Ask the Author: Roderick Gordon
Answered Questions (52)
Roderick Gordon
Hi Cynder and thank you so much for your very kind message. So glad you liked the books. As for Drake's name. I had a scene about it in a prequel I was working on called "Drake's Progress" - he was about Will's age in it and surrounded by the misfits Parry was sheltering on his estate. I must go back and look at what I wrote - really can't remember now!
Roderick Gordon
Sorry to take so long to answer you! And thank you for your question. I didn't have to do much research at all because I had an interest in geology from when I was very young. My paternal grandfather (who died long before I was born) was a geologist - he mainly worked in Africa but also travelled the world working on new mineral finds, and this clearly rubbed off on my father who took me off on expeditions from an very early age to the south coast of the UK to go fossil hunting. My great-great-grandfather William Buckland was one of the first palaeontologists and named the first dinosaur (the Megalosaurus) and also coined the word for dinosaur pooh (Coprolites), so it probably all flowed from there. As for architecture, London is such an incredible source of inspiration so if you walk around and take an interest in your surroundings, you can't help but absorb the architecture.
Roderick Gordon
I've never explained the chamber - I thought it would be fun to leave it like that!
Roderick Gordon
With each year that passes and I think back to 2013, I really don't know why they decided to call it a day with Terminal - at the time I was dying to do more, and the ideas for another book in the series, some Drake prequels and a collection of side stories have never left me (I've made a start on all these). It's probably because twenty or so publishers from the different countries supported the series right to the sixth instalment and this wasn't enough from the forty plus that released T1 and T2 to justify the investment in further books? I don't know.
Roderick Gordon
I'm afraid I'm to blame for the series being so open ended as I had more I wanted to say, but Chicken House believed the series should be wound up in book six. I just couldn't find it in me to resolve all the different strands and continued working on a seventh book, which then came to a stop when life (and Summerhouse Land) intervened. Maybe one day ...
And the two different names came about because I'd used the name Hermione as a placeholder while I was writing (it's the name of the partner of an old friend). The name stuck and remained in the UK edition, but my American editor objected furiously because she felt it might be seen as a sleight against the Potter series - hence it was changed to Alex for the US releases. No sleight was ever intended!
And the two different names came about because I'd used the name Hermione as a placeholder while I was writing (it's the name of the partner of an old friend). The name stuck and remained in the UK edition, but my American editor objected furiously because she felt it might be seen as a sleight against the Potter series - hence it was changed to Alex for the US releases. No sleight was ever intended!
Roderick Gordon
Definitely! The whole saga began one day back in 2004 when my idea of Will's character collided with what Brian knew about the Williamson's tunnels (he grew up not far from them) .
Roderick Gordon
Hi Patrick,
Many thanks for your question and sorry to take so long to reply. It's a possibility but I would far prefer it if Chicken House decided to continue the series with another instalment - I left things pretty open-ended in book six because I felt I had more I wanted to say.
Many thanks for your question and sorry to take so long to reply. It's a possibility but I would far prefer it if Chicken House decided to continue the series with another instalment - I left things pretty open-ended in book six because I felt I had more I wanted to say.
Roderick Gordon
I would love to! I did quite a bit of work on it after Terminal came out. Thank you for nudging them but I think it's unlikely they'll want another sequel unless by some miracle we get a TV or film adaptation back on the rails.
Roderick Gordon
Hi, sorry not to reply until now. I'm afraid I don't have any influence regarding reprints of the books, not even in the UK! I'd really love it if the whole series was reissued with new covers, and even made available as a box set (which was once mooted), but I think it's highly unlikely. Apologies. You could always try registering your interest with Chicken House.
Roderick Gordon
Hi Anthony, thank you so much for getting in touch. And I'm also very grateful you let the publisher know you'd like another in the series. Maybe if enough people knock on the door ... It's funny but for the last couple of months, my mind keeps flitting back to where I ground to halt on T7 - keep thinking I should finish it even if it's never released!
Roderick Gordon
Thank you for getting in touch! I think I have the answers to some of your questions as I worked on quite a few chapters for another book, but put it away because it's completely by publisher's decision whether to continue the series or not. The tv series is looking less likely but I'm sure that would have kickstarted his interest. Maybe one of these days ...
