ANK on Do I know my characters?

Sure! ...or so I would have said when I first started writing The Sphere.
Bella and Dylan had been haunting my mind for a good while before I got my author's fingers into gear and decided to participate in NaNoWriMo 2016.
It was easy going with those two. Like a comfortable, long term relationship. I knew who they were, how they felt, and what they wanted to achieve.
Still - they managed to take me by surprise more than once! I plunged them into stressful, dangerous, and daunting situations, and I saw their loyalties and values challenged.
I witnessed their relationship and love being threatened and I discovered a darker, more sinister side to Bella, and a weakness in Dylan, which I never could have anticipated.

Their dynamics change. THEY change. Circumstances force them to, and sometimes they struggle to keep their relationship from crumbling.
They eventually find a balance of give and take, weakness and steel, resistance and surrender during the five-year journey to Earth on board The Odyssey.
And then there is Nick Cole. He was not a participant in the story to start with. But that changed radically when he first stepped out of a dark corner of my imagination.
He had to grow up fast when he started to take on great responsibilities for Bella. And he never asked much in return. He is totally at the mercy of his all-consuming love for Bella.
Bella lured Nick into her orbit under false pretences. Not because she is intrinsically mean or manipulative - but because she had to. Dylan's life was on the line - and the line is always thin, and getting thinner as the story develops! Nick never knew the full truth. He got fed whatever was necessary to keep the truth under wraps.
He was a no-holds-barred idealist. He dared to hope. He dared to dream.
He still is a dreamer - a disillusioned one, though.
He is also a doer.  And he did everything in his powers to make his visions come true. Single minded, determined, soft spoken, loyal, and kind. That was Nick Cole at the end of The Sphere (Book 1 of the Sphere-World Series).

When I started to write The Odyssey, Nick changed. He was in charge of The Odyssey - he built her, he designed her, he commanded her. There is power in Nick: the calm confidence of a person who knows their ways and their values. But there is also doubt, sorrow, and despair. Nick is a dual character, and he struggles to reconcile the polar opposites within himself, which constantly battle for the upper hand.
He is fiercely attached to life - yet he is ready to die, when the purpose of his efforts, the driving force, his motivator for escaping the space station turns out to be a red herring.
Once he realised that, he gave up.
It was hard to keep him alive!

I struggled, I fought for him, and I eventually managed to bring him back from the brink.
It came at a price, though: He wasn't the same. He couldn't be! Traumatic events demand changes - significant changes in fact.

And so I had to let him descend into his own personal abyss. Where was his anchor? Who tethered him? I didn't know at first. But it became apparent very soon.

I know my characters, yes. But not in their entirety. Like real people, they surprise me. They reveal additional layers of their personalities the better I get to know them. And I like this aspect of writing. Nothing is set in stone.
When crossroads are reached, my protagonists may strike the wrong path. They may turn around - and they may not. Perhaps they will get out at the other end: burned, warped, and perhaps rebuilt. But perhaps they will become stuck in the wrong; never to recover. After all - some people shatter when they are pushed too hard.

I also introduce new characters in each book. The story demands it.
It is exciting! I love working with new characters: the entirely unknown ones, the ones I can watch develop as the story progresses., and the ones which exist as a glimpse, and will only fully reveal themselves further down the line in the Sphere-World series.
Book 3 Homecoming will be out later this year.

Please stay tuned, and may you find many engaging books to read.

ANK on POV

Point Of View... Right... Where to start? Or should I rather say: Who to start with?
The boys of the Sphere-World series have been brought up as gentlemen. So it's good old "Ladies first".
It is Bella who gets the first word in.
In The Sphere (book 1 of the Sphere-Worl series) she is the lead character. The one whose life is turned upside down. The one who struggles to keep everything from falling apart; within herself and her environment.
Not that I want to diminish Dylan's or Nick's contribution, but book 1 of the Sphere-World series is mostly about Bella her background, and her fights. And it is she, who tells her story.

