I tell it every time to everyone who wants to hear me: I've only conceived three tales along my life. Okay, I guess one could find ideas for some others, but the fact is that only three have been messing around my mind for my whole life.
The first, and oldest one, is about planet Mars. It's called Chryse, the Land of Gold. Many years ago, I don't know why, the name Chrise came up to my attention, claiming for its right to give title to my yet to be created tale. Looking back now, I guess I heard the name in the late 70's after the Martian Viking missions. The first of them happened to land there, in the so-called Chryse Planitia region. So it sounded good, and truly Martian, at that time to my young ears. Fortunately, the place still hosts many attractions and mysteries to justify giving its name to a novel.
Provided that I only wanted to stress the wonders of living in another world, the plot itself was a secondary issue. But a plot had to be there, in order for readers to get involved, interested, in taking a tour in so harsh environment. And it could not be a trite one. You know, it could not deal with anything previously seen or heard in the vast Sci-Fi panorama. But this is something easier to say than to make.
Maybe, the only good advise I could find came from Ray Bradbury, probably among the most respected writers, when he recommended not reading any Sci-fi at all if you want to get something new and fresh. Other words I wanted to avoid were epic, speculative, fantastic...
Then, I absorbed as many technical and scientifical reading I could afford, in a process of refinement which would eventually lead me to a bunch of facts designed to keep a casual reader permanently impressed and overwhelmed against the back of his chair (or pillow).
At the end, it was nothing but a hyper-realistic novelization of some scientific facts with some stereotypical characters. A strong plot came apparent to be more necessary than ever, and the first details started to pour into my draft.
The story happens in a near future, last quarter of the XXI Century. Going farther would throw me too deep into speculative prospection to keep the realistic approach believable.
