Hayden Gribble's Blog
March 15, 2021
Captain Random and the Rainbow Chasers - Behind the Book
Blimey. March 2021 and yet another Captain Random story is about to be published. If you'd have told me ten years ago that by the next decade I would have found the determination, self-discipline and stamina to be releasing a book a year I'd have laughed in your face!
But really, what occurred after I had finished my previous book, THE LURKING, quite surprised me.
In the past, I have allowed quite a lengthy gap between finishing a project and starting a new one. I find as a self-published author that ones obviously greater scope controlling one's deadlines, so if I'm a little pooped after finishing a novel, from planning to publishing this process has taken me a year or two in the past, I'm allowed to relax, right?
Well in 2019 I turned 30, and having recently got married, I started to think seriously about my writing career. If I wanted to keep the momentum going, with all the life changes to come, maybe I should just keep going?
Sure, I would risk burnout, but then again if the ideas were there, I should make hey while the sun shined and so after a few weeks creative holiday, I was back at my laptop and working on the next in the Captain Random series.
Considering the second installment in the Randomverse, THE EATER OF SOULS, was a more serious story in tone (all the best sequels are, in my opinion) I initially planned a lighter caper for Random and his friends this time out.
The plan was to have them crash land on an alien world filled with rainbows and have them rescued by a band of archaeologists who are on a quest to find a mythical artifact. But with all story ideas, that's really just the skeleton.
What I really wanted to do was to explore how three books in Anji and Jake are adapting to a life of adventure and at the start of this new book, the answer is not very well.
Random himself is a frustrated individual when we catch up with them again. Not only is he annoyed that his friends just seem to want to stay out of the way of adventure for a while, but the two voices he has had in his head since the very beginning of his life. Since only Skateboard knows of these demons, who seem to be playing upon his conscience to go home and fulfill his destiny on the planet Rodas, this adds a little friction to proceedings. That is, until, an adventure falls in their laps that is just too tempting to turn down.
So that's the muscle added to the plot, but the real meat on the bones was to be the added characters this time out. That's the magical thing with writing science fiction. You can take your main cast and transport them anywhere and you get to play with a whole host of new individuals for them to interact with, and that in turn helps develop their characters further. The trio of intergalactic archeologists, Lon, Auger and Etherton, are pursuing a rival called Strakonis, who has drawn them to the rainbow world of Spectronia and hidden what is really the most powerful source of energy known to the universe...THE ZEDRON FLUX. Lon's motives are even greater since Strakonis is an old enemy of his and the Flux was snatched from right under his nose.
Add into the mix the peaceful Spectronians, led by their beautiful Queen Solenia (who has been brilliant captured on the cover, but I'll talk about that shortly) plus a race of Egyptian gods called the Osirons and you've got a fairly multi-layered narrative going on.
What with the twists and turns that come along the way, THE RAINBOW CHASERS certainly changes Random's friends lives forever...and one of them will remain changed for life...
So over the months that the book was written, this story developed into something bigger and better than what I had originally devised, with many layers of plot going on. Of course, it is called THE RAINBOW CHASERS because everything is chasing rainbows in this, trying to obtain seemingly impossible things. But this is science fiction, and all is possible in science fiction.
The writing process was fairly intense. I sat myself down to write roughly 1-2,000 words a week at the start. But as the world suddenly became gripped in a pandemic, and we were forced to scale back our lives, I found myself writing in bigger, 4,000 worded chunks that led to my actually finishing the first draft in early April 2020. Having only started the previous September, this was by far the quickest turnaround for a first draft of a CAPTAIN RANDOM novel. So by now I felt unstoppable, not even a global pandemic could slow down my creative streak! Although after a few weeks of rest again I went straight into Captain Random 4, by the August THE RAINBOW CHASERS was redrafted three times and proofread and it was ready for some artwork.
Which I must say, Anthony Moorin has really excelled himself with this time. We discussed a psychedelic feel to the cover this time out and as we are both fans of psychedelia ourselves, this proved a treat to pitch and conceive. Having chosen a similar style to a Jimi Hendrix poster (which I wholeheartedly approved of as a base!) the flowing spectrum of colour that is Solenia and the star scape captured in her features wouldn't have looked out of place on the walls of a sixties hippy den or on the cover of King Crimson LP!
We also wanted to try and capture the Egyptian elements of the story. The Osirons are borrowed from my favourite Tom Baker Doctor Who story, PYRAMIDS OF MARS, but different of course, and the archaeological slant added to the influence that my fascination with the Egyptians and the curse of Tutankamun I had at the age of eight. So the back cover has the Osiron's fleet of pyramid ships descending in formation on Spectronia and again, it's marvellous work. Not to mention the character posters, which I hope to print out and put on the walls of my office soon!
