Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a software developer and university researcher. This is my first book, although I have two first drafts [a prequel and a sequel] almost completed. This writing bug has got me bigtime.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s called The Water bear and it’s a sci-fi adventure. It was inspired by climate change, although I didn’t want to write a book about climate. So I wrote a book about martial arts, time-traveling insects, and a human galactic empire.
I was especially inspired by the young people. I was at a climate demonstration in my hometown of Perth, when a teenaged activist stood up and cried “the future is ours!” She was right. The most important job of my generation is to tell them our stories.
So I wrote about how a young person saves the universe, and everything.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in the nude. No! That was a joke.
I write my drafts entirely in Notepad, without any kind of external aids.
If a Corona No. 3 was good enough for Ernest Hemingway, the least I can do is type in Courier 12pt.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Everything by Iain M Banks.
My favorite author is Don DeLillo.
My sincere thanks to Ann Leckie for inspiration for my ship. The Water Bear would never have existed but for Justice of Toren, and Breq.
What are you working on now?
Yokohama Slim is the prequel to the Water Bear.
It’s the story of the most enigmatic character from the Water Bear.
The Spiral Tribe is the sequel.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am hopeless! I wish I knew how.
I advertise on Facebook, because my son told me to.
And now I’m here. Big ups to the Awesome Gang!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Whatever it takes, you just gotta finish that book!
Writing a novel can be a backbreaking task, especially when you have two or three other jobs. It takes years. But it’s worth every keypress. The ability to inhabit a world you created, and share it with others, is beyond priceless. It’s a type of immortality.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t make decisions when you’re angry. Don’t make promises when you’re happy.
What are you reading now?
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel.
What’s next for you as a writer?
A mathematics textbook. I’m currently doing academic research into blockchain fundamentals: not cryptocurrencies [which I believe are a bubble] but the mathematics, and hopefully inventing a new type of blockchain – a clock-synchronous [or Gödelian] blockchain.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Don DeLillo’s Underworld. My favorite book.
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel. [Does the boxed set count as a book?]
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. I’ve devoted a fair slice of my life to understanding this gnarly knot of philosophical assertions. I could read it forever, and still not get to the bottom of it.
Author Websites and Profiles
Groucho Jones Amazon Profile
Groucho Jones Author Profile on Smashwords