Ask the Author: James Bow
Answered Questions (5)
James Bow
Mar, thanks for your question, and my apologies for my delay in writing back (Goodreads don't notify me when I receive questions).
Note, anybody reading this, that spoilers follow.
Simon definitely means Aaron in this context. He suspects that Nathaniel killed Isaac, and has some evidence to that effect. However, he SAW Nathaniel kill Aaron directly (the bloody knife on top of the anchor), so that may have brought that up in Simon's accusation earlier.
He has a lot to say, and not much time to say it in, I think. Does that help?
Edited to add: further to my point, I'd refer you to the early part of the first chapter, bottom of page 2 and top of 3 where Simon says, "...because when I remember it, it still feels like my fault." That may be another reason why Isaac didn't come up top of his mind when he accused Nathaniel.
Note, anybody reading this, that spoilers follow.
Simon definitely means Aaron in this context. He suspects that Nathaniel killed Isaac, and has some evidence to that effect. However, he SAW Nathaniel kill Aaron directly (the bloody knife on top of the anchor), so that may have brought that up in Simon's accusation earlier.
He has a lot to say, and not much time to say it in, I think. Does that help?
Edited to add: further to my point, I'd refer you to the early part of the first chapter, bottom of page 2 and top of 3 where Simon says, "...because when I remember it, it still feels like my fault." That may be another reason why Isaac didn't come up top of his mind when he accused Nathaniel.
James Bow
My ideas come from a number of sources. The oldest file I have in my directory containing all my "Icarus Down" drafts is entitled "World Kite" and it says:
"Last night I dreamed about a boy who built himself a kite to fly around the world. It wasn't a pleasant journey because the people around the world were in distress, fighting each other. But somehow his journey helped enough people to make a difference.
"The boy lived on an isolated village at the top of a huge cliff. His fellow children made fun of him and his wish to fly, until he shocks them all by jumping off the cliff and flying. (Note, even the bullies don't consider throwing him off the cliff. They just want him to go back to the village to be humiliated. They get a little scared when he proposes to jump)"
The boy is Simon, obviously -- a young man who isn't appreciated by the people around him, but finds something deep inside himself which surprises everyone. He doesn't end up flying away. Indeed, he falls. Subsequent drafts of "Icarus Down" wiped away the kite element, and suspended the city halfway down the chasm, rather than being at the edge of the cliff. Two more significant ideas came from other sources.
"Invisible Cities", by Italian author Italo Calvino, is an important book in my life. I read it during my university years and I keep coming back to it. It's a series of imaginary (or are they?) cities described by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan in between Marco's many journeys. One of the cities he describes is Octavia, a city suspended from cables hung between two mountain peaks. Where everything in normal cities builds up, Octavia builds down, hanging from its precarious perch. That gave me the idea of cities suspended halfway down the chasm, and it's one reason why one of those cities on the planet is called Octavia. I only needed to ask the questions: "What are they hiding from if they have to suspend their cities off the ground? And why are they hiding from the sun at the top of the cliffs?"
Diane Wynne Jones "The Merlin Conspiracy" provides the answer to the latter question. I loved her stories of fascinating worlds that people can visit through magical portals, and one stuck in the mind from this book. In this book, Wynne Jones imagined a city that hugged the side of a deep chasm, keeping in the shade from a terrible sun. It was a rigid caste system, and the lower your caste, the higher you were on the chasm, closer to the sun. The "untouchables" lived on the roofs and in the plains above, where the sun produced horrible tumours on their skin.
Couple Octavia and Wynne Jones' world together, and you have the setting for "Icarus Down". Now, I just needed to ask questions: "why were they there? What were they hiding from? Why were they hiding from it?" From that, the story emerged.
"Last night I dreamed about a boy who built himself a kite to fly around the world. It wasn't a pleasant journey because the people around the world were in distress, fighting each other. But somehow his journey helped enough people to make a difference.
