Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
51, Husband, Carer, Father of two girls 12 and 13. I used to be a Theatrical Lighting Designer but when the kids got older we discovered that the youngest has a genetic condition that needs a lot of care. A life on the road is incompatible with a role as a carer so, I needed something to keep the creative bit of my mind going so I didn’t go crazy.
When both of the kids were little, I had all kinds of crazy thoughts in those late night and early morning feeding shifts. Those eventually became my Sci-Fi series Dark.
Describe your desk / writing space.
My favourite place to work is with my laptop on my knee on the sofa.
Do you have a writing routine or do you write when inspired?
I’m a big believer in ‘write every day, even if it’s garbage, and fix it in the edit.’
Dark Blurb
IN THE STRANGE labyrinth of pipes on the planet called Dark, things are falling apart. Dun doesn’t want to be a hero, he just wants to find an answer to the terrifying dreams he’s been having. But the answers, the real answers, are going to take him places he’s never imagined and tear him from the only home he’s ever known.
With a half finished map from his missing father, an old friend, a new friend and the mysterious Myrch to guide him, he journeys through parts of his world he’s never imagined. Are his dreams real foretellings? Who can he trust to be who they say there are? What are the strange forces that seem to be literally pulling their world apart?
As he travels through a world that is much bigger than he thought it was, what he won’t know will kill him. And everyone he knows.
Author Bio
Paul Arvidson is a forty-something ex lighting designer, now SFF author who lives in rural Somerset, UK. He spends his non-author time bringing up his children, fighting against being sucked in to his wife’s chicken breeding business and preventing Morris the Dashund contributing to his typing. His SFF works form ‘The Dark Trilogy’. Dark is the first book in the trilogy and came out in 2017. The sequel Darker came out in 2018 and the series will be completed by a final book in 2019. There will not be a prize for guessing it’s title.
How do you come up with the title to your books?
Dark was easy, the colony planet the characters live on has no light! Then I just needed a a comparative and a superlative and I was set. My problem now is there needs to be a fourth book to finish the story! What am I gonna call that?
What was the hardest scene for you to write? Which scene was your favorite to write?
Any of the books set in the dark have no visual descriptors at all (the characters wouldn’t understand them). It’s pretty hard to weed out how often we use those phrases in everyday life. (Oh, I see what you mean. Look at it this way… etc.)
My favourite bits are writing dialogue. I love a character with a smart mouth!
What inspired your book / series?
Many things really, but I couldn’t shake this idea of whether you could be a hero in a lightless world (spoiler, yes you can!). Then I needed to work out if the idea was feasible in real scientific terms, so I spent a lot of time researching creatures that live in the ‘Midnight Zone’ of the ocean, where whole eco-systems function with no light at all.
What are you working on next?
Darkest is released on the 28th of May, then I start on Book 2 of my mystery series.
What authors or books have influenced your writing?
I’m a big fan of Ursula Le Guin, all of her stuff is amazing and she writes fantasy, Sci-Fi and things that are a little bit in between. I also love writers like David Brin, Vernor Vinge and Phil Dick where the world is quite odd but interesting.
If you could live anywhere, in this world or fantasy, where would you live?
Where I live is pretty beautiful (Somerset, SW of the UK)
What is your favorite meal?
Anything containing cheese
Coffee or tea? Wine or beer?
All of the above? If I had to choose, I’d go Tea & Beer
Describe yourself in three words.
Am Always Learning.