It's been a while since I've posted a blog article on here. Mostly because my writing for different websites and different projects has seen me drafting up articles, reviews, critical papers, stories and other things for a variety of different places, rather than my own blog, but, with a few days to go until Fearless is officially published by Flame Tree Press on September 8th 2020, I thought it would be nice to return to this blog and put together some thoughts about the book and the journey I've been on to get here.

I have always been trying to write a novel. Interestingly, my Jiig-Cal test that I took when I was eleven years old listed "writer" as one of the preferred occupations for me. I had school teachers who asked me to do a little extra, showing that I could write in a journalistic style, or write a story etc, so some of this has been there a long time. 

When I left university in 1999, I spoke with my old school English teacher, Mr Polley. He gave me some good advice "If you want to write, just go and write." I don't think I was ready to hear that at the time. I mean, I was writing, but I didn't know how to move forwards, to get an idea of where my work was at - in terms of its quality.

In early 2000, I took a copy-editing course at Book House in London. I was the only self-funded student, all the others had been sent there by publishers. I learned the processes, but again, I'm not sure I was ready to apply them to anything much, but they did give me an idea of where I was at with some of my work.

The next decade was up and down. I wrote a lot, but didn't share much. I bought The Writers and Artists Yearbook year after year and sent out submissions of my work to people. I read advice about not doing multiple submissions and so dutifully waited for each reply before sending out again. I also, kept writing more stuff, but I never got much more than a cursory standard rejection letter from the agents and publishers I approached.

In 2003, I started work at Buckinghamshire New University and taught the Science Fiction and Fantasy module. I learned more about writing from editing and marking my student's work than I'd learned anywhere else in my life.

In 2010-2011, I started to get some confidence in my writing again. The rise of Kindle and ebooks encouraged me to get my work out. Being pretty fluent in HTML, I quickly learned how to make a decent ebook and this let me to write and publish the first two Wismir novels.

Elite Dangerous came along next. In late 2012, I was fortunate to discover the Kickstarter and still more fortunate to get involve with the development of the world mythos. The opportunity I was given by Frontier was the catalyst for my Ph. D. and subsequent work with Snapshot Games on Chaos Reborn and Phoenix Point.

But I always had in my mind to take everything I had learned and develop a Science Fiction narrative of my own.

My experiences with these different novels, short stories and other narrative writing taught me so much, as did my experiences with publishing. There have been ups and downs, I've met many good people and some who were not so good.

On thing that was interesting to learn is just how disparate the different communities around different types of Science Fiction are. My work on Elite Dangerous and with Julian Gollop on Chaos Reborn and Phoenix Point doesn't mean a whole lot outside of the gaming communities for each type of game. 

I started writing Fearless towards the end of 2016. I don't plan my novels - I'm mostly a 'pantser' to coin a technical term. I'd had some success with a change of writing style, using first person present for 'The Last Tank Commander' (published by Newcon Press and Baen Books, available here and here) and a lot of my Phoenix Point stories.

I never thought I would write a novel using that mode of address, but as the ideas for the story began to come together, I thought it would be worth giving it a try.

I gave an interview to Full Contact Nerd here.

There are a lot of themes in Fearless. To begin with, the character of Ellisa Shann. There was a key element in developing her identity. I wanted to portray a disabled character in space who was not attempting to overcome her disability. 

My partner and I have discussed that issue in stories many times. When I envisaged the story, there appeared to be a lot of narratives that were attempting to be diverse and inclusive with their cast, but continually had a disabled character who had to triumph over their physical condition to succeed. 

This theme was commented on by Tina S. Brier in her review, here.

I'd also seen projects that I'd been involved with attempt to use future technology as a fix-all solution to disability, to incurable diseases and to a host of other conditions. Whilst it may be that we find ways to solve many of the conditions people in society suffer from, there is a problem with assuming we will be able to fix everything. Readers have a diverse set of experiences throughout their lives, and most of those experiences come from being a part of our current society and its technology. Seeing individuals in the fictional future who we can relate to, whether by what we learn about their lives, the things they deal with, or how they react to situations, etc. is important. There are a lot of stories with certain types of people in them, there are less stories with people who don't fit into those types, for whatever reason. So much so in some instances that a reader can have a default image of what a character can look like, based on the fact that the Science Fiction they've read and watched that features characters who do fit the types.

Fearless attempts to challenge this. There is a moment in the first chapter which I first read to an audience at Fantasycon in 2017. It pulls no punches and it needs to be there. I could feel the stirring of the listeners as I read it. That sets the tone. After that, you know who Captain Ellisa Shann is and what she's about. The default image is dismissed.

