My writing journey began in early 2015 when I started working on a science fiction novella called ‘The Battle Inside’, which was converted into a full-length YA manuscript called ‘The Cell Cities’ by the end of 2016. I fell in love with science fiction and fantasy literature as a teenager, so writing The Cell Cities as a YA novel was a special nod to that time in my life, and the material was just right for that market.
The book was inspired by films like Inception, Fantastic Voyage, Tron, and Dreamscape, and for anyone who hasn’t seen those movies, they are all based on stories that take place inside amazing internal worlds. I wanted to write my version of that kind of story because I loved the concept.
The catalyst for doing it came about when I read a newspaper article one day which featured a new type of immunotherapy treatment for cancer. The article caught my attention immediately because a friend was struggling with the disease at the time, and immunotherapy was something I had never heard of before.
I will never claim to be an immunotherapy expert, but the science behind it was genuinely intriguing, and it became even more relevant when Coronavirus arrived on the world scene in 2020. Many of us will remember the desperate search for a vaccine during the pandemic. This process usually takes a while, but fortunately, scientists were able to make a breakthrough very quickly by using mRNA vaccines that train the immune system to recognise and attack Covid-19 more efficiently.
Similar methods are being used to treat cancer patients, and new fantastic breakthroughs are being made, so research into how the power of the immune system can be harnessed to treat a variety of conditions was interesting to me because of its broad potential. Immune cells function like soldiers when they fight illness and infections, so the image of a high-tech army fighting on a hidden battlefield inside the body sparked my interest in writing the book.
Alexandre Dumas was also a big inspiration to me when I was getting started for many personal reasons. My surname is French, my family has strong ties to France even though I was born and raised in the UK, and I loved The Three Musketeers when I was very young. One of my all-time favourite science fiction novels, ‘The Stars My Destination’, owes a huge debt to ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Dumas, and everyone knows how influential his other works have been.
When I eventually finished The Cell Cities, I began submitting it to agents between 2016 and 2018 to see what would happen.
A few agents showed genuine interest during the submission phase, and I received some valuable advice, which I applied to the manuscript. One editor, who I really enjoyed working with, suggested that the book would be more appealing if I developed it into a series instead of a standalone novel to make it stand out a bit more.
So, in 2019, I started working on those projects, which were some prequels to the book.
The idea for the prequels came from a section of dialogue in the opening chapter of The Cell Cities, where Doctor Clarke tells the protagonist Alex and his father about several patients who were tested with the ‘super-immune booster’ in a previous clinical trial.
Some of those patients woke suddenly from terrifying nightmares with no apparent improvement in health. Others remained trapped in the coma induced by the drug. Some woke successfully from the procedure with their immune systems radically boosted, which enabled them to heal and recover in record time. I wanted to write three stories to explore each of those scenarios in more detail from each patient’s point of view.
My work is heavily influenced by film and television from the 80’s and 90’s, so Darren’s episode was particularly interesting to write because it was inspired by a great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called ‘The Inner Light.’ (Season 5: Episode 25)
All of the prequels were satisfying to work on in their own way as a build-up to The Cell Cities. When they were finished, I took some time out to go on a writing course so I could sharpen my knowledge of the craft, and I experimented with many variations of those prequels along with some additional Immune Dream ‘episodes’ after the course was complete so I could try and refine my writing style a bit more.
Ana’s episode was action-packed and very engaging to write because I really liked her as a character, and Dean’s episode is pivotal to the events that led to Alex’s journey in the Cell Cities.
When the books were finished, I felt like I had something a bit more tangible to work with in addition to the main novel, so I came back to the self-publishing scene to re-release The Cell Cities as part of a new four-book series.
My publishing goals were initially quite simple, but more books and new adventures are on the way, so as my catalogue grows, more content will be added to this site.
In the meantime, readers are welcome to connect with me through my Facebook author page for any new updates.
With gratitude,
Nathan