I write books. You can find some of them here.
For most of my life I’ve wanted to be an author. The chance of success in this field is, roughly speaking, zero. This hasn’t dissuaded me from pursuing this ambition, it just suggests I probably shouldn’t bet my life on it. Actually writing books is a good place to start. Making people read them is the hard part.
The Late Silence
The Great Silence. I knew that phrase.
The universe is ancient with stars and planets uncountable. Surely we couldn’t be the only life out there? We expected other success stories in the vast, empty cosmos. Instead we found eternal quiet, the Great Silence. For decades, scientists clattered about trying to answer the greatest question in history: where are all the aliens?
Today of course we know the answer. They’re right above our heads and nobody can fucking shut up about it.
Journalist Alison Grosvenor has instigated the greatest event mankind has ever known: the appearance of an extra-terrestrial spacecraft in orbit.
Hailed as its discoverer, Alison deals with conspiracy theorists, religious fanatics, and that minor inconvenience called the end of the world, all while struggling to adapt to the spotlight placed on her.
How will she cope? How will society cope? And how will anyone cope when we might actually have to take aliens to our leader?
The first inklings of The Late Silence appeared on a real day with great consequences for our species: the day after the Brexit vote. Something about the frenzied uncertainty, the unity in disunity, caught my interest. I wanted to capture it when taken to its extreme.
It took almost a year for this to crystallise into something literary. Half the first chapter appeared in March 2017. The second half didn’t arrive until June. As of June 2018, I’m partway through a second draft. With any luck, I’ll have something readable by the end of the year.
Yes, there are many similarities to the films Contact and Arrival, though I feel I’ve taken the same premise in a new direction with a completely different tone. The lighter side of the apocalypse is fun to write.
Stay tuned.
Operation Green Canary
I am at war with my mind. Not long ago, I didn’t exist. But here I am, in the body of someone I can’t stand, and I don’t know what to do.
Anton Salvage used to have one personality. Now he has two.
In one half of his mind lies a ruthless government agent. In the other, an introvert with no knowledge of his identity or past. Their place is taken by unhealthy obsession with the music of Gustav Mahler.
Both will become entangled in a global crisis brought about by a message hidden in a piece of music. Only by learning to cooperate do they stand a chance of victory.
Sadly, Operation Green Canary is dead for the time being. The plot is just too damn ridiculous. I still adore the characters and occasional bit of prose, but I’ll need to reconsider everything about the narrative if I’m ever to see this through to completion.