Roderick Gordon
Hi again, it's the great Barry Cunningham at Chicken House Publishing, without whom Will Burrows would still be digging rather sorry little trenches on Highfield Common and the series would probably have never seen the light of day. As I said in my previous answer to you, there are no plans for a seventh book, but maybe if you could get enough people to ask for one, then that could change!! Re a snippet, I haven't looked at any of the material I began to write for ages now, but it might be fun to put the first chapter out. Think it might be rather surprising.
Roderick Gordon
Hi Wesley, nothing at all on the cards but if the series feels unresolved it's because I admit I wasn't finished with it yet - and was hoping that an adaptation might open the way for another book. That's looking less likely now, unfortunately.
Roderick Gordon
Hi Gavin, sorry to take so long to reply to you. Much as I'd like to write a seventh book, there are no plans for it at the moment. My publisher thought it better to stop with the sixth instalment, although perhaps if the TV series ever comes to fruition then this might change. So please pray for a minor miracle ...
Roderick Gordon
Hi Alexandra, and thank you so much for getting in touch. Your question goes right to the crux of why I felt I had to write SHL. The idea for the book was knocking around in my head for a long time - not just because of the friend who died when I was ten, but others I've lost close to me. My mother, who was always there through the years to read each draft of anything I've written, back in 2012 began not to be able to concentrate on the chapters I'd print out for her - that was very sad for me as I'd always valued her opinions so highly. She was still there, but little by little I knew I was losing her and all those memories we shared. And knowing how it was going to turn out, I was thinking about how wonderful it would be if there really was some sort of afterlife, but as much as I'd like to believe there is one, I can't. I always tell people I have a science degree and I don't see how those sort of beliefs can coexist. So SHL is my attempt to explain rationally (!) how there could be a form of heaven, somewhere where all illness and death has been banished and every day is sunny.
Roderick Gordon
Hi Daniel, thank you so much for letting me know. I'll definitely get in contact with them.
Roderick Gordon
Chester coughed, trying to ease his throat. ‘You know, since Will and I got mixed up with the Styx, it’s been tough for us, really tough for all of us … and I don’t why … but I always seem to come off worse than everybody else. As if someone up there,’ he said and would have pointed heavenwards he’d been able to, ‘has got it in for me, and they’re laughing and saying, ‘What can we do to him next? How can we trip the stupid noob up now?’.’
Roderick Gordon
Hey Bob, and thank you so much for your question. I've certainly got the beginning of a seventh book but I'm writing it for myself at the moment because there are no plans from my publisher to extend the series. If there was a minor miracle and the TV series became a reality, this might be enough to encourage him to release another one. Or perhaps if another several thousand very loyal and kind readers like you got in touch with him, it might change his mind! And as for Elliott, she really thought she was alone in the centre of the world ... for a while ...
Roderick Gordon
The short answer is that I am, but he isn't ... yet. I've found it impossible to leave that world so there's quite a bit of T7 already fleshed out, although whether it will ever see the light of day as a new sequel is another matter. I'd like to think so, but it really needs the tv series to lift the profile of the books for that to happen, or for another couple of thousand of very loyal readers like you to start asking for it! And thank you so much for your kind words about the series - without support like yours, I would never have had the incredible opportunity and honour of continuing with the saga. In answer to your other question, writing about the relationships was very rewarding and exciting because the characters became so real to me that I just knew how they would react to events and to each other. What was also great was to experiment with "what if" scenarios for the plot lines - sometimes thinking up incredibly unlikely developments in the story, then fitting the characters around these developments in an effort to make them seem credible. It's rather like dreaming up an outlandish lie to tell someone, then working like mad to make them believe it. Some of the deaths were extremely difficult to write about; early on I was channeling emotion from events in my own life, but as I progressed through the series I found it was the other way around and the events in the books started to come back at me, and I'd get terribly upset because they were so very real to me. I was reading parts of Deeper again last week to check some background about Cal and I couldn't believe how much it got to me. I won't name them but there are several characters I very much regret losing and wish I could resurrect, but it's too late now.
Roderick Gordon
Many thanks for your question. It was called "Drake's Progress" and was an idea my publisher and I kicked around - I mapped out a full plan for the plot (which is unusual for me) and wrote a few chapters. However, my publisher didn't feel it was the right time to be considering prequels so I put it to one side to work on Summerhouse Land. Even now I keep thinking about the story and will definitely go back to it one day. What's so great is it allowed me to spend more time with Drake's "strange uncles" who first appeared in T5, particularly Sweeney - I miss him like anything! It was also in the back of my mind that there could be a whole series of Drake and Parry prequels, but I'm not sure that will ever become reality (or fiction).
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