Novels: in the works . . .
Philisophical Sci-fi & Surrealism
Of all the things I’ve started these are the ones that obsess me completely.
Sky so Blue
Synopsis:
To save his lover’s life, an unwitting time-traveller becomes willing to destroy himself and a future he barely knows.
Beware the god that manifests as time …
Sky so Blue is a philosophical sci-fi novel written for an adult audience (25 to 45) who enjoy Star Trek over Star Wars and Lynch as much as Villeneuve.
A mysterious explosion, a radiation infused painting, and an obsessed art buyer are all bound in Leah’s death and Jacob’s paradox. From present day Earth across our Solar System’s deep future, Jacob is doomed to forever return to the night of Leah’s death, endure temporal shock and contend with the blind fabric of reality itself.
Leah’s breakout exhibition goes awry after hallucinations are experienced around her most celebrated painting. A wealthy and obsessed art buyer, Harcourt, becomes deranged and threatens her life after failing to acquire the painting. Events escalate to a confrontation at Leah’s home where a strange explosion occurs, collapsing localised spacetime, and killing Leah and Harcourt. In a fugue, Jacob encounters a temporal rift that pulls him across spacetime, placing him in temporal shock and destroying his mind. He’s discovered near death by the Keepers, the Solar System’s last remaining inhabitants, who tend an unstable singularity that caused a mass exodus. They save his life by augmenting his mind; however, his memories return fracture between past and future. The Keepers grow concerned about a paradox. They observe exotic radiation emanating from Jacob and discover Leah’s painting has survived, emitting the same radiation. Past and future collide when Jacob returns to save Leah. He’s unable to control the technology he possesses, collapsing spacetime and causing the explosion that kills her.
Desperate to change their fates, he attempts to stop Harcourt before he can threaten Leah but fails. He attempts to warn Leah, telepathically, but the memories she receives inspire the painting. His every move reinforces the paradox. Confronted with the horror of retrograde immortality and his responsibility for her death, he begs The Keepers to destroy him. One Keeper, now ancient and curious, agrees. And flings Jacob into the singularity, on a billion-year trajectory, in an attempt to unlink him from his past. However, the shock of the passage damages Jacob’s mind, and he’s overcome by a terrible pull to return.
Sky so Blue plays with spacetime like Stories of Your Life, considers existence like Roadside Picnic and intertwines people’s lives like Ministry for the future.
TV in 98
Synopsis:
When Barry, an undiagnosed-autistic man living in a share house in Perth, 1998, starts receiving visitations from an alien through his share house TV, his life begins falling apart, and before long abduction seems more enticing than life in Perth.
Sometimes, being human can be so alien …
TV in 98 is written for an adult readership of 25- to 45-years, who enjoy science fiction novels, films and series that can be viewed through a philosophical or surrealist lens.
Barry’s an undiagnosed-autistic man, long-term unemployed and confused by his life and how people live. He’s started waking at 2:00AM to static in his living room TV; through which, he’s started receiving communications from an Alien named Endon. His housemates, Marcus and Lilly, threaten to evict Barry if he doesn’t seek help. Barry fears becoming homeless. Things get worse when he assaults a cop in a Centrelink office, due to an ill-timed communication from Endon. Barry then fears going to jail.
Endon exists 500-years in Barry’s future, orbiting the solar system, stealing Earth’s history via its multitude of transmissions. She’s perplexed by humanity, so communicates with Barry, and others like him, in an effort to understand. Barry is just as perplexed and asks Endon to abduct him. He admits to his housemates he’s been talking to an Alien. Marcus has Barry sectioned. Endon then devises a process to transfer Barry to her realm. Barry’s unsure what awaits, but is so confused and distressed he’s willing to leave Earth and never return.
While Barry’s in a psychiatric hospital, Endon tries to contact him but communicates with Lilly. Having met Endon, Lilly gets Barry released. With Lilly’s help Barry is abducted by Endon. He travels across space and time to Endon’s spaceship where he awaits his transformation to a new state of being. Endon has constructed a temporary environment for Barry that resembles a sterile version of his share house. Endon allows Barry to view the past five hundred years of human history. Little of it makes sense to him. He contacts Lilly, finding her ten-years in her future. She has a good life, she tells him about people he knew; some have died, most live suburban lives. Barry lets go, ready for transformation.
TV in 98 has a sense of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy meets the surrealism of Kafka on the Shore, and the other worlds of Exhalation.