Hello readers! I’m C. W. Clayton, a science fiction and fantasy author from northern England. You might have found this blog having read one of my books on Amazon – or perhaps you’ve stumbled upon it by complete coincidence? Either way, welcome. Help yourself to some photos of the Lake District, and to a brief bio providing limited context for my work.
Early “work”
I’ve been telling stories since before I could write, but I finished my first novel, of 67000 words, when I was eleven. Though the size of the work might seem impressive, the work itself was objectively rubbish – as might be expected from the mind of an eleven year old. The plot and characters were shallow and naive, and many ideas were so derivative that you could see the “inspiration” glaring through.
Still, this novel was the first of many. By the time I was sixteen, I had written six more – and I’d like to think that each one was better than the last. I had two trilogies of fantasy novels, and one standalone science-fiction comedy that was born during the summer of my GCSEs. Why the sudden shift in tone? Who knows. Will I ever attempt to write comedy again? Probably not.
The Starlit Ship
The idea for The Starlit Ship was first born when I was seventeen or eighteen. I was going through a phase of designing worlds for video games, of all things, and I settled on this notion of a simple, a-to-b traverse through alien environments. As such, the geography and politics of the world were decided first, and the characters came later. Years later, in fact.
The first draft of the novel was a total mess. Although the general themes of conspiracy and impending disaster were present, the plot lurched through time and space with no clear goal, and the characters made baffling decisions that could only make sense in the mind of a nihilistic teen. As such, I restarted the project from scratch when I went to university, and it became the first piece of work that I deemed to be of publishable standard.
Over the course of four years, while studying for a degree in Environmental Science, I wrote The Starlit Ship, The Hemstadlt Project, and The Coveted World. I published The Starlit Ship in December 2020, having just started a PhD.
For me, many themes in The Starlit Ship series echo the social and environmental challenges we face in the real world. I wouldn’t go so far as to draw parallels with the climate crisis, because that was never my intention, but the issues surrounding governmental responsibility and impending global catastrophe will probably resonate with a lot of young people. A science fiction series, safely detached from reality, feels like a good place to explore these themes.
Highmoor
I started writing Highmoor in August 2019. It marks the start of a new series, totally detached from The Starlit Ship both in terms of its universe and genre. Highmoor is a fantasy novel – either “high fantasy” or “epic fantasy” if you like labels. It has wizards, elves, dwarves, dragons and dungeons (not in that order), and has allowed me to return to my writing roots.
Currently, the Highmoor series is only half complete. The first book, Highmoor, and the second book, Sylvre, have been published on Amazon, while the third and fourth are in the works. If all goes to plan, there should be a new installment every year until 2025. The PhD has slowed me down a little, but I will always keep on writing.
What next?
Not sure. I have a few vague ideas rattling around my head, and these will probably form the foundations of whatever comes after the Highmoor series. It could be science fiction, fantasy, or even a bizarre mixture of the two (just to make the marketing really difficult).
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C. W. Clayton 