Not long after I graduated from Massachusetts College of Art, I became part of the SF community in the Boston area. I was fortunate enough to meet and get to know several famous writers, including Isaac Asimov and Hal Clement. At that time I was creating SF&F themed artwork and had some success in selling my work at conventions.
But being a writer at heart, I was inspired to give writing SF a shot. I had no illusions about trying to write hard SF or becoming another Asimov or Clement. As an avid proponent of space exploration, I came up with the germ of an idea for an SF novel, which was intended to be only a single book.
I envisioned a future universe in which individuals native to wildly different planets would be forced to interact with one another, cramped in the claustrophobic confines of a space vessel. As I began to flesh out the plot, I soon realized that "human" nature being what it was, these characters---contrary to most of the SF being produced at the time---weren't all going to like each other, tolerate each other, or get along!
Therefore, my book wasn't going to be a tale of some nicey-nicey cruise to explore alien planets. Rather, the crew of Astrella was going to include both good guys and bad guys, some heroes, some villains, the usual assortment of bigots, dunderheads, idealists, and just-average-joes.
Underlying themes included good versus evil, conflict between differing philosophies, prejudice, loyalty, friendship, honor, the nature of love, and holding onto one's values in spite of opposing pressure. Not at all what I started out to write!
Writing is a bit like setting out on a journey with no idea where you're going and with no map to guide you. You just go---and can find yourself ending up in some darn-interesting places!
MRTighe
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