Since my most recent novel Children of the Folded Valley was released, I’ve received a number of questions and comments that I’d like to address on this blog.

Is Children of the Folded Valley based on a true story?

No. Children of the Folded Valley is entirely fictional, with fictional characters, setting, plot and so on. I am surprised people have asked this, considering the science fiction elements the book contains!

Was Children of the Folded Valley rewritten and the ending changed following the death of my father?

No. The entire novel was written before my father died in May 2012, with the first draft dating back to the summer of 2011. The death of the father in the story was an essential element of the plot, foreseen from the outset. At no point did the main story change for any reason at all.

What is true is that early outlines of the story had the tone of a pulpy conspiracy thriller, told from the point of view of a journalist who stumbled into the Folded Valley and became trapped there. I subsequently decided against this approach, as I felt a more personal point of view was required. Eventually I settled on the idea of telling the story from the perspective of a child who had been born within the Folded Valley.

Does Children of the Folded Valley have some basis in experience?

To a limited degree, yes. My own experiences in a religious cult known as “the Fellowship” took place between when I was born until I was seven. Some of what took place provided inspiration for the novel, but I also drew inspiration from other parts of my life. It is important to emphasise that most of what takes place in the story is complete fabrication with no basis in real events at all.

Which incidents in the story are based on real events?

Mostly minor details. For example, my parents put up Christmas trees in defiance of the wishes of the leadership. Pretty much everything fun was banned; so no television, no cinema, no music (unless it was recorded worship music from the Fellowship meetings) or theatre trips. I wasn’t even allowed to go on school trips or attend firework nights.

Toys were at one point prohibited for no other reason than the leader wanted parents to buy their children presents from the sports shop he had set up. I can actually recall talking to God and asking him why it was so wrong for me to get the toys I particularly wanted, much as James does in the story after the train set incident. Incidentally, trains weren’t something I was particularly interested in, but my father was – hence their inclusion as a recurring motif and metaphor within the plot.

More seriously, we did at one point have an individual living with us who suffered paranoid schizophrenia, and the individual in question did once attack my mother. And yes – it is true that within the cult there were some horrific sexual abuses, financial abuses and many examples of control and isolation perpetuated by the leader. We were not permitted to see friends or relatives who were not a part of the Fellowship, so I was unaware of the many cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents I had for many years.

Will you ever write the true story of what happened in those early years of your life?

Very unlikely, because really it is my parent’s story, not mine. But I hope people enjoy Children of the Folded Valley for what I intended it to be, namely a gripping sci-fi tinged story with a cautionary undertone about abuse of power and deception.

Children of the Folded Valley has proved something of a hit amongst readers. Given how nervous I was about 1) my first grown-up book, 2) the subject matter, 3) my first attempt at a first person narrative and 4) how people would take the ending, I am pleasantly surprised.

The book spent two weeks at the number one spot on Amazon’s free science fiction chart, and remained in the top ten for over a week on the paid chart after the free offer came to an end. Five star reviews continue to pour in from readers across the world.

The novel presently available for Kindle from Amazon:

Print copies are available from Lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-dillon/children-of-the-folded-valley/paperback/product-21732639.html

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.

My earlier novel George goes to Mars is now available for Kindle FREE from Amazon.

I have been trying for some time to persuade Amazon to make this novel free, and I have finally succeeded. So please take advantage of this opportunity and download the book now. And if you like it, please do leave a one-liner review (or a longer review if you prefer) on Amazon to say so.

George goes to Mars is a thrilling read for young and old alike. It is the first part of a trilogy that I know has been enjoyed by many others outside of the Amazon readership (reviews are available on other sites selling the book). It was originally intended as a stand-alone adventure (as indeed was the second novel), but this year I have written a third instalment which will be released sometime in early 2015.

To the matter at hand, however. Here’s a brief blurb about the plot to whet your apetite. Enjoy!

When George Hughes discovers he has inherited the planet Mars, he goes from poverty to becoming the richest boy on Earth overnight.

