Chris Masterton and Steve Dutch are two friends from school who share a mutual passion for sci-fi, fantasy and telling stories. Together, they write an ongoing novella series called History of Sol, where they explore such themes as the future of humanity, religion, artificial intelligence, and the impact technology has on society.

Hello Chris and Steve

Me –I enjoyed the first book in the series and can confirm they do like to cover huge themes within a very readable story. 

Chris and Steve, why did you decide to write sci fi? 

Chris - I’ve loved sci-fi since I was a kid and it all started with Star Wars and Star Trek. As I got older, it’s the one passion that I’ve kept coming back to over and over. It’s the one thing about me that’s never changed.

Me – I love star trek too. 

Steven - Story writing has always been an important part of my life, but if I use the limited rules of the universe, I have found it to be quite restricting. I have always loved writing things that whilst relatable, break reality as we know it. I started off writing fantasy for that reason but found Sci-Fi a much easier genre to write in as I could relate it to reality much better.

Me – Interesting that you find Sci-fi breaks reality and yet relates to it better than fantasy.

What part of the story pushes itself into your imagination first? Story premise, character, setting, plot, ending? 

Chris - I’m all about the premise. You have an idea, then all the rest of the elements dance to it.

Steven - Plot, with some overtones of the characters.

Me – So combined the story is pretty much created. 

Which aspect of the writing process do you enjoy the most? And why?

Chris - My favourite part is starting with a high-level story outline and a blank page and just getting into that first draft.

Steven - I enjoy constructing the high-level story, having a good idea of where it's going before starting the first draft is much more conducive to finishing with a good story.   

Me – I love how you enjoy different parts of story writing. I guess that’s what makes you a great team. 

How does co-writing work for you? 

Chris - It’s quite the synchronised process. We both understand quite well how each other thinks. But there is also a lot of bouncing ideas back and forth. You can really develop ideas into scenes much faster when two people are working on them at the same time.

Steven - It’s quite the synchronised process. I find it works a lot better than solo, you can bounce ideas off each other. You can say to each other if an idea isn't very good and discuss why. Solo you have no soundboard and can easily go down paths that can take a lot of time to come back from.

Me – I’m glad you are synchronised. As a soloist I’m often wandering down side paths but I don’t think I have the personality to share. I do think it’s helpful to bounce ideas with others, though. 

What have been the most satisfying moments of your writing career?

Chris - At one of our recent conventions, a lady brought the first book in our series. Then the next day, she returned to buy the other two because she’d stayed up all night reading it and wanted more.

Steven - I agree, probably at conventions where we have had people return several times over many years, waiting for the next book. When we released our first one, someone read it in the 5 hours of our event, that was pretty cool.

Me – What satisfying moments for you both. Conventions do seem to be a good way to go as an author. 

What is the strangest observation from the real world that has made it into one of your books? 

Chris - One thing that we explore in our third book, Requiem, is how people will stick to their convictions and beliefs in the face of death. I don’t know if that’s a strange observation, but I find it strange. My beliefs have changed and evolved so much over the course of my life. I can’t imagine dying for them at any point knowing that they may have changed in the future.

Steven - There is no black and white, everything is a series of grey.

Me – Wise words. Death and beliefs are definitely a grey area of life. 

Why did you decide to write this series as novellas rather than novel length stories? 

Chris - The original idea was that we’d have these ‘episode’ length books that we could release much quicker than if we were to write an entire novel. While it’s probably technically true, we still end up releasing one book every second year at the current rate. For us, writing History of Sol is a passion that we pursue more for fun in our spare time than to pump out book after book as quickly as possible.

Steven - If they were novel-length stories they would take much longer to release than current, and as our schedule is (whilst not slow) not the fastest, we figured Novellas are better. Also, it's much easier to get involved in a Novella. One idea we played around with was trying to create something that anyone can get into, you don’t have to be a book buff to enjoy them. Anyone can read them. Super long novels only appeal to people who are into books on another level that most people aren't.

Me – We do live in a society that likes quickness, that’s why I write flash fiction as well as novels. Not tried a novella yet.

Which sci-fi writers do you admire and why?

Chris - My brother-in-law introduced me to Asimov years ago and I found it remarkable that he had these concepts about holographic interfaces, gravity-driven spaceships, and androids way back before computers were even a normal part of life. That and the fact that he is long dead and yet still selling far more books than we ever have.

Me – He was an incredible thinker and writer.

Steven - When I read, I mainly read fantasy. One of the authors I quite love is Robin Hobb who has produced several trilogies under the name - The Real of the Elderlings. Whilst not sci-fi it encourages me to push the limits of what I can do with my storytelling.

Me – Oh me too, I love all her stories. Her characters are so well thought out and there are dragons.

What other creative pursuits do you have apart form writing? 

Chris - I enjoy making cartoons, graphic design, video production and playing Minecraft with my kids.

Steven -  I play the guitar, although I haven't for quite some time. I used to write songs in a band and enjoy the creative output. But writing is my true love.

Me – So much creativity. 

Can you share a writing tip for those who wish to write Sci-fi? 

Chris - Get an AI to do it. They’ll be smarter than us soon (maybe they already are) and nothing screams science fiction like being able to say a computer algorithm wrote it for me.

Steven - Get an editor. Period. Bonus points it it’s an AI editor.

Me – Ha, but it is becoming a reality- the AI written book. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but for sci-fi maybe. I agree with an editor being an important part of story writing, whatever genre. 

Thank you, I’ve enjoyed your answers and wish you success with your stories. 

If you wish to know more about Chris, Steve and their stories please check out the links below. 

www.historyofsol.com

www.facebook.com/history.of.sol

www.instagram.com/historyofsol/