My method of writing changed this time out. Instead of writing in silence, or with a tele or radio on in the background, I actively sought out artists who could help me concentrate and pass the time while I wrote. Musicians such as Peter Gabriel (Shaking the Tree is my favourite writing album now!), Kate Bush and her greatest hits, The Whole Story, HAIM, Tame Impala, The Weeknd and Childish Gambino helped immensely in the writing process. As did old Carry On movies that were on in the background during periods.
I should also thank those who helped proofread the book and their words of encouragement, my wife, Sophie, Nicola Gent, Tom Savill-Owen, Stephen D'Costa, Ingramspark books, Anna Brown and of course Anthony Moorin. To think that by December when the final copy came through my letter box another Random adventure was ready and waiting for you all to enjoy...and I very much hope that you do!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Rand...
But really, what occurred after I had finished my previous book, THE LURKING, quite surprised me.
In the past, I have allowed quite a lengthy gap between finishing a project and starting a new one. I find as a self-published author that ones obviously greater scope controlling one's deadlines, so if I'm a little pooped after finishing a novel, from planning to publishing this process has taken me a year or two in the past, I'm allowed to relax, right?
Well in 2019 I turned 30, and having recently got married, I started to think seriously about my writing career. If I wanted to keep the momentum going, with all the life changes to come, maybe I should just keep going?
Sure, I would risk burnout, but then again if the ideas were there, I should make hey while the sun shined and so after a few weeks creative holiday, I was back at my laptop and working on the next in the Captain Random series.
Considering the second installment in the Randomverse, THE EATER OF SOULS, was a more serious story in tone (all the best sequels are, in my opinion) I initially planned a lighter caper for Random and his friends this time out.
The plan was to have them crash land on an alien world filled with rainbows and have them rescued by a band of archaeologists who are on a quest to find a mythical artifact. But with all story ideas, that's really just the skeleton.
What I really wanted to do was to explore how three books in Anji and Jake are adapting to a life of adventure and at the start of this new book, the answer is not very well.
Random himself is a frustrated individual when we catch up with them again. Not only is he annoyed that his friends just seem to want to stay out of the way of adventure for a while, but the two voices he has had in his head since the very beginning of his life. Since only Skateboard knows of these demons, who seem to be playing upon his conscience to go home and fulfill his destiny on the planet Rodas, this adds a little friction to proceedings. That is, until, an adventure falls in their laps that is just too tempting to turn down.
So that's the muscle added to the plot, but the real meat on the bones was to be the added characters this time out. That's the magical thing with writing science fiction. You can take your main cast and transport them anywhere and you get to play with a whole host of new individuals for them to interact with, and that in turn helps develop their characters further. The trio of intergalactic archeologists, Lon, Auger and Etherton, are pursuing a rival called Strakonis, who has drawn them to the rainbow world of Spectronia and hidden what is really the most powerful source of energy known to the universe...THE ZEDRON FLUX. Lon's motives are even greater since Strakonis is an old enemy of his and the Flux was snatched from right under his nose.
Add into the mix the peaceful Spectronians, led by their beautiful Queen Solenia (who has been brilliant captured on the cover, but I'll talk about that shortly) plus a race of Egyptian gods called the Osirons and you've got a fairly multi-layered narrative going on.
What with the twists and turns that come along the way, THE RAINBOW CHASERS certainly changes Random's friends lives forever...and one of them will remain changed for life...
So over the months that the book was written, this story developed into something bigger and better than what I had originally devised, with many layers of plot going on. Of course, it is called THE RAINBOW CHASERS because everything is chasing rainbows in this, trying to obtain seemingly impossible things. But this is science fiction, and all is possible in science fiction.
The writing process was fairly intense. I sat myself down to write roughly 1-2,000 words a week at the start. But as the world suddenly became gripped in a pandemic, and we were forced to scale back our lives, I found myself writing in bigger, 4,000 worded chunks that led to my actually finishing the first draft in early April 2020. Having only started the previous September, this was by far the quickest turnaround for a first draft of a CAPTAIN RANDOM novel. So by now I felt unstoppable, not even a global pandemic could slow down my creative streak! Although after a few weeks of rest again I went straight into Captain Random 4, by the August THE RAINBOW CHASERS was redrafted three times and proofread and it was ready for some artwork.
