Magic and Mayhem… without the magic and mayhem?
While thinking about the type of book I
wanted to write, I knew it had to be something that took place in a world full of
imagination and possibility—the type of story I enjoy reading myself—but I also
wanted it to be realistic, something I could envision actually happening. I
wanted to write about the end of the world, but I didn’t want to create your
typical apocalyptic book, which always seem to be filled with marauding gangs,
children with special powers, and so on. Instead, I wanted to focus on simple
things such as looking back on life and regretting how time was spent, about
the importance of family, and about the everyday things we take for granted. In
short, I wanted to write about the magic and mayhem of the apocalypse, only
without any magic or mayhem!
To do this, I focused not on the
fantastic and supernatural elements of mankind’s impending extinction, but of the
human elements—people growing older each year, the human population slowly
fading away. Instead of zombies terrorizing everyone or battles for the few
remaining resources, my story has people reminiscing about the final movie they
watched, the final vacation they took.
In my book, there is no hope for a
better tomorrow, but there is still the marvel of realizing which few things in
life are truly important. And although there are no warlords or flesh-eating
zombies, there is still the quite human havoc of rats and spiders taking over
basements, of water dripping through ceilings, of people feeling overwhelmed
with day-to-day life.
When you read The Man Who Watched The
World End you won’t be given a gift-wrapped happy ending in which the teenage
hero has rallied against some grand villain. You won’t have the immediate
satisfaction of an invasion being prevented. After all, my book is science
fiction without the magic. It’s the apocalypse without the mayhem. But in place
of a feel-good story or a climactic battle, my hope is that you’ll find a story
about real people and real concerns, and because of that, the story will remain
with you long after you’ve read it.
