I was invited to join the “Next Big Thing” author round robin by Steve Byrne, a horrific genius who recently released his first novel. Last week he answered the same Q&A, which you can find here.
My Q&A is right below ya… 😉
1) What is the working title of your next book?
It’s so far down the pipeline (July 2013), let’s talk about my latest novel instead, which is The Frozen Sky.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
My honeymoon! I’m a sick puppy!
My wife grew up in Germany. We flew to Europe for two weeks, where I met many uncles and cousins, drank too much beer, ate too much fried pork, and toured castles, museums, spectacular forests and waterfalls.
In the Alps, we found our way to Die Eisriesenwelt, “The Great Ice World.”
For eons, melting snow has eroded the insides of these towering hunks of granite. In places, the cave systems stretch for twenty-five kilometers. Some have been developed into tourist sites with gondolas to bring people up the plummeting slopes. They’ve also installed a massive steel wall across the mouth of Die Eisriesenwelt to maintain its lowest temperatures in summer.
Diana and I were lucky. Waiting for the 2pm tour, we heard happy shouts from inside. When the door opened, an overexcited pack of teenagers emerged with their guide… but when he took the next tour inside, he only had the two of us.
It was as silent as a haunted church. Shadows danced away from us into blackness. All you’re given are small kerosene lamps in order to minimize damaging Die Eisriesenwelt with heat and light. No flashlights. No miners’ helmets.
The ice is stunning. Massive formations slump through the tunnels in slow-motion waves, stalactites, hillocks, and lakes. In places, they’ve hacked out channels or stairs in order to move from one cavern to another. The best moments were when our guide set off a magnesium flare, suddenly revealing the vast dimensions of the caves beyond our tiny, guttering flames.
An hour later, he suggested we extinguish our lanterns completely.
In absolute darkness, we heard miles of empty space echoing around us – the creeping ice – and the dead, implacable weight of the rock. In comparison, human beings are fast-lived indeed, like mayflies flickering in and out of the colossal mountain.
Immediately I knew I had to write about it.
At the same time, NASA’s Cassini probe passed Jupiter on its way to Saturn. One of Cassini’s primary targets was Europa, Jupiter’s sixth moon, an ice moon which biologists now theorize is the likeliest place in the solar system to find other life.
Europa’s frozen crust stretches down ten to twenty kilometers in places, beneath which is a deep salt ocean. The ocean floor appears to be torn by hydrothermal vents and volcanoes. It has all the building blocks of life. Scientists imagine we’ll find hardy bacteria like the same primordial organisms that grow in undersea volcanoes on Earth. Of course I thought, What if those single-cell organisms had evolved into higher lifeforms like they did on our planet?
What would those creatures be like? There is no light inside Europa. They wouldn’t need eyes. They would use sonar, taste, and scent.
They might climb out of the ocean into mountain peaks like the Alps.
It seems like a leap from Germany to Jupiter, but ideas are where you find them. I read a lot. The Frozen Sky is a fusion of my honeymoon and a nightmare – light and darkness – fire and ice.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Science fiction.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I like Marisol Nichols as “Vonnie.” Smart. Tough. Sexy.
She’s not blond, but my favorite example of changing things for a movie is Pay It Forward.
In the book, the hero is an African-American male with hideous burns from a grenade explosion. He’s also missing one arm. In the movie, you have Kevin Spacey with a small, tasteful scar on his cheek.
Aha ha ha.
Far more important to me than hair color is style and mood.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
The back jacket copy is cool (and brief and to the point), I’m just going to run with the whole thing:
“I’m hooked.” –Larry Niven
“A first-rate adventure.” –Allen Steele
BENEATH THE ICE
Something is alive inside Jupiter’s ice moon Europa. Robot probes find an ancient tunnel beneath the surface, its walls carved with strange hieroglyphics. Led by elite engineer Alexis Vonderach, a team of scientists descends into the dark… where they confront a savage race older than mankind…
FIRST CONTACT
Based on the award-winning short story, The Frozen Sky is a new full-length sci fi thriller novel from the international bestselling author of Plague Year.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
That’s a trick question. It’s self-published and represented by agencies for film and foreign rights. Welcome to the confusing e-future! 🙂
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Most of a year.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
When I talk about it with friends and fans, I compare The Frozen Sky to Aliens or The Thing or Pitch Black. It’s a high concept sci fi thriller with scary aliens in the dark.
Writing this book was a lot of fun!!!!
For our next Next Big Thing, we’ll look for Genre Underground mastermind M. Todd Gallowglas!