seemed the obvious choice for a sci-fi story. It also fit with the anomaly being projected out from the sphere and being round in shape.

I just want to mention - Under the dome - So yes, obviously fans of the show or book (myself included) -  will see similarities and I will happily say that I was heavily influenced by that story. I don't feel that I have copied it. If you know that book well, then you will be able to see that. But you are obviously free to form your own opinions on that.  

5. Q) Are the characters based on anybody in particular? And did you enjoy writing anyone in particular?

A) Amber and Daniel are loosely based on my son and daughter of the same name. So those characters mean a lot to me. The noisy cleaner - Jeanette - this is my mother in law, Mwuahahaaaaa!

My mom - Sheena is in Selkirk, in the diner keeping her eye on Amber. 

But I have to say, it's strange as my kids are sort of in the book, but I particularly enjoyed writing Mick, maybe I felt that I had more freedom to imagine how he would feel and what he would say. 

And I love the fact that so many people have also said that they love Mick too! This makes me feel immensely good about my writing journey.

My father in law's name is Mick, but I admit to not having anyone in particular in mind when writing him. 

I have left some family out, and had to apologise for that - but I didn't want to have to shoe-horn everyone in. I would only use their names if I had the ideal character for them.

6. Q) Are we going to see a sequel?

A) I must admit, I only really set out to write one book in the beginning. And it really took it out of me mentally by the end, all the stress about getting it right. The sleepless nights thinking about plot holes. Then the after writing journey of getting it edited, feedback, correcting it etc. 

I said to myself that I would only ever write a sequel to it, (1) If people took to my writing and the story and wanted it. And (2) If I could do it justice - if I had enough good ideas for it.

However, now things have calmed down a little, I do find myself thinking about my characters, what they would be up to and thinking, and dealing with what they have been through.

So yes, I am planning to now. I have drafted about the first four chapters. And if I have enough material, I would like to put out a full trilogy - Back to the future stylie! - The Mars Migration, Parts 1, 2 and 3! 

7. Q) Any other funny stories about writing the Mars Migration?

A) It was a very interesting journey. Moments that will stick in my memory are things like - One time I had pieces of A3 paper all over my living room floor. With timelines drawn on them, time zones and arrows everywhere, making sure that I had plotted the time travel - and then the time zone elements as best I could. I'd shout out while my wife was watching her soaps "I'VE FOUND ANOTHER PLOT HOLE!!"

Another moment, this made me laugh, was while communicating with my editor, Cleo. She is from Texas, so would email me - especially when I had to dip into the Black country accent, and she would ask "What does this mean? Did you mean to write this?" And I would have to explain our local dialect to her. "How bin ya?" Is basically "How have you been?" in the Black Country. 

Local people would find this amusing.

Also another thing that I was quite impressed with myself for, was that I had to try to communicate with the various company names that I have used in my story. So for example where I used "Sharpie" Or "BMW" I would have to send out emails and really pester these people for permission to use those words. Thankfully most people came back to me with their approvals and thanks for the mention. But one company I had to really badger - was NASA! There is a photo at the end of my story, I won't say anymore as it will be a big spoiler. So anyway, I tried tweeting them, emailing general email addresses that I found, and nothing. Obviously - why would they? 

So then I found out that they have this copyright/permissions department, I sent them an email every week until they answered me. In the end this guy emailed me back from NASA and was just like "That's fine." Very 'to the point' but at least I had this email from NASA which I thought was really cool! 

Thank you for your time again. If you have any further questions for me, I would be delighted to answer them! Please comment or DM me.