My other characters get their say as well.
And I make sure to give them the opportunity to tell things from their point of view.

After all: Nobody is better suited to tell what it is like to become human, what it feels like to change than Dylan, the gentle alien himself.

Then there is Nick. Nobody experiences his pain and conflicts first hand but the man himself. So it is he, who needs to tell us what it feels like to have his hopes and dreams shattered; in his own words - not via a narrator, who would only ever be able to give us a second-hand account; reheated; regurgitated; less than full-on.
It allows for deeper insights into a protagonists's character, and it makes for a more intriguing emotional landscape. And at the end of the day, my books are about emotions as much as they are about futuristic scenarios, historic events, and plain old imaginary worlds.

I hope this explains why my books always have multiple POVs.
So far I had almost 100% positive feedback on this policy; apart from one beta reader, who found a particular transition between POVs confusing.
Needless to say: I remedied the issue. Thanks for pointing it out, dear reader. It is this kind of constructive criticism that makes the story better, the narrative more concise, and ultimately improves the reading experience.

I genuinely hope you enjoy reading stories with different points of views.
Because one man's Valhalla is another man's Hell!

Book 1 and 2 of the Sphere-World series are out now on Amazon.

The Sphere and The Odyssey are both #free on #kindleunlimited

Enjoy!

The Odyssey; Book 2 of the Sphere-World Series

Bella and Nick are about to leave the space station behind; undertaking the journey of a lifetime to make their way back to Earth - a journey of five billion light-years. Five years of living in a space-bubble - if they will make it at all.
It is a journey into the unknown and dangerous depths of the universe, a journey to the home planet of humankind; a place that nobody had contact with in over five-thousand years. Earth might well be wrecked, devastated, destroyed - unfit for humans to live, perhaps even devoid of life entirely.
Nobody knows!
Nick Cole doesn't care: All he wants is to get Bella away from The Sphere - the alien artefact, which is the home of Dylan, Bella's imaginary husband... or so Nick thinks.
Because Nick is in love with Bella.
Bella doesn't care either: All she wants is to spirit her alien husband away from the confines of the space station, where he lies in hiding, desperately trying to conceal his presence from his species as well as from the humans. He must stay undiscovered, or everybody's life is at stake.

It is also a journey into the human mind. A journey of change and adaptation. A journey to the boundaries of human morals, ethics, and laws. Allegiances, beliefs, and ethics get challenged and re-written.
As the laws and rules of the space-stationers' society become irrelevant to the travellers, as changing social dynamics and environments force them to reconsider and redefine their personal values and boundaries, friendships threaten to break apart, and social bonds weaken.
The human mind is easy to overwhelm, feeble when faced with the unthinkable.
Who will make it through the turmoil unscathed? Who will survive, and who will perish?

The Odyssey (book 2 of the Sphere-World series) is now available as ebook from Amazon.
 worldwide

Amazon UK
Amazon US


Please visit my author page on Amazon UK and Amazon US, my Goodreads page, or follow me on Twitter @AnatheaKrrill or Facebook.

ANK on Fact and Fiction

Fact is: The Earth is round.
It is only ever flat in fictional settings. Think Terry Pratchett's Discworld - just to use one example.
Nothing wrong with that. Everything goes in fiction!
And I am a massive fan of weird and wonderful worlds.
Do I believe they exist? Nope - not necessarily; especially if the world in question is a distortion of Earth as we know it. Give me a more believable version of a faraway galaxy, where things might just be very different, and I might be inclined to allow my mind to imagine, and indulge in the "what if" scenario.

A line needs to be drawn to take such "beliefs" - and that's what it is: unfounded beliefs, which defy all of our scientific knowledge. Remember Galileo Galilei? The Italian scientist, who claimed rightfully, that Earth was not the centre of our solar system? ...and almost paid with his life for his perceived "heresy."
Now - one could argue, that back in "those days" - we write the year 1615 and find ourselves well and truly in the dark ages - scientific methods were not advanced enough to prove beyond doubt, that Galilei's heliocentric version of our solar system was right.

