Hi all,
I'm launching my next novel, Dreams, in Nov/Dec this year. It's set in Far North Queensland here in Australia, and yes... there are crocodiles. Lots and lots of vicious saltwater crocodiles to spice up First Contact.
I thought you'd like to see the proposed cover designs
Recently, I listened to a podcast by legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. His closing comments struck me and made me think about the generosity of dedicated readers like you, who have given me the privilege of writing. I've transcribed it below, as he captures the reality that novels connect us in a unique way as co-creators.
"When you read a novel, you co-create it. You imagine it in your head. It's just black lines on the page, and then you have an experience in your head. It's intensely collaborative between writer and reader. And the readers have to be generous, and they have to give it a lot of time, [far] more time than most artworks. And then when [the reader] comes out of it, they feel, "That happened to me, because I gave it that time, that mental energy, and I'm the co-creator here."
And every reader reads the book differently. Some people will say, "God, I just hate this guy's books." And other people will say, "Oh, I love this guy's books." But that's because of the co-creation of it. For them, it either works or it doesn't. And everybody's got their different favorite writer.
[In science fiction terms, when it comes to a novel] You get time travel. You get to go to another time and place: the Roman Empire, the moons of Jupiter. You're in — wow — time travel [but it's all inside your head]. And then you get telepathy. I'm in someone else's head. Well, that's hard. We don't get that. We want that, and we don't get it. You never get it. And then you read a novel, and you're like, "Oh my God, I was reading that person's mind." Telepathy really works [in the way books transport us into someone else's mind], but what is [really] true is that imagination really works. And if the novel is really good — it's kind of a gift. It's a really good imaginative interaction between writers and readers.
So as a writer, I read with incredible gratitude.
Novels bring us together. We're all different, but we're all the same. All these kinds of dialectical dualisms, where they're both true at once. We're each individual and unique, and we're all completely the same."
I'll let you know once Dreams is available for preorder.
Thank you for your kind and generous support of my writing. It is deeply appreciated.