I actually got tagged for this one twice—first by my buddy, Transatlantic Twin and sometime writing partner Steven Savile, and then by my long-time pal and former editor Matt Forbeck. Anyway, if you haven’t seen this yet the Next Big Thing is a blog tour/chain-letter thing for authors, where one author answers the questions then tags a bunch of friends to do the same. So, since I’ve got a few days off from work, I figure I can finally get this done!
1. What is the working title of your next book?
The Honor of the Dread Remora.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Well, this is the second full novel (and third story) in the Dread Remora series. The first book, The Birth of the Dread Remora, is all about what the crew of the aethership HMES Remora encounters beyond their planet, and what they are forced to do in order to survive. I wanted to explore that a bit more, especially the moral implications of their chosen course. Of course, it’s an action-oriented space opera like the rest of the series, so I had to do that in a way that was still fun and fast-paced.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
The Honor of the Dread Remora is solidly space-opera, which means of course it’s science fiction.
4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Heh, well, the Dread Remora has a big crew, but the main character, Captain Nathaniel “Nate” Demming? I’d have to say Taylor Lautner. For his romantic interest, ship’s engineer Amelia Scutt, I’d go with Kaya Scodelario from Skins. Gist Jacobsen, Nate’s former superior and now rival, would have to be Daniel Kaluuya, also from Skins.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Now that the crew of the HMES Remora has turned space pirate, they are forced to re-evaluate both their morals and their loyalty while trying to evade a sector’s military patrols and stay true to their original mission.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Technically neither—it is not represented by an agent, and it will be published by Crossroad Press, who published The Birth of the Dread Remora. Crossroad Press also has the rest of the Scattered Earth Saga, of which the Dread Remora series is just one part.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
A little over two months.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
The old Flash Gordon books, the Star Wars novels, the Stargate and Stargate: Atlantis novels, and of course the Star Trek novels, especially the older ones for the Original Series. Also maybe the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, just because I think they’re awesome.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
David Niall Wilson and I came up with the idea of the Scattered Earth, along with Steven Savile, who later had to drop out due to other commitments. We developed the overarching concept together, then each came up with our own stories inside that. I really wanted to do a classic space-opera, something fun and very action-oriented, and since part of the idea behind Scattered Earth is all these different groups coming together I decided this was the perfect setup, to have a ship that was its world’s first attempt to go out to the stars. And then things go horribly, horribly wrong. I also loved the idea of a noble crew forced to resort to an underhanded means of survival—I always felt the concept for Star Trek: Voyager was great, but never fully realized. This was my chance to do it the way I wanted to see it done in the first place. That led me to thoughts of space pirates, which seemed perfect.
10. What else about the book might pique the readers’ interest?
The crews’ homeworld, and their unique physiology, plus the question of their origin—that’s part of the backstory to the Scattered Earth, which is revealed bit by bit over time and across the various connected series. Plus you’ve got all that mystery, and a lot of soul-searching, all wrapped up in a light, quick, enjoyable yarn about space pirates!
Now, you’re supposed to tag five other writers to do this, but at this point I think most of my author friends have already participated. If you’re a writer, and you know me, and you haven’t done this yet but would like to, go ahead and comment here and I’ll officially tag you. Cheers!