Fast forward to present day: Mankind is travelling to space. The International Space Station (ISS) is NOT a myth. The Hubble Space Telescope is operating and sending images back to us.
Are there really people out there who believe that the Hubble space-telescope sends falsified, rounded images of a flat Earth? Oh no - wait - Hubble can't even take images of Earth, which aren't blurred.

What is good, great, and outright desirable in fiction is nothing but unfounded, dangerous, and often outright ignorant in real life.
There are too many deniers out there, who avert their eyes from the inconvenient truth. They aggressively, inconsiderately, and destructively argue the unwarranted toss out of scientifically proven facts like -  the Earth is round, climate-change unfortunately exists, vaccines save lives, Earth is not ruled by strategically placed alien reptiles... and this is by no means a comprehensive list! Please feel free to add.

Image of Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972
Image by NASA; downloaded from National Geographic 

ANK on Plausible versus Possible - Science versus Fiction

In writing fiction - especially #sciencefiction and #fantasy - authors will be confronted with many questions concerning the believability of their story.
How does one make the implausible, unbelievable, and sometimes outright bonkers believable?
I am not talking possible. Many of the mental constructs existing in the realm of fiction can seem very plausible - even if they are (currently) impossible.
Personally, I like to draw on my profession. I am a scientist by trade and I have been working in research for more than two decades now... and counting.
It is a profession not done for the money, but for the love of it; because it is interesting; because it allows us to learn new things, have discussions with interesting people, and because it introduces us to mindboggling new concepts - things we never even knew existed.
And that's where the bridge to fiction is so easily forged!
Many scientific findings started as mere ideas - constructs in a person's mind, fuelled by imagination, and taken further by sheer determination to follow a vision. Ideas scientists took to the next level - to examine them, challenge them, and proof that they might just be right, and then develop them.
Scientists are often storytellers at heart; they are good at inspiring people, draw them in, and infect others with their passion.
Having said that: Science is a demanding mistress! It's not an easy job, and taking a theory from an idea, through the experimental design stages, through scrutiny by funding bodies, and finally into the lab requires more than passion. It requires determination and grit; the ability to seriously think outside the box, to be so creative it puts artists to shame, and to be so determined to succeed, that professional athletes are put to shame.
And from all what I know, the same goes for writing!
Taking an idea and developing it into a published book is no mean feat. It takes time, determination, a lot of thinking, slogging through repeated rounds of editing, and making sure the story has no plotholes or incongruencies.
Not to mention the many occasions when one wakes up in the daft hours of the night because a great idea shook one awake rudely.
Writing and science both heavily rely on imagination, determination, and the knowledge of how to craft a good story.
Happy experimenting & writing!

ANK on the incredible delight of chocolate digestives with peanut butter

Yup! My eating habits could be called unconventional. I rather like to think of them as adventurous. After all, I almost tried a roasted grasshopper... once...
Today, I fancied a peanut buttery treat... or two. But I had run out of bread, felt too lazy to go to the shop, and didn't want to eat it straight out of the jar. (I confess - I occasionally do that...)
I sensed a perfect storm brewing in the not-available food department.
And then - Saviour! - I spotted a pack of chocolate digestives tantalizingly winking at me from the far side of the kitchen.

My peanut butter-focussed mind (aka the uncontrollable parts of my brain) fired up all its unoccupied synapses and made the connection instantaneously! Yep - I can work pretty fast where edibles are involved. No dithering!
It was a delightful feast: peanut-buttered dark chocolate digestives. Heaven! Bliss!

