Where did the inspiration for your novel come from, and has the final version strayed far from your original concept? The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force tactical air controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events. Metronome has the dystopia of Orwell clashing with the horror of Andrew Michael Hurley, but at the same time remaining original. This effectively traps them as they can’t go too far in exploring their environment as they have to be back in time for their pill.

Set on a remote (fictional) island in Scotland, it examines the depths of humanity and plays with the theme of isolation, building a compact world around two characters, Whitney and Aina.It is mysterious, intriguing, has more than a hint of the dystopian and examines the very depth of humanity which ticks a lot of boxes. I cannot help but think that the premise of this novel is metastatic where even feelings about feelings are involved. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money. For me, the most meaningful advice comes from people you either love or respect, and ideally those who have read your work. Sometimes terrifying, with heavy dollops of suspense this intricately layered novel reveals its secrets whilst maintaining a sense of impending doom.

It could tie in with Aina’s mantra Yan Tan Tethera (notice the word tether hidden there) with the Celtic method of counting sheep, and perhaps introduce the concept of a spirit animal. When a stranger arrives with a daughter in tow, offering fear and hope, the stage is set for some impossible choices to be made. Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion, I found myself captivated by Metronome .What matters most is that we are fully invested in Aina and Whitney and anything or anyone else that crosses their path. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. pieces of advice you received as you embarked on writing Metronome , and can you tell us a bit about how you signed with your agent, Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown? Interesting then that Watson’s proof title for the book was ‘Not All that Is Hidden is Lost’ referencing the Hemingway theory again, where hidden could be taken to mean the future and lost being loss in a physical and emotional way. There is a storm in Metronome during my reading of it at roughly the same time as Dudley, Eunice and Franklin take hold.