As an only child, I spent a lot of time on my own. It was during those early years I grew to love books. I read every one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books, the Martian stories, Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Science Fiction opened my young mind and unleashed the desire to know more about the universe. I would spend hours looking up at the sky. My first telescope was constructed from a kitchen towel roll, with two pieces of cotton for cross hairs. I watched ‘A Sky at Night’. I learned about Hertsprüng Russell diagrams and Stellar Thermodynamics – I still have the notebooks I used to make notes.

Over time, I lost that passion. I don’t know why. Perhaps it was because growing light pollution from nearby London had overwhelmed the stars? Perhaps, I had found other interests? In time, I found a job as a computer operator, when the only qualification one needed was the ability to spell, ‘computer’. I ended up designing global computer networks for governments and banks.

Five years ago, I quit my job, headed to Los Angeles and went back to school. I learned how to write movies and develop stories at UCLA. It was on a vacation, between semesters, that I visited Northern Arizona. The night sky is extraordinary, there. So many stars! I found myself reliving those childhood years. I suppose I came full circle.

Two years later, I started to write ‘Kiiron’, incorporating all the techniques I had learned in college. What’s it about? It’s about the kind of world we live in, now, but set in the future. It is about Empire, intrigue and the quest for power. But it is also about two people, who find each other by chance and fall in love. Perhaps, one day, we will come to learn that war, greed and the projection of raw power will not preserve our way of life indefinitely; and that only by people coming together, with open arms and hearts can we heal ourselves, and our world.