Max Seventeen is on sale NOW!

Yes, Max is finally here! And to celebrate I thought I'd answer a few questions about it...

What inspired you to write Max Seventeen?

Tom Hopper's amazing arms. 

No, not really. Inspiration's a hard thing to pin down, but my major influences at the time were Black Sails and Mad Max: Fury Road. One is a drama about the Golden Age of Piracy that's full of sex and violence. The other is a non-stop dystopian car chase driven by a hard-as-nails woman. 

As for why it's set in space...mostly because space is cool. Also because I could build whatever sort of worlds there I wanted.

How long did it take to write?

Three months, which is bloody fast for me (especially considering it's nearly 130,000 words!).

You said there was lots of sex and violence in this book. Will it make me squeamish?

Well, there are only a couple of sex scenes on the page; but off the page, there are quite a few more. And fair warning, they're not all between men and women, so if that offends you, take a long hard look at yourself...

Also, there is quite a lot of blood. In my defence, I really like writing scenes where my characters exchange intimacies while patching each other up. 

What did you research for this book?

Well, I'm actually writing a guest post for Libertà on this so I won't spoil it, but a sample of my answers would be: Layers of a planet's atmosphere. How to provide a spaceship with breathable air and gravity. How thick a cutlass blade is. Whether it's actually possible to rip out a human jugular using only your teeth. What that giant sea-dwelling dinosaur in Jurassic World is. Double-layer helicon thrusters. Exoplanets...

What's your favourite line?

This one: 

"Oh, fuck the lot of you," Max said.

"You more or less have," replied Orpheus. 

Who would play the characters in a film?

Ooh I love this game. Tom Hopper as Riley. Ridiculously tall and muscular but with the most earnest, honest blue eyes. He's adorable, but you wouldn't beat him at arm-wrestling.

Zawe Ashton as Max. I didn't have anyone in mind for her when I wrote her. She has the shaved head and general demeanour of Imperator Furiosa, but isn't as pale. Then a few months later the final series of Fresh Meat started and I realised there was a lot of Zawe's character Vod in Max. 

As for the others...I'll let you suggest them! Captain Orpheus is lean and feline with long dark hair; he rarely smiles. Justine, his second in command, is dark-skinned and regal. Her brother, Émile, describes himself as ugly, but I'm not sure I believe him. Petal, the pilot, is tiny and doll like; I see her as Asian. Murtaugh is bearded and a bit oafish. Hide is simply a mountain of a man. Angharad is red-haired and beautiful, and has been living on a planet with no sunlight.
Tell you what...read it and tell me who should play them!