Change of scenery...
As I happily munched away at my peanut-butter-delights, staring at my computer screen and willing at least one of my characters  to hand me a clue of where they were heading, the realization struck me:
My writing habits are as mix-and-match as my eating habits!
Personal trait? Guess so. I never fancied being boxed up, labeled, and stuck on a shelf. I like to reinvent myself, do new things, try things I never tried before... and then I stick with what works for me.

And that's why I write what I like to read, and I eat what I love the taste of.

Genres? I elaborated on that one previously.
People? What do people do? What do aliens do? Where do they come from? When it boils down to it, they are all living, feeling beings.

I don't buy into the concept of the ultimate Good or Evil. I work in the Inbetween - where beings are multi-faceted: predominantly good, but circumstances may push them to show their less favorable personality traits.
At the end of the day, a good read is not about its genre (aka the label we put onto it) but about the journey; the way the protagonists deal with situations; their determination to survive and succeed. The sheer will of a being pressed to breaking point. Their endurance, their spirit, their hopes and dreams. It is about the life of the characters - no matter the genre!
Well - I'd never have encountered the delight of a peanut butter digestive if I'd had bread on the shelf!

ANK on Nick Cole

Who is Nick Cole?
A gifted engineer, handsome devil, loyal friend, and savior. He is Bella's temptation and Dylan's bane.

Nick's character didn't even exist when I started writing the first draft of The Sphere.
He appeared literally out of nowhere. One day, he stepped out of a dark corner of my mind and politely introduced himself. Once I got over my initial shock and allowed him in, he had no problem convincing me I needed him.
He never left me in any doubt that he came to stay.
Three books into the series and guess what: He is still with me.

And what a character he is!
I took him on board (reluctantly) because I needed him. The story needed him. Bella needed him.
Nick, however, fell for Bella; line, hook, and sinker.

And no matter how many times she floors him - he always gets up. He is a fighter; a survivor. He is my true hero.

I am grateful he had the courage to come and the stamina to stay.

I admire and respect him.

Thank you, Nick!

--------------------------------------------------------------

The man himself:
ANK has a melodramatic outlook when it comes to my person.

Let me get one thing clear: I never volunteered for altruistic reasons.

First, I only agreed to talk to Bella about warp travel because my friend and mentor, Barnes, asked a favor. Second, I wanted to help because the project provided a new and intriguing distraction from life on the space station.

Third - and I hate to admit this - I stupidly fell for Bella - and I couldn't pull out afterward.

What started with butterflies in my stomach and high hopes for a future together almost ended in a disaster. The woman I love has some cruel ways to twist a man around her little finger and break him in the process! I know - I am at the receiving end. Yet - I cannot deny her! I cannot step away from her. I am too bloody weak.

She has a pull I cannot escape; like even light cannot escape the pull of a black hole. That's what Bella is for me: A black hole - relentlessly sucking everything into it. And like a black hole, Bella's gravity is indiscriminate. I know she doesn't do it out of spite. It is her nature. I wish I were stronger... I love her.

I need to get her away from the space station; out of the reach of The Sphere. Make her forget it ever existed; make her forget what it holds inside ever existed. I can do it... I would do anything to win her love. Beg, steal, lie, kill. I only need to build this spaceship. That's all it takes.

Once we are underway, she will be mine.

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ANK:
Nick is my most complex character. He causes me massive headaches because he is so unpredictable; yet - he is such a pleasure to work with.
When the story runs dry, Nick steps in to save the day.
Guess it's his paternal ancestry. He cannot deny his genetic predisposition. His father is a handful as well.
I nearly fell flat on my face when he turned up out of the blue!
Those men have a nasty habit of taking me by surprise...
I was blissfully oblivious to Nick's true nature - and so was he.

Enough! Nick's Dad has no doing in The Sphere, but he features prominently in the third book, Homecoming, where he causes a good deal of havoc and upset. Until then, the Sphere-World Series has some life-changing challenges in store for Nick. I am not going easy on him! But that's what he came to volunteer for...
Good luck to you, my friend!