Writing The Fossilarchy

If, five years ago, anyone had said that I would be a published author of a novel now, I wouldn’t have believed them. Nah, you’re kidding.

Although I’ve spent my working life in engineering and environmental consulting, dealing with factual stuff, I’ve always enjoyed creative writing and infusing a bit of wit and humour into all I do. I enjoy reading, but I’ve had to spend so much time reading factual material that I’ve spent far too little of my life reading novels – except when travelling, etc, and roughly none learning the craft. I wouldn’t have felt remotely qualified to write one or see it through to publication.

My only previous effort was not exactly a glorious success. The Seventh Boat is a novel which I co-wrote with David Ashbridge between 2005 and 2008, and which is still an e-book on Amazon. It was fun to write in our spare time at a distance – he in the UK, me in Australia – but we didn’t get it published as a paperback and sold few ebooks. It has always been very hard to get published through the large publishers – they generally only accept submissions through agents, and agents take on authors not books and generally only occasionally take on new authors who they think might produce future books and sales. We didn’t have a clue about promotion and marketing. At the same time printed book sales were in decline and traditional bookshops closing left and right. Writing novels was a surely a mug’s game.

Then in March 2019 I took up a job in Christchurch, New Zealand. I’d had no work for 6 months, so had no choice. The conservative Coalition government under Scott ‘Scomo’ Morrison was pro-unconstrained development, anti-environment and a bunch of climate deniers, cutting demand for consulting work in Australia for people like me. My daughters were newly independent and it was too risky to sell up and move, so I went alone while Pauline stayed in Perth, Western Australia. Under Jacinta Adhern, NZ was more enlightened on the need for climate action, and on just about anything, compared to Australia under Scomo and Rupert Murdoch.

It was an inauspicious but moving time to arrive in Christchurch– about 10 hours after the Christchurch massacre. I’ll never forget that first Sunday – the city centre was empty and utterly silent, as if in morning. In her reconciliation efforts, Jacinta was a shining beacon in a dark and ugly world and inspired a lot of hugging and kindness. I found some lodgings in a family home – my Maori landlady Laura, had made a room available as a gesture, and somehow had in her head that I was a Muslim refugee – only after a while thinking that my fondness for going to the pub was a bit unusual. Perhaps I followed an Unorthodox sect (I’m that alright)

I had some time on my hands at weekends and while travelling, and you know what they say about the Devil making work for idle hands. At first I didn’t think of a novel. I started compiling a non-fiction book about the state of the world, building on my 40 years’ experience in trying to save the planet. But I found it not only a depressing task , but the world didn’t need another book on saying more or less there same thing – how badly fucked our planet is – or on how there might be still hope if we do this, that, and the other.

Then some ideas for a novel started to gel. How I could inject some satire, sarcasm or whatever? Actually have fun writing, not have to make pompous pontifications with 50 academic references for every sentence?. What would I do if I had the money or could get away with it? I read a few Lee Child novels while handing around in airports. What about a thriller? Watching Scomo and his crew in action made me think of political satire, such as his waving a lump of coal in the Australian Parliament The final trigger was the great bushfires in Australia in 2019-20. You could smell the smoke in Australia over 2000 kilometres away.It was estimated that 3 billion animals died while the government and Murdoch media blamed arsonists. Good God! What are we doing to our planet! I began writing in earnest. In March 2020 I found work back in Perth. Soon after came the lockdown when I wrote chunks. It was truly a novel coronavirus for me!

In late 2020 I had a first draft. After initial unsuccessful approaches to agents and publishers realized I needed an independent manuscript assessment and found Aurora House, who provided one. They found positives in the story and some characters and features, but apart from too much information, a lack of female characterisation. Shit, I thought. I might have a wife and two daughters but what do I know about women? Anyhow, back to the drawing board, and a new draft in August 2021 which Aurora liked. How to get published? All sorts of technology and other options are now available between complete self-publishing and the traditional agent and major publisher model, including hybrid services provided by smaller publishers like AH so I chose them. It included working with the AH editing team up to publication and initial marketing. It was great, and very rewarding with AH’s editing team -all women. My main my advice to anyone writing and editing is the old adage “be ready to murder your darlings” features you thought were very special. Some of my best – most politically incorrect – gags got lost. Oh well. After publication in 2022 came the hardest bit – marketing it. This never stops.

Will I write another? I don’t know. Yeah, probably. The question is, should I wait for the next pandemic and lockdown?

Inspirations for The Fossilarchy