Accompanied by his new guardian, a mysterious secret agent and a crew of astronauts, George voyages to Mars to sell land to celebrities wanting to build interplanetary holiday homes. But sabotage, assassination attempts and the possibility of an alien threat plunge him into a deadly adventure…

UPDATE: I have been informed that Amazon.com is not listing this book free, only Amazon.co.uk. I will try and get them to change this as soon as possible.

What is the most unfilmable novel of all time? For me there is but one answer: JD Salinger’s classic, controversial The Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger himself never wanted the novel to be made into a film, and I can understand why. The entire book is the inner monologue of protagonist Holden Caulfield, an American teenage schoolboy who has just been expelled from a private prep school. The novel then follows a weekend of misadventures in New York, as themes of alienation, angst, rebellion and sexuality are touched upon.

The book remains something of a definitive text on the contradictory and overwhelming feelings encountered during teenage years, but it would not make a good film as it is simply too dependent on the inner thoughts and feelings of Caulfield. Besides, Caulfield himself dislikes movies, calling them “phony” along with many other things he also dislikes. It would be ironic, to say the least, to adapt his story in film.

Caulfield is clearly more disturbed than many teenagers, and as such the book has attracted more than a little controversy. It has the unusual distinction of being one of the most taught books in US schools, as well as one of the most banned. It has also been dubiously linked to various shootings, including the murder of John Lennon, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

My view is that The Catcher in the Rye is a masterpiece. It is amongst the greatest American novels on a par with To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. I’m fairly sure reading it won’t turn you into a psychopath, but don’t hold your breath for a film version any time soon.

My latest novel Children of the Folded Valley has had a number of very positive reviews, including some raves, from those who have read it. Here’s a brief sample from those on Amazon:

“A dystopian treasure! I have lived in this valley for the last few days due to the author’s skill at world-building. I have watched the characters come alive, and have experienced a mind-boggling mystery come to light. This is storytelling! You will be left with wanting more…” – Kathy, Amazon.

“I don’t usually leave reviews but I felt so strongly about encouraging people to read this fantastic book. It had me captured from start to finish. At one stage in the book I actually thought it was a true story.” – Paul Taylor, Amazon.

“Creepy and unnerving… Kept me gripped the whole way through.” – Lucyboo, Amazon.

“Draws the reader from a seemingly normal world into the horrific.” – Olga, Amazon.

“Readers will be gripped by the anguish of a community coming to terms with what is going on behind closed doors…” – Al Gibson, Amazon.

“I can’t put it down.” – Andre Pena, Amazon.

Children of the Folded Valley is currently available FREE from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, Kobo and various other places in various downloadable formats (including Kindle).

Print copies are available from Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-dillon/children-of-the-folded-valley/paperback/product-21732639.html

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.

I generally stay out of debates about sexism, but I recently heard something that even I can’t let pass. Apparently Roald Dahl’s Matilda has been reissued with a pink cover that visually implies that this is not a book for boys.

To say Roald Dahl’s novels are for all children is to state the bleeding obvious. In the specific case of Matilda, the book – and also Danny De Vito’s film – is just as enjoyable for both genders. Again, this is obvious. So why the pink cover marketing the book exclusively to girls?

As an aside, why indeed is pink so horribly ubiquitous in marketing to girls in any case? Many toy companies are guilty of doing things that never happened “in my young day”. For example, when I was a boy, Lego was always gender neutral. Why not today?

Leaving aside that bigger question, I do accept that some stories are more likely to appeal to one gender or another. But that is emphatically not the case with Matilda. Boys and girls throughout the decades have enjoyed it equally. Beyond the fact that the story has a female protagonist, I can see no reason whatsoever that it should be marketed in a gender specific way. By that logic, the Harry Potter books should only be marketed to boys and the Hunger Games books only to girls.

In short, this trend of reducing mass appeal children’s stories to “blue” or “pink” demographics is utterly dismaying.

“What do you have to write about? You’re not oppressed. You’re not gay.”

• Bud Brumder, Orange County.

It’s a long debated question: do you have to suffer in order to be a good writer (or any kind of artist for that matter)? I think the answer to that question is “not necessarily”. Certainly if you have suffered, you have something to write about. But obviously suffering is relative. Anything I have suffered in life is nothing compared with, say, what the Jews suffered under the Nazis in World War II – or what Christians are presently suffering in Iraq (I’m still reeling from an article I just read about Christian children supposedly being beheaded out there).