The world of Fearless, the 2118 AD that I imagined has clear advantages over our world today, but it also has its own set of problems and challenges. Common future technology themes that other writers have dealt with, things like artificial intelligence, cybernetics, space travel, gravity, etc. are all themes I have looked to incorporate into the book and its drafted sequel. I've tried to think about new limitations and obstacles that people will encounter as they develop these technologies. Add to this the human society elements - corporations working in partnership with governments, the profusion of countries engaging with space in our world today, taken further into the next century, the economic inequality of life in this future, the diversity meritocracies of global organisations in this environment, all of it makes for a heady mix of shifting tensions, positives and negatives.

The road to publication for Fearless was interesting. I've gradually settled into a method with my writing; finish a draft, edit, write a synopsis, write a pitch then send to a list of agents and look for opportunities to get my work in front of a possible publisher. 

Like many writers, I've got a long list of possible people to send my work to. However, since 2014, I've become part of, firstly the British Fantasy Society and then the British Science Fiction Association. I've also run Fantasycon, in 2017 and 2018. What this has meant is that have met quite a few agents and publishers who are involved in genre publishing. In general, I'd say this isn't an advantage. People are friendly, but that doesn't mean they are more inclined to work with you on a book and nor should they be. Choosing to publish a novel is a financial investment, not a favour. 

During the process of sending Fearless out, I was worried that I hadn't done the story justice. The themes I've worked on are personal and very important to me and when I started getting feedback I was concerned my writing hadn't been good enough to convey the ideas and the themes.

Rejection is hard on a writer. Often people say 'get back up, keep on going, send it back out' and that's good advice. But it's also okay to hurt a little when you get a standard, boiler plate email or even a personal rejection. Writing a book is hard work and a big commitment. Everyone's journey to reach an audience is different.

During this process, you do really need feedback and constructive commentary from those you care about. Close friends have read my drafts, editors have looked at them, I have done feedback swaps with other writers, any opportunity to get a new perspective and a new mind engaged with the story to see if I could do anything to tweak it and improve it.

As I mentioned before, agents and publishers have to see the potential in it as a commercial venture. Agents make a living on working with writers and representing them to publishers, they know they are putting themselves on the line when they make an agreement with a writer. Publishers are in this situation as well, albeit a little less directly. The submissions editor has to be confident in their choices, the commissioning editor the same, along with everyone else in the process. 

With Fearless, I was very fortunate. Nick Wells, Creative Director and Publisher at Flame Tree Press came to the BSFA table at Worldcon in Dublin. We discussed the book and a few days after returning home, I sent him the manuscript. A few weeks later, after discussing the book with Don D'Auria, Flame Tree's executive editor, they decided to make me an offer, which I accepted. 

I don't currently have an agent for any of my work. However, when I finish a novel draft, I will send out to agents and I would recommend that any writer 

Since then, I've been gradually working through the different editing passes, working with them on promotion and marketing, and writing the sequel, which I gave a reading from during the BSFA Vector Reading Series here.

Since finalising the book, with Don, the world has changed, a lot. Social distancing and everything associated with it will affect the publishing industry. Many writers have noticed this as publishers have had to adapt and change to deal with the new commercial climate. We really don't know how this is all going to play out.

But in the meantime, I have a moment to enjoy. Fearless is being published. The initial reviews are really positive and I've enjoyed reading them. Like many writers, I thrive on people enjoying my work and leaving reviews. Every comment encourages me to keep writing. Every criticism helps me re-assess what I'm working on and think about how I can improve it. There is a bigger story to tell about Captain Shann and her crew which I'm immersed in drafting and editing. I hope I can deliver novels set in this gritty future for humanity that inspire others, just like I was inspired by some of the great science fiction stories I read as a child.

Sending early ARC versions out to my writer friends, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Anna Smith Spark and Ian Whates was a lovely experience too. When you have an opportunity to engage your friends with your work, it can be an exciting and intense moment. You hope they like the book - I mean, you really really hope they like the book! 

Seeing my work on an array of different webstores, and featured in the lists of Science Fiction released in September is an exciting thing too. 

Some of the comparisons in the reviews do make me smile, in the best possible way. I can't hope to compare to some of the names in images alongside me. Many of them are inspirations and legends to me. 

Some of the reviewers have also made comparisons which just leave me humbled and stunned. As a reviewer myself, I know how meticulous and knowledgeable many of these readers are. Seeing their comments is so helpful, particularly when they give reasons for their thoughts. I know I'm not the primary audience for their comments, but I am appreciative of them.

Reading reviews when you're the writer can be a stormy sea if you engage too closely with them. I do have to accept that these are opinions and temper my reaction accordingly otherwise I'll second guess my writing decisions on the sequel.

However, I am really looking forward to the blog tour, which starts on the 7th of September.

If you'd like to buy Fearless. Going straight to the publishers website is always the best choice.

The next step for me is to complete writing the sequel!