Posted on Sunday 7th June
I became a writer for several reasons, but one of these is that I was duped by a TV program when I was growing up. Star Trek, it was called and every show started with a promise to "seek out new life, new civilisations... To boldly go where no man has gone before."
Brilliant! I thought. Sign me up!
But week after week of watching the program, failed to produce anything that was truly alien. The inhabitants of the galaxy seemed little different from ourselves. They looked like us (give or take the odd plastic antenna stuck to their faces). They talked like us too and shared all of our characteristics including an urge to either sleep with Captain Kirk or to challenge him to single combat. It was great fun. But I realised early on that if I wanted a close encounter with the genuinely strange, I could do a lot worse than create it for myself.
Nowadays, whether I'm writing fantasy, SF or even horror, there's very little that gives me more pleasure in my job than world-building. The setting has to be weird, but not so weird that it can't be explained to the reader. It has to be imaginative without ever breaking its own rules. And above all, it has to be a place that constantly provokes drama and excitement. At least, that's the ideal; it's what I keep aiming for. Whether I get there or not, is for you to decide.
