Yes, the universe is trying to kill you. As the tagline on my most recent book reads, ‘Five Smart Students, One Hostile Universe.’ My five graduate students are tossed into one dangerous situation after another from the beginning and are left to fend for themselves throughout the book. So, why did I write it that way? Now that the novel is quite finished, I can look back and ponder my reasons for doing it the way I did.

Set in 1973, it is, of course, an adventure, so naturally a lot of things are going to happen. It is also a science fiction book, so my characters are confronted with a large number of things quite detached from their daily routine. They are constantly trying to use their knowledge and experiences to deal with the unexpected that keeps coming at them, and that drives this story. My favorite SF books have always been adventures of people dealing with the difficult, unexpected and wondrous.

A writers workshop that I once attended had this advice, put your characters up a tree, and then throw rocks at them. I have followed this idea and in my book I sought to put my characters in a difficult place and then make it worse. As for pacing the action, I decided to go slow and work up to a point where things get really rough. An old writer friend advised against what he called information dumps. Don’t throw a lot of information all at once at the reader, they will forget it and become confused later trying to remember what is supposed to happen. Build up the situation one step at a time and finally get to a place where it becomes OMG, how did we get into this mess, and more important, how do we get out?

Some modern writers are of the school that they have to write a surprise or plot twist in almost every chapter. I’m afraid that I‘m the plodding kind of writer that takes his time getting to that surprise or twist, I find it much more satisfying that way. It also prevents plot whiplash, trying to keep up with the constant changes. You don’t have to throw different things at your readers all the time. I have found that if you keep the story moving forward with occasional hints that something is building up to a conclusion and a reveal, that is pretty much what most people expect from an author. Or at least that was my process, so we shall see how that works out.

(Since I am also an artist and designer, I thought that I would do my own book cover. Here are a few of the most interesting design ideas.)