Alternate Realities
August is shaping up to be a busy month. Not only is it the school holidays but we are also moving house at the end of the month. I'm not sure of the exact date - we are still waiting on an exchange of contracts which should have happened last week. More on that when I have it.
In addition, I release a new book at the end of this month so thought this would be an ideal opportunity to let you know how I came up with the idea.
Having written three spin-offs over the past couple of years, I sat down at the start of this year with the feeling it was time for a new Time Bubble book. If you've read the first three you'll recall that the third book tied up most of the loose ends and brought what was intended to be a trilogy to a close.
But the spin-offs raised new questions, plus there were some things at the end of the third book that I still felt needed exploring. I want to avoid spoilers here so all I will say is that at the end of the third book a major change occurred to the timeline. This led me to think about what the effects of that on the people involved might be?
What if both universes were now in existence - the one where the character died and the one where he/she didn't? What if the one who lived could subconsciously dream at night about the other reality? My own personal experience came into play here, because I have this strange recurring dream that has bugged me for years.
Back in 2005 I took the decision to take voluntary redundancy from my job at Nielsen. This was undoubtedly one of the biggest decisions of my life which led me to where I am today. But strangely, ever since I left, I frequently dream at night that I am still there, going off to client presentations, dealing with 'Watty' (the boss) and interacting with my old colleagues. There are other oddities too - in this strange alter ego of a universe I park my car at Pitt Rivers Museum every morning and cycle up to the office in Headington. Which is a bit random, to say the least.
The only two explanations I can come up with are as follows. Firstly, somewhere in my subconscious mind I feel guilty that I left my career behind to pursue other interests because it's going against convention. Perhaps deep down I feel that I should have played the game according to the rules, been a good little office bod, built a career and now be approaching middle age with a highly paid job, mortgage paid off and holidaying in the Caribbean every year. (Except it probably wouldn't be the Caribbean because I don't like injections).
The bit about cycling might be some sort of guilt over my middle-aged spread and lack of fitness, a common affliction for men of my age but not an insurmountable one given sufficient willpower and time, which I seem to lack.
But the reality is that I don't feel this way in my waking hours at all. Leaving Nielsen has brought me new experiences, a family and a whole new way of life. Yes, I may not be wealthy but the thought that I might have spent the last 12 years still sitting in the office and all that goes with it horrifies me.
The second explanation is that there really is another universe where I didn't take redundancy and the other me is still living that life. The movie, Sliding Doors, springs to mind. My dreams are quite detailed and one major difference is that in that universe I never settled down and never had children. That alone is not a good advert as no amount of money or status can ever substitute for my family.
Whatever the true reason for all of this, it provided a good starting point for my new novel. In the first third of the book we meet all the old characters as they get together and the story of one of the affected character's dreams comes out. This piques the interest of Josh, the main protagonist this time, who sets out to prove the existence of these other worlds. Extending his time travel experiments, he eventually discovers a way to travel between them.
Unfortunately at this point things go a bit pear-shaped and he finds his means of getting back damaged. Travelling back in time each time, he finds himself jumping from one alternate world to another, and this is where the story really gets going.
I really had quite a lot of fun with this, exploring many different possibilities of the "What if?" variety. So Josh ends up visiting worlds where his life took a different path, where the whole world took a different path after the Battle of Hastings, and where contemporary events involving Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un and ISIS create some very scary situations indeed.
The thing I really loved about writing this was it gave me several different blank sheets of paper to indulge my imagination in any way I liked. I'm hoping you'll enjoy the final outcome.
Splinters In Time will be released on 31st August 2017. You can pre-order it using the links below:
For the UK, click here For the USA, click here
In addition, I release a new book at the end of this month so thought this would be an ideal opportunity to let you know how I came up with the idea.
Having written three spin-offs over the past couple of years, I sat down at the start of this year with the feeling it was time for a new Time Bubble book. If you've read the first three you'll recall that the third book tied up most of the loose ends and brought what was intended to be a trilogy to a close.
But the spin-offs raised new questions, plus there were some things at the end of the third book that I still felt needed exploring. I want to avoid spoilers here so all I will say is that at the end of the third book a major change occurred to the timeline. This led me to think about what the effects of that on the people involved might be?
What if both universes were now in existence - the one where the character died and the one where he/she didn't? What if the one who lived could subconsciously dream at night about the other reality? My own personal experience came into play here, because I have this strange recurring dream that has bugged me for years.
Back in 2005 I took the decision to take voluntary redundancy from my job at Nielsen. This was undoubtedly one of the biggest decisions of my life which led me to where I am today. But strangely, ever since I left, I frequently dream at night that I am still there, going off to client presentations, dealing with 'Watty' (the boss) and interacting with my old colleagues. There are other oddities too - in this strange alter ego of a universe I park my car at Pitt Rivers Museum every morning and cycle up to the office in Headington. Which is a bit random, to say the least.
The only two explanations I can come up with are as follows. Firstly, somewhere in my subconscious mind I feel guilty that I left my career behind to pursue other interests because it's going against convention. Perhaps deep down I feel that I should have played the game according to the rules, been a good little office bod, built a career and now be approaching middle age with a highly paid job, mortgage paid off and holidaying in the Caribbean every year. (Except it probably wouldn't be the Caribbean because I don't like injections).
The bit about cycling might be some sort of guilt over my middle-aged spread and lack of fitness, a common affliction for men of my age but not an insurmountable one given sufficient willpower and time, which I seem to lack.
But the reality is that I don't feel this way in my waking hours at all. Leaving Nielsen has brought me new experiences, a family and a whole new way of life. Yes, I may not be wealthy but the thought that I might have spent the last 12 years still sitting in the office and all that goes with it horrifies me.
The second explanation is that there really is another universe where I didn't take redundancy and the other me is still living that life. The movie, Sliding Doors, springs to mind. My dreams are quite detailed and one major difference is that in that universe I never settled down and never had children. That alone is not a good advert as no amount of money or status can ever substitute for my family.
Whatever the true reason for all of this, it provided a good starting point for my new novel. In the first third of the book we meet all the old characters as they get together and the story of one of the affected character's dreams comes out. This piques the interest of Josh, the main protagonist this time, who sets out to prove the existence of these other worlds. Extending his time travel experiments, he eventually discovers a way to travel between them.
Unfortunately at this point things go a bit pear-shaped and he finds his means of getting back damaged. Travelling back in time each time, he finds himself jumping from one alternate world to another, and this is where the story really gets going.
I really had quite a lot of fun with this, exploring many different possibilities of the "What if?" variety. So Josh ends up visiting worlds where his life took a different path, where the whole world took a different path after the Battle of Hastings, and where contemporary events involving Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un and ISIS create some very scary situations indeed.
The thing I really loved about writing this was it gave me several different blank sheets of paper to indulge my imagination in any way I liked. I'm hoping you'll enjoy the final outcome.
Splinters In Time will be released on 31st August 2017. You can pre-order it using the links below:
For the UK, click here For the USA, click here
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