The Helios Book
by Slade Carter
Guest author post about The Helios Book by Slade Carter for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog
The Helios Book is first and foremost an adventure story. I wanted to write a book where things happen, so it’s packed full of action.
The book starts out as a mystery, with Londoner twins Hugo and Kitty on holiday in rural Australia, and quickly meeting their intriguing, somewhat surly neighbour Lucas Aubin. Lucas is an inventor who largely keeps to himself, but is won over by the twins, and he reveals the power of his solar invention, the Helios Book that gives the novel its title. Before too long the twins find themselves embroiled in a quest that’s as much a fight for survival as it is to keep the Helios Book out of the wrong hands, as the twins journey through the strange and often foreboding land of Taara, where adventure blends with fantasy.
Like a lot of readers and writers, I read widely, but I think my literary inspiration for the book comes from celebrated authors of ripping yarns, such as Jules Verne, Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. Although I let my imagination run wild in describing Taara in particular, the book is very much rooted in the contemporary world. We are witnessing unprecedented damage to our planet, through wanton destruction of habitat and the continued excessive uses of fossil fuels, often driven by greed and powerful interests, which thrive by spreading lies and deriding climate change and the scale of environmental problems.
The interconnectedness between our world and Taara is a critical theme of the story. The Blurrings are an earthquake-like phenomenon taking place in Taara that are linked to our own path to destruction. This is a metaphor for our own relationship ‘with’ nature, for we are part of nature and cannot be separated from it: our actions have consequences, many of which we still do not understand in the breadth of their impacts.
Despite the challenges facing Taara and our world, all is not lost. The ingenious solar device of the Helios Book is designed to be affordable, portable, easily manufactured, non-polluting, and provide energy security to all. Such a device cannot be too far away. The science is part of the problem, the other part is getting the world on board, and overcoming the messages of those who profit from ruin. Lucas Aubin may be the inventor of the Helios Book, but Hugo and Kitty are the heroes of the story, for they grasp and support the cause of evidence-based science (at great personal risk), and they are the ones tasked with bringing the game-changing solar device safely to the world.
I hope therefore that my book inspires people to do something positive for the environment. Part of that pathway is challenging yourself about what you already know because perspective can generate action. For instance, not many people seem to appreciate that Victoria was largely one great forest at the time the Europeans arrived. Yet here we are: so much land denuded of forest, and the homes they provide for wildlife. What can be done to repair those bald hills, those barren landscapes?
This is my first novel, and since I was young I always wanted to write: I was lucky enough to interview the great Gerald Murnane for a school project. My chance to write fiction finally came when I took some time out from paid employment to look after my two primary school-age children. I had opportunity during weekday school hours to sit down and write, and The Helios Book was born from this period.
It has been a long and winding road from the book’s completion to publication. I am incredibly grateful to MidnightSun for having enough faith in my book to publish it.
For what it’s worth, here’s a little advice to aspiring writers. When you’ve finished your book, get a copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook or similar guide to publishers around the world. Be prepared to submit your manuscript in different formats, but always follow the guidance preferred by each individual publisher. Be prepared for rejection, and lots of it: you need thicker skin than a hardened politician, but try not to take rejection personally, as publishers have a lot of manuscripts to read!
Most importantly, even if you don’t get published, you’ve written a book, and that’s a terrific achievement. Some say that everyone has a book in them. I don’t believe this. You know as a fellow author, just how difficult writing can be, and to come to the end of that with a sizeable, original narrative in hand is something to celebrate. So, if you’ve written a book and you like it, you’ve done yourself proud! And if it didn’t make it to publication, you can always work on your next novel, and who knows, it may be even better.
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