Thursday 28 February 2013

The Real Mars Mission

 
My novel, Red Rock, is set just after the return of the first manned mission to mars; a mission with a special connection for Danni, because her aunt was one of the astronauts.

Mankind may not yet have set foot on the red planet, but there have been regular missions to mars over the years.

It is a world full of surprises. The first images of ancient river channels sent back by Mariner 9 set the world ablaze, and since then the search for water and for evidence that there may once have been life on that barren world continues.

At the moment the Curiosity rover is up there, sending back data, revealing more secrets and raising even more questions with every day that passes.

I was lucky enough to see it in Florida, a few days before the launch.

Who knows – maybe one of my readers will become the first man, or woman, to set foot on Mars.

Thursday 21 February 2013

The First Foxes

Last week the first titles from Curious Fox were launched, and I’ve been following their progress with a great deal of interest.
 
The titles are:
 
Hyperspace High by Zac Harrison
 (The first two titles in this series are now available – Crash Landing and Frozen Enemies)
 
When John Riley gets on the wrong coach, he ends up at an elite academy on an enormous space ship, where his classmates are aliens, the food is disgusting, and the penalty for failing exams is harsh. Can he show that he deserves a place at Hyperspace High?

 
 
And
 
The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling
 
No-one performs on the circus trapeze like 16-year-old Remy Brunel. But Remy also leads another life, prowling through the backstreets of Victorian London as a jewel thief. When she is forced to steal one of the world s most valuable diamonds, she uncovers a world of treachery and fiendish plots, and makes friends with a policeman.

 
 
So far I’ve spotted the Hyperspace High books in my local branch of Smiths and I’ll be keeping an eye out for both these titles in various other outlets – such as my local Waterstone’s.

The Diamond Thief has been getting some very good reviews and appears to have generated quite a bit of online buzz – and with good reason – it’s a really good read.

Both books are available in print and e-book formats, so if you have kids who are looking for something new to read why not check them out.

Friday 8 February 2013

A Change of Perspective

We all know that different people can watch the same event and yet perceive things differently. That is what makes us such unreliable witnesses.

And that got me wondering about my characters. They each have their own view of events - they each see the world in their own way.

So I wondered what would happen if I took an old story of mine - one that hadn't quite worked out but was still gnawing away at me not to ignore it - and told the story from a different perspective?

How different will that story become?

One chapter in and I can already see it is a very different beast. This is going to be an intriguing experiment.