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Why did I do it? Let me start with a little science. The Inspector of the Cross series is not hard science fiction, but I take into account certain realities about interstellar travel and colonization. The number one fact I saw right away was that ports and planets would be so far apart, ships couldn’t simply pass between them in a matter of weeks or even years. Without a FTL (Faster Than Light) Drive, it would take decades, even centuries. Light takes eight minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun. How long would it take a message from a colony fifty light-years from Earth to reach us? Since the fastest speed known in the universe is the speed of light, that message would take at least fifty years, and possibly much longer. And hey, that’s just one way. Dear Reader, it would take you at least one hundred years to send a message to your Aunt Matilda on Altair IV and hear back from her. But by then it wouldn’t matter because you’d both be dead.
Do you see the problem I faced? Assuming mankind establishes a galactic empire as the Cross does in my series, how could we govern it? How could we keep in touch with our colonies? Wouldn’t we simply lose contact or have to be awfully, awfully patient, not to mention blessed with supernatural longevity?
Intrigued by this situation and inspired by The Forever War, I had to find a solution. Haldeman uses the Einsteinian principle of time dilation to enable his hero to live a thousand years. Basically, this means that the faster you travel, the slower you age compared to those who are not travelling. I chose suspended animation in freeze ships rather than time dilation because…well, I can’t be sure since it was a long time ago. Maybe I thought Haldeman’s method wouldn’t work as well or preferred to use my own.
Anyway, I solved the problem. A hero COULD travel to distant destinations without dying en route of old age. He could complete his missions as long as he slept frozen, the process of aging suspended. This method enabled me to solve the daunting problems of space travel in a vast universe.
Only in a way, it didn’t, and this fact fascinated me. Turtan travels for thousands of years, seeking weapons or devices that might turn the tide against the Cen, who are vicious, seemingly invincible aliens that have brought humanity to the brink of ruin. Eventually Turtan teeters on the brink of despair and madness. I wanted to explore what it must be like to be such a man, to span many generations and live outside of time and normal human contact, to love and leave women and dozens of children he has fathered and will never see again. What terrible price must he pay in order to serve and attempt to save the human race, and what will be the effect upon him to have made such a prolonged sacrifice? In the first book of the trilogy, Inspector of the Cross, Turtan almost crumbles under the terrible strain. How would YOU like to meet your great grandson as an old, old man?
Anyway, over thirty years ago I banged Inspector of the Cross out on my typewriter and submitted it to publishers without success or the aid of any criticism. Then, one day, I was rummaging through my closet and found an old, yellowing manuscript. I read a few pages and typed it out on a computer, which, as you know, has many advantages a typewriter lacks. I revised and polished the manuscript and then submitted it to my writers’ critique group chapter by chapter. I revised it again along the way and submitted it to my superb editor, Christine Speakman. And the rest is history.
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Wait. That’s too easy. I found myself more and more caught – trapped if you will – in this universe. Turtan continued to grow as a character, even showing traits I never suspected myself, and other characters he encountered grew as well. I’ve said before that as a writer, I’m a pantser, not a plotter. I make it up as I go along and sometimes the characters and the story make it up for me. Yes, I love to revise, polish, and analyze, but this man Turtan has gotten waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy out of hand.
Let me give you one example: The Radiants. I little knew in Book II, Kingdom of the Jax, that creating a submicroscopic lifeform which Turtan accepts into his mind would change him so profoundly. How would YOU like to share your skull with ten billion tenants? In the same novel, I introduce Sky Masterson, a fourteen-year-old girl who I thought was going to be a bit character. Wrong! She grows and interacts with our hero to such an extent, he finds himself conflicted in unprecedented ways.
In Book III, Defender of the Flame, Turtan returns to the space academy he graduated from four thousand years before. It is a glorious homecoming, and he receives a wonderful welcome. Turtan believes he has finally found a way to end the war and save the human race. But will it work, and will he live to use it? Is Book III finally the end of all his troubles, and will his longing for a normal life finally be rewarded? Or will his endless quest only continue? Read on.
Why did I begin writing this series, and what’s kept me going? I grew up loving SF and SF/ Horror movies, magazines, comic books, and books. War of the Worlds, Them, The Thing, Amazing Stories, Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, Matheson’s The Shrinking Man, and so on. They all inspired my original interest in science fiction/speculative fiction and have contributed not only to Turtan but to much of my other fiction as well. I just love the mind-blowing concepts and speculative freedom of science fiction and its cousins. Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, George R. R. Martin’s The Game of Thrones series, Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, the list goes on.
Is writing always fun? Nope, sometimes it drags and grates like nails on a blackboard. But when it’s good, there’s little that can match it. I love to see where a story can go, love to find new plot elements to put in, and love to discover new and better ways to say something. I also love to create complex, interesting characters and use subtle symbolism and hints, such as when Turtan descends into a deadly mine in Kingdom of the Jax, ultimately saving many colonists. Here, I was thinking of Christ’s harrowing of hell to save those who died before his birth.
What will happen next to Turtan and to Sky Masterson, the great new hero he spawned? I’ll keep writing to learn their fate as well as the best way to tell it.
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Thanks for inviting me today, Chris. You set this blog up beautifully.