Medieval Mars: Behind the Scenes of my Journey to Authorhood

It was about a year ago that I first heard about Medieval Mars. I was looking at the blog of Christian science fiction author Travis Perry. He often posts about interesting story ideas. That particular day, he shared an idea about a future world in which humanity had colonised the planet Mars, but civilisation had fallen, plunging society back into a medieval culture. This was all very cool, but what really grabbed me was the very first sentence of his post: “I've built a new story world and I'm inviting other authors to come explore it with me.”

I was immediately hooked. I could do this. I had been working on my writing craft for years. Travis would provide editing and would publish submissions of suitable quality in an anthology. This would be a very cost-effective way of taking my first step. Despite my lack of any previously published works he was willing to give me a chance.

My first step was to read the original novella written by Travis, which set up the world and introduced some core characters. The next step was to come up with a story idea of my own.

I wanted to write a fantasy quest story - the medieval settings seemed to lend itself to that. I would send a character on a grand adventure in search of something valuable. Hours of playing King’s Quest in my youth doubtless fuelled this particular fire.

My thoughts drifted back to high school history classes. I remembered learning about the manors that served as the heart of medieval life, with the Lord living in the manor house, and the peasants, or serfs, in the attached village, working the lord’s lands. This was my starting point. My protagonist (Alastair) would be a serf (called a hand in the medieval mars world).

Next, I needed something to serve as the object of Alastair’s quest. The setting provided some fascinating possibilities for that. This wasn’t just a medieval world - it was a medieval world in our future. These people look back on their technological past as “the time of magic”. My hero would be looking for a magical relic possessing scientific powers he wouldn’t begin to understand. I raised the stakes and added extra heart to the story by putting the life of Alastair’s beloved (Lynessa) on the line. Without this magical relic - she would die.

The last thing my story needed was a spiritual theme and character arc. The one thing that sticks out to me about the medieval church is that very few people were able to read the Bible. This lead to a lot of misunderstanding and falsehood. It seemed believable, in a medieval society, that the thing threatening Lynessa’s life would be viewed as a curse - sent by God as punishment for some unknown sin. (Yes I’m being coy - no spoilers here.) This leaves Alastair disillusioned about God. Why would he put his trust in a god who chose to curse the woman he loves?

As he embarks on this dangerous quest, through the jungles of Argyre Planitia, populated with giant beasts and genetically-engineered dragons, he also has to come to terms with the concept of grace, and gain a truer picture of God’s relationship with mankind.

The photo below, taken at the Sydney Botanical Gardens, inspired my description of a tree Alastair uses for shelter in the story.

Along the way he faces an antagonistic force in the form of a native population who will do anything to protect the magical artifact from treasure hunters like Alastair. At the suggestion of Travis, I made these people descendants of colonists from Indonesia. This allowed me to give them a few words of their own language, and some historic weapons specific to their tribe.

Needless to say once my manuscript was written it needed edits. I got it as good as I could, and then submitted it. Travis came back with some issues - some important story problems that needed to be fixed. With his help I got the story into shape and the rest is history.

Medieval Mars: The Anthology went live on 12th of July 2015. It is available in both Kindle and paperback formats. The contract allows me to self-publish my story as a stand-alone, which I plan to do. Hopefully it will serve as a product-funnel to drive interested readers to the full anthology.

So now I’m an author. I get to do all those fun things like set up my goodreads author profile, and add “Author” to my linkedIn, but this isn’t the end. This is the very beginning. I’m hard at work on my next project - a series of novellas set on a cruise ship in space, and I have a novel manuscript that I continue to edit.

I am thankful to Travis for giving me this break, I am thankful for all of you at Christian Writers Downunder who have given me much encouragement, and treated me as an equal, even though I was a wannabe, and I am thankful to God for giving me a gift and an opportunity to use it. May he get the ultimate glory.

Learn more about Medieval Mars at adamdavidcollings.com/books/medievalmars/ or find it in Kindle format or Paperback.

Conjectural map of a mediaeval manor. William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923
Martian Background in author photo by Stuart Attenborrow.

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Adam David Collings is an author of speculative fiction. He lives in Tasmania, Australia with his wife and two children. Adam draws inspiration for his stories from his over-active imagination, his life experiences and his faith.

Adam is a great lover of stories, enjoying them in books, movies, scripted TV and computer games. Adam discusses these on his own youTube show – Stories with Adam Collings.

Find him at adamdavidcollings.com or sign up to his email list for a free short story.

MY FEISTY FOREBEARS

Grandmother and Great Aunts

For some strange reason I wish I could just sit and talk with female family members that came well before me.  I guess it's a touch of nostalgia or plain wishful thinking.

What would they have thought about my writing career? Would they have enjoyed reading what I write? I have a sneaking suspicion they would. They had the Brontes and Jane Austen of course, but not the plethora of faith-based novels we have today. Maybe they'd be shocked at the way we portray our feisty heroines...no, on second thoughts, I reckon they'd be thrilled. Yes, come to think of  it, some of the family tales told and retold down the years involved some exciting (for those times) scrapes and adventures. None of these girls seemed to be "under the thumb" of their lord and masters. Or were they simply not admitting it?

> To look at  my great great grandmother you would say she appears to be a disapproving type, but surely her expression is only because the photographer
was fiddling with his apparatus and her corset was killing her. However, my
darling tells me I can look at him like that at times when I am merely thinking of some plot twist and that takes concentration! I would hope she'd enjoy reading my stories.

My sweet faced great grandfather left his beloved wife to go to Heaven. She was desolate And maybe, according to my mother, that's why she became rather pessimistic. She began every sentence with "The worst of it is," before she ever got to the best of it. I suppose there is some merit in looking at the downside of something before committing oneself. No, I don't think she would have liked my heroines who tend to be optimistic even when one thing after another goes awry. Great grandma turned out to be a very practical no nonsense type of lady. And no wonder when she had three lovely young girls to take care of. Her dreams had to be tucked away while she looked after her daughters' future. A hurdle many young widows had to face in those days.

My feisty heroine, Megan Trevallyn, gets a lot more than she bargained for when she meets Captain
Charles Cantrell. This included two little surprises
with the outcome of being transported as a felon to a far flung colonial penal settlement of New South Wales - a world away from all she has known and
loved.

The question for her to face is, will this be a land of 
perdition ... or promise?

Although fiction, in my research I discovered this scenario was all too common in our early history. Yes, we had many convicts who had committed awful crimes, but there were always those who had arrived on our shores innocent of the crimes for which they were penalized.

While capturing this story I asked myself whether I could have survived such an ordeal and I knew deep down I couldn't have without the Lord.

 I am so pleased my historical romance with elements of intrigue is now online at Amazon Kindle at a reasonable $3.99.

* Rita Stella Galieh will leave this week for on an In Step Together Tour of Thailand with Thai interpreter, Somchai Soonthornturasuk. Her husband George is a violinist cum preacher and she sketches with Rembrandt pastels while he speaks. They will minister in Government Buddhist high schools, hospitals, men and women's prisons, orphanages and Christian churches.