I think the important thing for a writer to have is experience, rather than suffering per se. I wrote about religious cults in my novel Children of the Folded Valley because I have experienced them. Some of that experience might be termed suffering, but not necessarily all of it.

Furthermore, it is important to emphasise that what I experienced does not necessarily appear in the novel at all. Indeed, it should be obvious that most of what the novel contains is nothing more than science fiction. But writing a novel based on experience isn’t always about conveying the factual veracity of true events – at least, not for me. Writing Children of the Folded Valley was about conveying how religious oppression feels, but within a science fiction backdrop containing all manner of exaggerations and outrageous situations necessary for the needed dramatic impact.

In a similar way, the battle scenes in The Lord of the Rings ring are informed by Tolkien’s experiences fighting in World War I. Obviously The Lord of the Rings is not a factual story, but the experience Tolkien brings to the writing makes an already masterful piece of work even more resonant.

Wars and religious cults may be negative things to have experience of, but plenty of authors write of good experiences they have had, and their work is enjoyed by millions. Sticking with Tolkien for a moment, the Aragorn/Arwen romance in The Lord of the Rings very much mirrors how he met his own wife Edith. Again it appears experience rather than suffering is the key thing here.

Having two children eventually led me to write Dr Gribbles and the Beast of Blackthorn Lodge and Uncle Flynn. The latter was inspired in part by a news report I saw about mollycoddled children, but mostly by the endless walks I have taken on Dartmoor with my eldest son. That can hardly be described as suffering.

Then again, Harry Lime, as brilliantly depicted by Orson Welles in The Third Man, obviously disagrees with me.

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The Cuckoo Clock.”

• Harry Lime, The Third Man.

Print copies of my latest novel Children of the Folded Valley can now be ordered from Lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-dillon/children-of-the-folded-valley/paperback/product-21732639.html

Kindle download is also available from Amazon:

Finally, a variety of e-book formats are available FREE from Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/459663

As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, Children of the Folded Valley – my first novel for grown-ups – is something of a departure for me. I shall elaborate a little more on the inspiration and other matters at a later date. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the book. Here is the blurb from the back once more:

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.

My new book, Children of the Folded Valley, is now available from Amazon. Check out the link below:

It is also available FREE – for a limited time – from Smashwords in various digital formats:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/459663

Print copies will be available from Lulu.com from the 27th of July.

Children of the Folded Valley is the first book I have released that is aimed at a more adult readership. It’s a drama with a few background science fiction elements, told in flashbacks like a memoir.

Here again is the blurb from the back, to whet your appetite:

From the author of Uncle Flynn and George goes to Mars…

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.

Tomorrow, my new novel Children of the Folded Valley will be available for digital download.

Print copies will be released on the 27^th July.

As mentioned on previous posts, Children of the Folded Valley is something of a departure for me, as it is my first attempt at a grown-up novel. It is also the first time I have used a first person narrative.

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.

As promised, here is a second, slightly longer excerpt from my upcoming novel, Children of the Folded Valley. This section introduces Benjamin Smiley, leader of the Folded Valley Fellowship.

From Chapter 2:

On Sundays Smiley wore a white suit, white tie, and white shoes. There were a number of different rings on his fingers; some plain gold, some set with small red or green gems. I don’t know why, but these rings made him seem more powerful, especially as he pointed out across the congregation whilst reading the Bible.

‘This is what Daniel said, after God gave him a vision of the apocalypse in Daniel chapter twelve: I heard but I understand not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.’

Smiley put his large, ancient looking Bible to one side and stared at us. Surveying the congregation keenly, his eyes halted on me. In that moment I was afraid, yet I also experienced a sense of awe.

‘Daniel had a vision but did not understand it. The Lord told him the words were sealed until the end of time.’

Smiley picked up another ancient looking, but much smaller book.

