Having nurtured the Pilgrim through hundreds of
iterations and deliberations on themes, style, characters, plot and tone. The
Pilgrim’s journey has officially begun.
The Title, “Pilgrim’s Ark”, is perhaps a little “Old Testament”, and in many
ways, it truly is. Every story needs a beginning, and I’ve realised that this
first book is very much a “Genesis story”.
My surprise was to discover that writing it would demand yet another
resolution. While many of the questions, riddles, and enigmas raised in the
book find what I think is a satisfactory ending, it has now demanded deeper
explanations.
What is the Ark?
Can consciousness be photocopied?
Are we masters of our own free will?
If not, who is?
If some other entity, under what license does it operate?
What of ethics?
Can there be mastery over chaos?
These questions continued to plague me after I’d finished the book. And just as
I’d channelled the Pilgrim through to birth, so now does “The Entanglement
Well” demand existence. But it doesn’t stop there. Now a new “thing” must
manifest itself. Its working title is “Gaia Ascending”.
But I’m getting ahead of myself; the Pilgrim demands nourishment. I have to
resurface from my contemplations of plot, characters and “three-act structures”
to look inwards.
The publishing process is enlightening, and Austin
Macauley seems to have an ingrained empathy for the Author. As publishers of
Pilgrims Ark, and having moved from proof to publication, their marketing team
have posed several questions to me. Questions such as who has inspired me and
my motives.
These questions, subliminal to the writing process and after a long process of
gestation and birth, give them air. It breathes life in them again and further
immerses me. It is a good thing, and I’ve decided that this AM Author’s page is
the perfect place to make them tangible.
The first question, “Inspirations and motives” will be the topic of the next
blog. But, rather than a source of self-congratulations, I hope to disrupt
things. This is in no small part some of the reason behind why I chose AM as
the publisher. But that will be the topic for another blog and another day
In the meantime. I will share an immediate insight from the release of a book:
Almost invariably I get one of the following two
reactions:
“Where did you find the time?”
or
“I’ve always wanted to write a book too.”
The answer to the first question:
“I stopped watching TV.”
The response to the second:
“Just do it.”
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