Jeanette asked Warren Dean:

What was the inspiration for the settings you've chosen for your stories?

Warren Dean When I first began writing The Forever Gene, I was acutely aware that one of its central themes, humanity's first contact with an alien race, is one that has been done many times. So, in an effort to come up with a fresh angle, I asked myself this question; if an advanced alien race really decided to visit Earth, would it make first contact by arriving in massive mother ships over the planet's major cities?
If its intention was to simply start blasting the planet into submission with technologically superior weapons, then yes. But I was determined to stay away from what I think of as the "War of the Worlds" scenario. Stories which keep the reader guessing about the motives of the visiting extra-terrestrials are far more compelling in my opinion. One only has to think of the classics of the genre by its absolute master, Arthur C Clarke, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama, and Childhood's End.
My thinking was that real aliens are far more likely to want to avoid the frenzy that would be caused by a first appearance in a major international centre. Instead, they would want to make their presence known in a less-populated, more remote, area of the world.
And if that was their criterion, then what better place is there to choose than the relatively small capital city of Mongolia in the vastness of central Asia?

flag