Craig Wainwright is an independent UK-based author. We caught up with him to discuss his debut novel THE LAST TITAN.
STARBURST: Tell us about The Last Titan…
Craig Wainwright: It’s a novel that’s been in the making for about 40 years from when I was about ten! It’s in the vein of superhero novel. Somebody discovers that they are something they didn’t think they were. The protagonist discovers that they have a very large destiny, which will happen in later novels. The first one is an origin story. He discovers what he is, is taken to where he’s from and he changes quite dramatically.
Why is it called The Last Titan?
The people that he’s from, there are three classes. You’ve got the hoi polloi – that means majority in ancient Greek – then you’ve got the titans, who are the sort of more powerful, and then you’ve got the cardinal titans, who are the most powerful. The titans are dying out and he’s the last born, hence the Last Titan.
Where did the idea for this novel come from?
You need to talk to a ten-year-old about forty years ago! It started out with Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds. My brother brought the disc home, played it and I thought “I can do better than that”. I toddled off and borrowed my brother’s records, much to his horror. I started recording backgrounds and made up stories by myself. On the third adventure that I did, that’s when this Omega-type character appeared. He is the hero in the book. He ended up on another planet and you started getting things appearing, like Andromeda, Omega’s wife. She appeared a couple of years in, when I started to discover girls! Things then evolved and got more grown up. The book had its genesis when I was about ten.
I have been inspired a lot by films. The modern Omega is very much powerful and very, very intelligent. That side of him is very much inspired by the Doctor, because I’m a big Doctor Who fan.
Which writers inspire you?
Tolkien. I love the epics! I love the stories behind the stories. That’s why The Last Titan has myths that explain thing. If you read it you’ll see there a lot of backstory that is only hinted out. That will be explained in later books. Another big influence is Terence Dicks. I met him one time and asked the usual question that a writer asks a writer. “What advice would you give for writing a book?” He said “Just write it!” He was right. Sit down, plan the book, write it. That is the best advice you could ever get.
Any other advice?
Write everything down. Every idea.
What’s next for you?
Book Two, which I’ve already started. It’s very different from the first one. The Omega character is very much established at this point and the menace that appears later on in Book One is really starting to take hold and is starting to ‘play chess’. I don’t want to give too much away, but Omega is also starting to ‘play chess’ as well. It’s a very different beast, it’s more fantasy than sci-fi.
What would you have done differently?
Can’t say I’d plan it more, because I plan to the nth degree. There was a lot of stuff that I wrote that I looked back and thought ‘this doesn’t fit’. We’re talking probably a hundred pages. There was a whole subplot involving an old guy, reciting the whole story from book one to book four. When I sat down and read it, there was some lovely backstory but it really started to break up the book.
There was an alternative chapter, which introduces a character in a very different way. He’s actually quite a comical character now, in the first version he was quite crotchety. To answer your question, I’d probably have honed my art more.
Why is science fiction and fantasy so popular now?
It’s escapism. Especially the way the world is going on now. Particularly with fantasy, you can have incredible backstory. Look at Tolkien. I had such fun reading his stuff. The backstory that you’ve got, he built a whole world. I don’t think I could come near to what he’s done, but I’ve built a world that is more than two-dimensional. I think good writers are good at building alternative realities. I think that’s what people like. You can get away from what’s going on with Earth.
How important is world building to your process?
Very. When I got my first computer in 1989 – a PCW, if you remember those – the first thing I did wasn’t write the book, but write the mythos of the modern Hellas. Explaining why these people had become diminished. It gives depth. I sat down and wrote most of the backstory.
Why a novel and not a screenplay or game?
I always wanted to write a novel. I think the characters have got the legs; I’ve got at least eight books planned. I’d love it to be a film, but it’s got to be successful. You can get so much more in a book than a film. Just look at The Lord of the Rings.
Why did you choose the self-publishing model?
I was going to go down the traditional fantasy route. I went on a couple of publishing websites and I was absolutely mortified that someone could take the rights to my world away from me. I wanted to be able to publish when I wanted and to keep it in print for as long as I wanted. That allowed me to go overboard with the publicity and give The Last Titan as much as exposure as I can. There’s forty years of love that has gone into this book.
If you could preserve one thing so it survive eternity, what would it be?
A full-sized Dalek, from the Russel T Davies era. They’re a thing of beauty.
THE LAST TITAN can be purchased on Amazon, or via the website thelasttitan.online.
