Writing Martian Blood

Mars Simulator Screenshot

I’ve written an article for the British Interplanetary Society (of which I’m a Fellow) on some of the background to writing the book Martian Blood and the ideas behind the Noctilucents series.

It also describes how some of the technical details were researched, including the Mars base, the Martian environment and the behind the scenes astrodynamics.

It ends with the following paragraph:

You don’t need to know this level of detail to enjoy the books, which focuses on the story and the characters, not the technology which is kept in the background. But having the technology right makes the story more “real” and is in the tradition of the type of hard science fiction I read when I was Tom’s age – including the great Arthur C. Clarke, another Fellow of the BIS.

You can read the full article on the BIS’s web site.