"The boy lived on an isolated village at the top of a huge cliff. His fellow children made fun of him and his wish to fly, until he shocks them all by jumping off the cliff and flying. (Note, even the bullies don't consider throwing him off the cliff. They just want him to go back to the village to be humiliated. They get a little scared when he proposes to jump)"
The boy is Simon, obviously -- a young man who isn't appreciated by the people around him, but finds something deep inside himself which surprises everyone. He doesn't end up flying away. Indeed, he falls. Subsequent drafts of "Icarus Down" wiped away the kite element, and suspended the city halfway down the chasm, rather than being at the edge of the cliff. Two more significant ideas came from other sources.
"Invisible Cities", by Italian author Italo Calvino, is an important book in my life. I read it during my university years and I keep coming back to it. It's a series of imaginary (or are they?) cities described by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan in between Marco's many journeys. One of the cities he describes is Octavia, a city suspended from cables hung between two mountain peaks. Where everything in normal cities builds up, Octavia builds down, hanging from its precarious perch. That gave me the idea of cities suspended halfway down the chasm, and it's one reason why one of those cities on the planet is called Octavia. I only needed to ask the questions: "What are they hiding from if they have to suspend their cities off the ground? And why are they hiding from the sun at the top of the cliffs?"
Diane Wynne Jones "The Merlin Conspiracy" provides the answer to the latter question. I loved her stories of fascinating worlds that people can visit through magical portals, and one stuck in the mind from this book. In this book, Wynne Jones imagined a city that hugged the side of a deep chasm, keeping in the shade from a terrible sun. It was a rigid caste system, and the lower your caste, the higher you were on the chasm, closer to the sun. The "untouchables" lived on the roofs and in the plains above, where the sun produced horrible tumours on their skin.
Couple Octavia and Wynne Jones' world together, and you have the setting for "Icarus Down". Now, I just needed to ask questions: "why were they there? What were they hiding from? Why were they hiding from it?" From that, the story emerged.
James Bow
The best thing you can do is keep writing, and keep reading.
To write, keep a journal, or set up an online blog, and make a commitment to yourself that you'll write regularly. That starts the flow and the discipline that you'll need when you're writing professionally. Write fan fiction. This is a great opportunity to practise your skills in storytelling, building characters, settings, plots, while not having the stress of making up your own universe to play in. Fan fiction also comes with its ready-made audience and community who will cheer you on. That's high-octane affirmation and incentive.
To read, just read. As much as possible, especially in the genres you wish to write in. This way, you will see how other people handle the craft. You'll see what's been done before, and you may also see how to do what's been done before in new and interesting ways. Even books you don't like can be helpful, if only to help yourself say to yourself, "I can do this better!"
To write, keep a journal, or set up an online blog, and make a commitment to yourself that you'll write regularly. That starts the flow and the discipline that you'll need when you're writing professionally. Write fan fiction. This is a great opportunity to practise your skills in storytelling, building characters, settings, plots, while not having the stress of making up your own universe to play in. Fan fiction also comes with its ready-made audience and community who will cheer you on. That's high-octane affirmation and incentive.
To read, just read. As much as possible, especially in the genres you wish to write in. This way, you will see how other people handle the craft. You'll see what's been done before, and you may also see how to do what's been done before in new and interesting ways. Even books you don't like can be helpful, if only to help yourself say to yourself, "I can do this better!"
James Bow
I've been lucky that I haven't had writer's block while a deadline has loomed. Heaven help me if that does happen. I do sometimes run into obstacles while I'm writing an idea I'm pursuing. One of the best ways around that, in my experience, is to have more than one project on the go. This way, you can channel your creative energies to something else productive, and the act keeps the juices flowing. Eventually, it shakes something loose that can be used in the first project.
James Bow
My current project (as of July 2016) is a YA science fiction novel set on the planet Mercury entitled "The Sun Runners". It follows two plot threads seventy years apart. In the first one, young Lieutenant Adelheid Koning of the Messenger (one of the towns of Mercury) has to deal with the repercussions when the Earth suffers an environmental and economic collapse, shutting down the supply shuttles to the colony and leaving the colonists to starve. Seventy years later, Crown Princess Frieda Koning has to deal with the repercussions of an accident that costs her her arms, and kills her mother, the Queen. As she is not yet of age, her grandmother, Adelheid Koning, is named regent. As tensions rise between the two, the Earth shocks everybody by speaking to Mercury for the first time in seventy years to announce that they're sending a ship. What does Earth want with its former colony?
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