Which I must say, Anthony Moorin has really excelled himself with this time. We discussed a psychedelic feel to the cover this time out and as we are both fans of psychedelia ourselves, this proved a treat to pitch and conceive. Having chosen a similar style to a Jimi Hendrix poster (which I wholeheartedly approved of as a base!) the flowing spectrum of colour that is Solenia and the star scape captured in her features wouldn't have looked out of place on the walls of a sixties hippy den or on the cover of King Crimson LP!
We also wanted to try and capture the Egyptian elements of the story. The Osirons are borrowed from my favourite Tom Baker Doctor Who story, PYRAMIDS OF MARS, but different of course, and the archaeological slant added to the influence that my fascination with the Egyptians and the curse of Tutankamun I had at the age of eight. So the back cover has the Osiron's fleet of pyramid ships descending in formation on Spectronia and again, it's marvellous work. Not to mention the character posters, which I hope to print out and put on the walls of my office soon!
My method of writing changed this time out. Instead of writing in silence, or with a tele or radio on in the background, I actively sought out artists who could help me concentrate and pass the time while I wrote. Musicians such as Peter Gabriel (Shaking the Tree is my favourite writing album now!), Kate Bush and her greatest hits, The Whole Story, HAIM, Tame Impala, The Weeknd and Childish Gambino helped immensely in the writing process. As did old Carry On movies that were on in the background during periods.
I should also thank those who helped proofread the book and their words of encouragement, my wife, Sophie, Nicola Gent, Tom Savill-Owen, Stephen D'Costa, Ingramspark books, Anna Brown and of course Anthony Moorin. To think that by December when the final copy came through my letter box another Random adventure was ready and waiting for you all to enjoy...and I very much hope that you do!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Rand...
July 23, 2020
The Lurking - Behind the Book
Book number 6 is nearly upon us. Well, actually, it's been with me for years. Although the book itself was written between January and September last year (2019 for those of you reading in the far off future), the concept has been with me ever since I was a little boy.
Two decades ago, my Father worked at a research centre in Essex (it sounds like a Pertwee-era Doctor Who setting already, doesn't it?) somewhere between Saffron Walden and Linton. On some occasions, he would be called out to work on Saturday mornings and to give my Mother some time to herself, he'd take me and my little sister along for the ride. Of course most of the time we just sat in the car and sometimes we could roam around the deserted building as long as we didn't touch anything, but our journey always took us on a long, straight country road. No lights, never any cars passing by.
I can remember my eyes being drawn to the most curious thing. There, in the field, not far away from the road, was an old abandoned control tower. I asked Dad about it and he told me that it had been an airfield during the Second World War and that the building he worked in had been decades earlier a hospital.
He then proceeded to tell me all the ghost stories that went hand-in-hand with the place. There was the tale of the old lady who one night had been driving home and spotted an RAF pilot sitting on her back seat. Distressed, she parked that car and left it for a few minutes, gathering her wits. Upon her return, there was no-one sitting on her back seat. Just a flying corp badge placed in the vacant space the ghost had been...
To a child with an overactive imagination, I lapped this up and the stories of his work colleagues also working nights in the old hospital and their grizzly stories of the things that went bump in the night. Of course we were both skeptical, but the fear of the unknown and the weirdness of them made them cool and long lasting in my memory.
I also used to suffer a recurring nightmare as a boy. I would dream that I was trapped in a dark place, pursued by something malevolent, evil, and yet I could not see it, or comprehend what it was. That is until it caught me in the end and savagely ripped me to shreds!
Luckily these nightmare stopped but their savagery and mystery also stayed with me. So marrying these two aspect together formed the basis of what became the book that I hope that you will go on to read and enjoy.
The Lurking is my first foray into horror, and the first time that I have written anything other than Captain Random since my Doctor Who book in 2017. So I hope you will forgive it if there are aspects you don't find to your taste, but I loved writing it, even if it felt difficult in places to do so. I'd got myself into the swing of writing for one world so it was good to step out of my comfort zone and write something completely different. One thing you should always do as a writer, I feel, is challenge yourself, do something that scares you a little every once in a while. Couple that with the build-up to my wedding in August, having a lot of exciting things on my mind meant it was a slower writing process than usual.
There's a fairly minimal cast on show here. The main protagonist, Rob, suffers a night of terror on the very same evening he has put a full stop to his old ways and promises to be a better person for his long suffering girlfriend Claire, who although she only features through the medium of a phone call, is what keeps Rob going on in his nightmare.
There are also voices from the past who help Rob unravel the mystery of the abandoned aircraft hangar and then there is the thing that lurks in the shadows...but I don't want to say anymore so I'll keep that a secret!
