See Part 1 of the event.
The roaming mic goes out into the audience for some questions.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: Exodus was a collaboration. Were you about to work on something else?
PETER F HAMILTON: I have about 4 or 5 ideas, and I left things hanging. I have made plans to stop writing.
AQ: Would you write Exodus differently?
PFH: No, this is where I wanted it to be. If I changed earlier work, I’d change the style. I’d put it in a drawer, and come back in 2 years. In reality, you can’t do that.
COMPARE DAVID BRENT: An editor just fainted somewhere.
PFH: These days I take a take a little bit more attention to what others understand, and how I describe it.
An audience member asks about the fact that Exodus is a duology.
PFH: I’m writing number 2, and the game will have more stories. But I know how Exodus ends.
DB: Is it a collaborative process?
PFH: Writing the book wasn’t collaborative; with books I know what fits into the universe.
It transpires that Hamilton has already collaborated with Netflix. One of his short stories, Sonnie’s Edge, was adapted into a short animated film of the same name and was included in the first anthology of SF series Love, Death and Robots, which I saw.
DB: People are now making more SF TV shows. Which of yours would you like to see on the big screen?
PFH: Game of Thrones (originally written by George RR Martin) changed things. I think (2004 novel) Pandora’s Star would make good TV. I say if it’s gotta be done, get a professional screenwriter to write it.
AQ: Have you played the computer game?
PFH: Absolutely. I’m not a big gamer, but I’ve seen scenes. The great thing about the book is I get so much amazing artwork of something I described before I’ve even finished writing it.
An audience question asks about which books got him into SF writing.
PFH: I thought, some kids’ books are not good. I could do better. (James Bond author) Ian Fleming was once in hospital, and asked the kids there what they liked. They said, Beatrix Potter. Ian hated it, and then went and wrote (the original novel) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
AQ: You mentioned you revise as you go. What is the process at the editing stage?
Hamilton admits he gets carried away with the writing sometimes.
PFH: I wrote a 30 page scene about a party. After 5 pages, the editor said, ‘yes, we get it.’
DB: How far are you into the next one?
PFH: Oh, almost there! My publisher is in the audience! You can’t ask that!
During the signing I whip out a picture from 2010, when Hamilton was touring with The Evolutionary Void. He says he still has the waistcoat!
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