‘This is Daniel’s vision: The second Book of Daniel. Hidden for untold centuries, the Lord himself showed me where I could find it inside the Temple in the Folded Valley. He has revealed this to me now, for the time of the end is indeed at hand. You are obviously familiar with these verses, but they warrant repeating:

‘For the Almighty declares that in the final hour he shall send forth his greatest servant. And this shall be the sign of him: He will lead you to a place of safety to shield you. He shall have the power to heal, and as the world – the Fallen Dimension – burns in fire, so shall he keep the chosen from harm, as a hen with chicks under her wings.’

Benjamin Smiley smiled.

‘Of course, I am nothing more than a humble servant, however great. I did not chose greatness, but God has chosen me. Who am I to argue with him? For me to disobey would result in the damnation of your very souls. Woe to me! And woe to you if I do not do as the Almighty bids! For the temptations and traps of the Fallen Dimension are terrible indeed, and few escape their snares. Yet we, the chosen holy remnant of the human race, shall rule and reign with God himself after the world is purged in the flames. We shall wait here, shielded from the inevitable destruction. And though we do not know the precise day or hour of that destruction, we know it will happen soon.’

Benjamin indicated the Bible.

‘The signs spoken of in detail in these pages are coming to pass. Every day in the outside world there is war, conflict and destruction. Technology is advancing, but the people serve it like a god. The love of material goods that do not satisfy consumes those outside. There is no longer any respect for authority. Law and order is breaking down, as is the family unit itself. There is rampant sexual immorality, and love itself seems to be dying. The economies of the world will collapse and dependence on oil will eventually bring about a global nuclear catastrophe triggered by greed and insanity. Put simply: the earth as we know it is utterly and irretrievably doomed.

‘And yet there is hope. Whilst this happens in the Fallen Dimension, we will wait here. Patiently and diligently we will occupy this beautiful land set apart for us, until the time comes for us to re-enter the world, once the wrath of God has been satisfied.’

Smiley moved away from the pulpit and walked down a few steps, moving closer to the congregation.

‘Now some here have doubts in their hearts. Oh, they will not speak of it openly, for they are ashamed. But it is doubt nevertheless. Some here question whether the Fallen Dimension is indeed worthless, as the second Book of Daniel claims. For this ignorance there is forgiveness, but ignorance must be corrected. Therefore it is good on occasion to be reminded of our many blessings and why the Fallen Dimension and its materials – however desirable they may appear – must be shunned.

‘Here we dwell in a place where there is no disease, no hunger and no war. Where there is food and water in abundance and crops never fail. Where no natural disasters occur. There are no floods, no earthquakes, no volcanoes. It is a place where families flourish. Where children can play outside safely without fear. Where everyone works together for a common good. There is an abundance of joy, love, hope and peace.

‘That is not true of the Fallen Dimension. Though it has many glittering, attractive temptations, they are but empty baubles; trinkets of a lost and dying world utterly empty and void of worth. A world destined for flames that has no part of our future. Therefore the Bible says: Come out from among them and be ye separate. That is why the Eldership – those in whom I have placed my trust – only allow such items of the outside world we deem beneficial and uncorrupting. For there is much that is sinful in the world and if brought here their evil will work in your hearts. It might be a book or an article of clothing, or even a toy…’

Benjamin fixed me with another stare. I could not hold his gaze, so cast my eyes to the ground.

‘Beware the toys of the Fallen Dimension! They are the tools of Satan himself! They will seduce but not satisfy, and soon you will want another and another and another. Before you know it the trinkets of the Fallen Dimension will have corrupted you to the point that you want to leave this paradise that the Almighty in his beneficence has provided. Do not take his warnings lightly. Heed the words of his greatest servant, and be of sober mind, lest you fall and burn with the outside.

Children of the Folded Valley – my first novel aimed at grown-ups – is released on the 20th of July in various downloadable digital formats.

Print copies will be available from the 27^th of July.

Here is the text from the back of the novel:

During a journey to visit his estranged sister, James Harper recalls his childhood in a mysterious valley cut off from the outside world, where he grew up as part of a cult called the Folded Valley Fellowship.

In this seemingly idyllic world, the charismatic Benjamin Smiley claimed to be protecting his followers from an impending nuclear apocalypse.

But the valley concealed a terrifying secret.

A secret that would change Smiley’s followers forever.