1. What inspired you to write this book? I love time travel stories . My favourite is probably Audrey Niffenegger ’s The Time - Traveller’s Wife , where time travel is s hown more as a disability, than as a cool superpower . I wanted to find an original form of time travel and came up with two people who share the same soul. Of course , there have been body swap books and films before , but as far as I am aware, not across time and space. I have always been fascinated by tales of reincarnation . Not being religious, I wonder ed whether there might be a scientific explanation for why so m any people claim to remember past lives . I love books about physics and cosmology. Putting these together , I realised that one possible explanation might be quantum enta n glement. Out of that mix came Our Future Selves , a body-swap love story across two centuries and two continents .
2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for? It tells the story of Zak Emblin , a comedian from Birmingham , England in the present day and Sarah Templeman , a prison service doctor from 22 nd century New Palm Springs , USA, who are connected across time by a shared soul. From childhood onwards they inexplicably find themselves in each other’s bodies. We experience with them the obstacles they have to overcome , every day , because of this condition , such as finding you now have breasts or a penis and the reflection you see looking back at you from the mirror is someone you don’t know. Or not being believed by anyone. That’s where the third main character, Carmen Fry comes in. She is a brilliant young quantum physicist researching reincarnation stories to support her theory that recent discoveries in quantum entanglement might provide an explanation . She meets Zak , and through him, Sarah . She believes the m and uses their case in her research . A tight bond develops between Zak, Carmen and Sarah because they are the only three people in the world (they think) who know the truth about reincarnation. A unique love triangle develops. Word gets out to the world’s media about Carmen’s research . She, Zak and Sarah face persecution until a mysterious US government department steps in to ‘help’ them . This book is written for curious people . If you do not accept the world around you at face value and often find yourself wondering ‘ what if ?’ then this book is for you. Time travel fans and those fascinated by reincarnatio n will engage with this story, but it can also be read as a straight romance or political thr iller.
3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? An adventure. A thrilling journey. Perhaps e nlightenment . I hope they will come away from it asking questions.
4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? The cover was not easy , but I am really pleased with it. I needed an image to get across the idea of two people who are close r to each other than the rest of us can ever be, because they have intimate knowledge of each other’s thought s and bodies . Yet a t the same time, they can never meet , because when Zak is in Sarah’s body, she is in his. This concept also need ed to be captured on the cover. I can’t draw , so I sketched out the idea to the publisher’s illustrator and between us we came up with a cover which , judging from feedback, works really well . The title was harder . An earlier online version of the novel, which has since been substantially revised , was called Future Echoes . But this is inaccurate. In Our Future Selves , Sarah is not an echo of someone else , but a fully rounded individual . So , I changed it to Our Future Selves which is more optimistic , while still hinting at time travel. The ‘Selves’ is a hint that any of us might , like Zak and Sarah, share a soul with someone .
5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?
Keep writing . It is better to be writing rubbish sometimes than to not be writing at all and risk losing the habit . The more you write the better you will get and the more ideas you will have.
6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? More people writing , which is good . More people reading , which is better . On the negative side, I see an increase d (l inked ) threat f rom plagiarism and AI generated content.
7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? Absolutely . I have used my own experience of being bullied at school for Zak’s far worse torments . And he deals with it much better than I did, so writing this section was cathartic for me . And the evil Commander Eleanor Levy is a mash-up of all the bad managers I had to deal with during my career as a librarian . ( I n case any of my former library bosses read this, I should point out that
there were some good ones, too ! ) .
8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to ? All of us writers like to think that we have our own style ! However, th ematically, I am influenced by Philip K Dick ( The Adjustment Team, Minority Report ), Andy Weir ( The Martian ) and David Mitchell ( Cloud Atlas ) . For character dev e lop ment , dialog and corrupt authority figures I try to channel my inner John Grisham . For short, digestible chapters, I am influence d by Audrey Niffenegger ’s The Time Traveller’s Wife and Helen Fitzgerald’s The Cry.
