Good evening!

The best part of Monday is the conclusion. For those of us who work 5 days a week Mon-Fri – clocking off Monday is a little like trying to loose weight and finally getting past that first notch on the belt. Not completely there yet, but still I do deserve a wine…surely.

So, I am busy working on 2 new short films at the moment, and they are just preparing to take over my mind completely. I must stick to my guns and make sure I keep up with the writing. Now that I have made such a strong decision in lopping off huge chunks from (what used to be) my favourite chapters, I must not tarry. I must get right back in there and keep patching up my Frankenstein so that it doesn’t just lie there and bleed to death.

While I’m talking about Frankenstein, I should discuss Mary Shelly, author of the great novel, arguably the first Sci-Fi novel ever written. In 1816, at only 19 years of age, she created not only one of the most chilling tales of the Gothic era, but she completely carved a new genre of art out of issues surrounding contemporary science of the period.

What a complete inspiration to woman, to free thinkers, lovers of science and art alike. Not only did she marry the often divided schools of the arts and the sciences, but she did it in a way that is compelling and appealing to people who question the moral implications of new technologies and also those who are thrilled by them.

She paved the way for the rest of us to question the world we live in and to ensure that we don’t take anything for granted. Through imagining all the various ways in which scientific discoveries could go terribly wrong, we are offered a chance to ensure that our science is not misused.

Though perhaps, ironically, the nightmarish conjectures made by writers such as Shelly or Phillip K. Dick, offer scientific advancement a scope through which to drive discovery. Would someone have thought to invent some of history’s more destructive devices if writers didn’t offer postulations that these things could be achieved?

Although my work on this current novel is often less like a classic Sci-Fi and more like a standard fantasy adventure, I have plans for the sequels to become increasingly more heavy with questions of morality and of technology being misused. It will be a wide arc that I take to sweep together some of my denser ideas and story-lines. I feel that in order to do them justice later, I have to start light. The first book has to be an entry point of innocence – a place for my characters to enter a fantastical space realm and feel overwhelmed, like they want to retreat to the safety of the world they used to know. We as adults know however, once the bubble of innocence has been popped, things can never go back to the way they used to be. We are forever changed by every choice we make.

Thank you Mary…for helping me today with your inspiration. I shall continue to ponder these worlds that I inhabit – both here on Earth and in my mind.