Interview with Ian C Douglas

Be warned, Ian C Douglas is a covert operative for the International Association of Get Kids Reading. Well sort of… if such an organisation existed he would be. Ian’s latest Science Fiction series follows Zeke Hailey through the perils of going to school on Mars. Not just any school mind you, here the teachers are mind-readers and the robots have murderous intentions. The series is a Nottingham champion for “One Million Minutes” a UK Scheme designed to encourage reading from the educational charity Achievement For All.

Thank you for joining us, Ian. Firstly let’s get the obvious question out the way. I’ve only read a little of Infinity Trap so far, but both Infinity Trap and Gravity’s Eye sound a little like a Lara Croft meets The Demon Headmaster series. As the books are aimed at a younger audience, does that mean grown-ups won’t be interested in reading them?

I get a lot of emails from parents and even singletons who tell me they really enjoyed the books and are looking forward to next one. If you enjoy books like Harry Potter or Enders Game, then you’ll enjoy the Zeke Hailey series.

The book is set in the 23^rd century but features ancient artefacts. It’s obvious that there’s been a huge amount of world building involved. Did it require a great deal of research, and was it fun to do?

Bucket-loads of research. Especially on Mars, terra-forming and little of quantum physics, as far as I could get my head around it! The research was fascinating, because we’re living in a golden era of discovery about Mars and the cosmos in general. Sometimes my research became out-of-date before I’d written it up! All this science inspired my vision of a future on Mars, but there’s also a lot of imagination in there too, as well as references to books like Dune or movies like Forbidden Planet. In terms of world-building, I learned so much I now run workshops on the topic.

Zeke, your protagonist, is just your usual school boy who cleverly manages to land himself in the middle of things. I’ve yet to meet a boy that doesn’t possess this trait and still attempt to look innocent when caught. (Girls are far more convincing at the puppy-eyed innocence, obviously!) Were you tempted to make Zeke more of a flawless hero from the offset?

No, at first I wanted him to be more damaged and have wild streak. To make rash decisions. But at an early editorial stage we decided to make him more of the true blue hero. I sought advice from the veteran British author David Almond who told me not to worry about it and that the important thing was telling an awesome story.

But, if you stick with the book, you’ll see Zeke still makes the odd bad decision. He can be pig headed. And sadly it’s often other people who pay for his screw-ups. As the books progress he makes more mistakes leading up to one of the worst decisions in the history of humanity. But I can’t tell you about that!

How difficult was it to work with the tropes and stereotypes that a younger reader needs but a more experienced reader seeks to grow away from? Was it more difficult to create your mysterious antagonist in a genre rich with its own set of tropes, stigmas and stereotypes for villains?

This was crucial to me. For example, I didn’t plan to have hover cars. But the early feedback from beta readers was if it’s the future it has to be hover cars. You see, to me that’s a bit of cliché. But people love the familiarity of these tried and trusted tropes. So I had to have it both ways. I embraced the tropes beloved by genre fans while trying to inject plenty of fresh ideas. From a school bus in the shape of a centipede to the sycamore landing crafts. I hope you’ll find the books a comfortable mix of popular ideas with original ones.

As for the villains. Everyone loves a dastardly bad guy. And we get foes like Professor Magma and Fitch Crawley. They’re fun! Behind them, of course, is a more complex villain in the Spiral. I was a tad influenced here by the First from Buffy. A villain the like of which has never been seen before and who can be many things. He’s almost a conceptual villain. He slowly rises to prominence throughout the series and before the last book we’ll find out the secrets of his origins. And they ain’t pretty.

You spend a lot of time trying to encourage and highlight the importance of reading amongst young readers. From personal experience this can be both frustrating and fun, but what is the most rewarding part of it for you?

I run creative writing workshops in schools. And when I look around the class and there’s nothing but the silence of 30 brains scribbling away, I know I’ve done my job. Teachers tell me they can’t let the kids just free write. Teachers have to impart all the targets of the national curriculum. Sadly this gets in the way of the writing process. But as a visiting author I’m outside all that. So I can just wind up the kids imagination and set them free. They love it.

In Infinity Trap, Zeke cheats on his entrance exam as he sets off to find his father. If you could take an entrance exam to any fictional school where would you apply, and would you have to cheat?

Other then The Chasm? It would have to be Hogwarts and sadly I’d have to cheat! I’m definitely a muggle.

You’ve also been known to run creative writing workshops. With that in mind, what one piece of advice would you give to your younger writing self if you could send a message through time?

Start earlier! It takes a lifetime to build a career in writing!

But also, read as much as possible, join as many writing groups as you can and grow the hide of a rhinoceros.

And finally, could you tell us what else we can expect to see from you in the near future?

Book 3 in the Zeke Hailey series is due out at the end of this year. Its called the Particle Beast, with new villains and even scarier monsters. Some of the mysteries are solved only to lead onto new ones. And some of the regular characters change in ways I think readers will find unexpected. And oh, I bump a few off!

You can follow Ian C Douglas on his website, or by all means find out more about the Zeke Hailey series on his own website.

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