One of the most frequent questions that I have been asked as an author is where do I get my ideas from, and the answer is, rather frustratingly for all concerned I presume, I do not know! I imagine that this problem is not limited to writers, it applies to all creative people. We all suffer from inspiration, whether in the shape of a muse or just an abstract idea, it afflicts us until we do something about it. I have lots of ideas, most of which never seem to make it very far, but that is okay, more than enough of them seem to inspire me to some kind of creative activity.

I mentioned in a post from a couple of weeks ago that I had an idea a few years ago that, while appearing to be interesting, just did not seem robust enough to be turned into a book. I have actually made several attempts to develop the idea, but I was always aware that it was just too shallow for 70,000+ words, so I left it on the back burner somewhere in my mind, but now it seems to be fighting to be realised.

Science Fiction is a genre I have always been interested in and, for a short while at least, it was all that I would read when I was young. We get like that when we are at a certain age, I suppose; it happened with music too. I enjoyed Star Trek and Star Wars, never feeling that I had to choose between them, but there were some things about both franchises that always annoyed me. With Star Trek it was the almost total lack of non-humanoid aliens. I was never convinced by the addition of bits of rubber or bright coloured hair to an actor that was the stock representation of another alien species. If they were indeed alien, then shouldn’t they at least be alien? Why should they look anything like us? Okay, I understand the cost involved for a production company in representing a character as a totally alien alien in monetary terms, but still, it just was not satisfactory. Then with Star Wars the very simple dichotomy of ‘good versus evil’ seemed to be the only driving force, which results in a never-ending war between the two factions. Despite interesting ideas like the Jedi Knights and the fact that even with the constant warfare most of the galaxy seemed to go on with a pretty normal life based on capitalism, Star Wars was never given to exploring its own universe. Over time I found these dissatisfactions rising to the surface more and more. The regurgitation of Star Wars by Disney and the failure to live up to the promise of the recent Star Trek movies provoked a response; I decided to write my own science fiction epic.

This was not an epiphany. Neither did it start straight away. I had several ideas going around my head that suggested a degree of compatibility, or at least they began to gravitate towards each other and like individual particles started to coalesce. In no particular order of importance these ideas concerned the following:

• That which is termed good or evil is a matter of perception
• Humans are the only evolved sentient lifeforms in the galaxy
• Artificial intelligence need not mirror our own cognisant development
• There has been more than one species of human, there might be two or more in a galactic civilisation
• The universe would be the deity of a religion that spanned the galaxy
• Resources would still be finite in a galactic civilisation
• Excess population is not an unavoidable consequence of humankind as a species
• War is not caused by what is good or evil but by conflicting ideals
• Spirituality is a necessary requirement of the human psyche

This list is not exhaustive, but I do not want to bore anyone further so I will leave it there.

My reading stretches across a large number of areas and includes history, philosophy, science, as well as literature, poetry, and art. I did not find it difficult to encourage some active influences from that store of cultural experience to help shape the initial story that I want to tell. I once saw a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Troilus and Cressida and was fascinated by the depiction of the fall of Troy from the point of view of two lesser characters. Normally, it is Paris and Helen who take centre stage. In my original outline for the story I followed The Illiad quite closely, but quickly realised that doing so was not actually helpful or even healthy in a creative fashion. The idea of the fall of Troy was good, obviously, but there was no need to turn it into a pale science fiction copy, so I started to steer away from that idea. Instead, I chose it as my jumping off point in that the story begins with a title that is both a question and a statement: Should Iolos Fall. It is a question in that it is asking if Iolos, both a city and a star system, should be allowed to fall to the enemy. It is a statement because it is attempting to suggest what the inevitable outcome of that event would be. As a starting point I have found it to be very fertile and I am already past 30,000 words and writing.