It's also shorter than my previous three novels, and my Doctor Who book Child out of Time. One of the joys of being a self-published author is that you can be your own boss. There's no word count or deadline set by anyone else, only you. So instead of writing until, let's say 70,000 words, I let the flow of the story dictate it's own length, hopefully delivering a punchier tale that will stay with the reader long after they have put it down and donated it to their local charity shop! Although not a medium you'd attribute to inspiring literature, I found TV shows such as Stranger Things and Black Mirror to be a source of guidance in it's dark, supernatural and human feel.
Once again I am in debt to the brilliant Victoria at VC Book Covers on Twitter and Fiverr, who delivered a striking cover, Nicola Gent and Tom Savill-Owen for proofing it and making it better than I alone could ever have done and of course my ever supporting and loving wife, who was fittingly the first person in the world to read the finished piece.
And to you for reading this and hopefully reading my works.
I'm immensely proud of it and who knows? It may not be my only journey into horror...
Hayden Gribble, 23rd July 2020.
Two decades ago, my Father worked at a research centre in Essex (it sounds like a Pertwee-era Doctor Who setting already, doesn't it?) somewhere between Saffron Walden and Linton. On some occasions, he would be called out to work on Saturday mornings and to give my Mother some time to herself, he'd take me and my little sister along for the ride. Of course most of the time we just sat in the car and sometimes we could roam around the deserted building as long as we didn't touch anything, but our journey always took us on a long, straight country road. No lights, never any cars passing by.
I can remember my eyes being drawn to the most curious thing. There, in the field, not far away from the road, was an old abandoned control tower. I asked Dad about it and he told me that it had been an airfield during the Second World War and that the building he worked in had been decades earlier a hospital.
He then proceeded to tell me all the ghost stories that went hand-in-hand with the place. There was the tale of the old lady who one night had been driving home and spotted an RAF pilot sitting on her back seat. Distressed, she parked that car and left it for a few minutes, gathering her wits. Upon her return, there was no-one sitting on her back seat. Just a flying corp badge placed in the vacant space the ghost had been...
To a child with an overactive imagination, I lapped this up and the stories of his work colleagues also working nights in the old hospital and their grizzly stories of the things that went bump in the night. Of course we were both skeptical, but the fear of the unknown and the weirdness of them made them cool and long lasting in my memory.
I also used to suffer a recurring nightmare as a boy. I would dream that I was trapped in a dark place, pursued by something malevolent, evil, and yet I could not see it, or comprehend what it was. That is until it caught me in the end and savagely ripped me to shreds!
Luckily these nightmare stopped but their savagery and mystery also stayed with me. So marrying these two aspect together formed the basis of what became the book that I hope that you will go on to read and enjoy.
The Lurking is my first foray into horror, and the first time that I have written anything other than Captain Random since my Doctor Who book in 2017. So I hope you will forgive it if there are aspects you don't find to your taste, but I loved writing it, even if it felt difficult in places to do so. I'd got myself into the swing of writing for one world so it was good to step out of my comfort zone and write something completely different. One thing you should always do as a writer, I feel, is challenge yourself, do something that scares you a little every once in a while. Couple that with the build-up to my wedding in August, having a lot of exciting things on my mind meant it was a slower writing process than usual.
There's a fairly minimal cast on show here. The main protagonist, Rob, suffers a night of terror on the very same evening he has put a full stop to his old ways and promises to be a better person for his long suffering girlfriend Claire, who although she only features through the medium of a phone call, is what keeps Rob going on in his nightmare.
There are also voices from the past who help Rob unravel the mystery of the abandoned aircraft hangar and then there is the thing that lurks in the shadows...but I don't want to say anymore so I'll keep that a secret!
It's also shorter than my previous three novels, and my Doctor Who book Child out of Time. One of the joys of being a self-published author is that you can be your own boss. There's no word count or deadline set by anyone else, only you. So instead of writing until, let's say 70,000 words, I let the flow of the story dictate it's own length, hopefully delivering a punchier tale that will stay with the reader long after they have put it down and donated it to their local charity shop! Although not a medium you'd attribute to inspiring literature, I found TV shows such as Stranger Things and Black Mirror to be a source of guidance in it's dark, supernatural and human feel.
Once again I am in debt to the brilliant Victoria at VC Book Covers on Twitter and Fiverr, who delivered a striking cover, Nicola Gent and Tom Savill-Owen for proofing it and making it better than I alone could ever have done and of course my ever supporting and loving wife, who was fittingly the first person in the world to read the finished piece.
And to you for reading this and hopefully reading my works.
I'm immensely proud of it and who knows? It may not be my only journey into horror...
Hayden Gribble, 23rd July 2020.
