Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I gained a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, hold numerous patents and have a career in technical management in high-tech industry. I began writing as another creative outlet after becoming ‘blocked’ as a sculptor and portraitist.
The pen name ‘Jeremiah Hope’ reflects my innate optimism for the future and confidence in the human will to survive and thrive, rather against the trend of the modern world. This in part, explains the non-dystopian, but certainly not utopian future world that forms the background to my books. I have a strong belief that to be credible fiction has to reflect what is possible. It is this that has driven the creation of a ‘new medieval’ setting with a mixed technology reminiscent of the 1920’s and social and political structures similar to earlier periods.
Renaissance is my first novel and forms the introduction to a planned series that seek to combine adventure, excitement, derring-do, with a thought-provoking subtext.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘Renaissance’ is an action, adventure thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic future, but not a high-tech dystopia, which you might imagine from my background. I have chosen instead a new middle ages, using tools and technology that hobbyists and the few remaining professionals could make work with limited resources.
I have always questioned sci-fi worlds where complete social breakdown is accompanied by huge consumption of energy and resources. It simply could not happen. The organisation, equipment, and specialist knowledge needed to produce and process oil is vast. This is not available to a depleted population that has survived a near-extinction event.
I also read a huge amount of history, especially medieval history and I have always been fascinated by the intensity, colour and violence of that world and how people sought to organise themselves, through religion, guilds and so forth. The social and political world of the middle ages was small, vibrant, and intensely alive, in part because people did not expect to live a long time.
I chose a post-apocalyptic setting for ‘Renaissance’ as a means of creating a small, close, world where I could develop characters that the reader might care about and also, in between the action, ask questions about our world, as much as theirs. I hope that I have been subtle enough in that aim not to detract from the pace of the plot or put my creations in a false position.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think I have yet acquired any odd writing habits, but I intend to!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I think recently the biggest impressions on me have been made by Raymond Chandler and George Orwell. I am also a huge fan of C J Sansom’s ‘Shardlake’ series. Going back I read a lot of action novels, Alastair Maclean, Hammond Innes, Robert Ludlum, Fredrick Forsyth, Dick Francis. I am trying to write books that I would enjoy reading…
What are you working on now?
The second volume in the ‘Renaissance’ series, tentatively titled ‘Reprint’. I am really enjoying the plot at the moment and the new characters are mixing in nicely with some of the ones from the first book.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am very new to book promotion. It is extremely difficult to persuade people to take a chance on an unknown writer and in a sea of talented people I have not yet worked out how to get rescued!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I think at this stage it would be presumptuous of me to give advice – my ears are open and my mouth firmly shut.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I think the only advice that has been correct so far is not to give up. It is tough to get going and it will always be tough to get going, but in the end you make your own luck.
What are you reading now?
I have just finished a couple of Jasper Fforde’s excellent ‘Thursday Next’ series and I am reading a history of the Royal Navy. Next up a brief introduction to Bronze Age Europe.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Complete the second book in the ‘Renaissance’ series, then possibly a comedy whodunnit that I have a plot outline for but not actually started.
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?
I think life on a desert island would be busy, hunting, growing food etc. Maybe I would make my own paper and ink and get some more writing done!
If I was fortunate enough to land with some books then possibly I would start with the Bible, since all of human experience is in there somewhere. Pride and Prejudice is a book I have read over and over again so maybe that and possibly a complete history of the British Isles.
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