Mark Robson
Dragon Writer
I recently had the pleasure of signing books alongside the beautiful MG Harris, author of the phenomenally exciting Joshua Files series. (I tried to upload a photo here, but it's too big and doesn't seem to want to resize.) I’m a big fan of the books and would recommend them to anyone who likes fast paced action adventure stories. The first reads like Young James Bond meets Indiana Jones … and the series has evolved along some very interesting paths. After our event I asked MG a few questions:
MG, despite your rapid rise in the world of YA fiction, it’s possible that some of the SFF Chronicles readers may not have come across you before, so could you summarise your background and your path into writing novels up in a few sentences?
I was born in Mexico City and grew up in Manchester, England. As a teenager, during regular visits to my father in Mexico, I became fascinated by Mayan archaeology. A skiing accident in 2004 forced me to spend many weeks recuperating from surgery. I decided to keep a promise I’d made to myself to one day pursue a career as a novelist. I began work on a techno thriller which combined two obsessions – archaeology and biology. From this initial manuscript came the idea for a story featuring a boy searching for a lost Mayan codex … and The Joshua Files were born.
It was a timely and (if I may say so) commercially inspired idea to write a thriller series based around the Mayan predictions for 2012 in the years running up to this date. Why five books, though? Why not three or four? Did you always have that number in mind?
At first I thought maybe three, but the publishers wanted more instalments. Five parts would end the series in 2012, which I thought would be fitting. As the story took shape also, it seemed that five would be a natural fit, with two halves to the overall story: before Josh cracks the secret of time travel and beyond.
Each of the Joshua Files books has a distinctly different flavour to the story. Is this deliberate? Do you ever worry that the readers might just want more of the same each time?
Yes, for two reasons. Partly because remember that I’m still new to writing and I want to improve my craft. So I need to set myself challenges and learn by playing with different types of plot structure; the quest, the kidnap-and-rescue, the mystery-puzzle, the romance. And partly because I didn’t want there to be any obvious ‘favourite’. I wanted different books to be favourites of different types of readers. If all the flavours are all quite different then you don’t get the ‘vanilla issue’ (where vanilla turns out to be the most popular ice cream.)
I’ve always loved stories involving time travel, but the consequences of characters’ actions often give me a headache as I try to work them through in my mind. In Dark Parallel, it almost felt as if I was reading a high octane Dr Who episode (which is a very positive thing as far as I’m concerned). Swap Josh for the Doctor and Ixchel for his assistant, and who needs a Tardis when you have a bracelet that zaps you back mind. In Dark Parallel, it almost felt as if I was reading a high octane Dr Who episode (which is a very positive thing as far as I’m concerned). Swap Josh for the Doctor and Ixchel for his assistant, and who needs a Tardis when you have a bracelet that zaps you back and forth in time! The obvious question here is: Are you a big Doctor Who fan? If so, who is your favourite Doctor?
Thank you, to be compared to Doctor Who is the highest compliment you could pay The Joshua Files! I love and have always loved Doctor Who. I don’t think I was very happy, as a small child, to be brought to a cold, miserably decorated flat in Stockport after living in Mexico, Frankfurt and briefly, the Cotwolds. I do remember all that changing when I discovered Doctor Who, as a six-year old.
My favourite Doctor is Jon Pertwee, simply because he was ‘my Doctor’. Planet of the Spiders was a bit of a trauma, actually. But I think the best stories were in the John Nathan Turner/Tom Baker era and the recent Stephen Moffat episodes with both David Tennant and Matt Smith. And – I think Matt Smith may be my second-favourite…
Have you always had a fascination with the concept of time travel, or was it simply a plot device to spice up the story?
Yes, always been obsessed with time-travel, portals to other worlds, the whole bit. Time-travel was always going to be intrinsic to Josh’s story because when I ask ‘how could you categorically know what is going to happen in the future’ one of the most logical answers is ‘because you’ve been to the future’.
Keeping track of parallel time-lines and possible futures must be a nightmare. How much planning do you do before you start each book? And do you have a particular method of keeping track of all the story aspects?
The keeping track is tricky. I have timelines for everyone and everything who has significantly time-travelled, as well as for the city of Ek Naab itself. I always plan about 85% of the story before I start on chapter one. That’s just my methodology, but you can always retrofit things too…as Agatha Christie allegedly did!
The relationship between Josh and Ixchel is developed a lot in this installment. Do you find boy readers appreciate the romantic aspect of your story, or is this element specifically there to appeal to girl readers?
Girl readers have been coy about it, boy readers are the ones who put it most bluntly: when is Josh going to get off with Ixchel? I do enjoy the contrast, or perceived contrast between boys and girls when it comes to romantic situations. Josh would love to be blunt and get to the point with Ixchel, but he just can’t do it. Because what is at stake are his innermost feelings…and there he’s pretty vulnerable.
Josh shucks off his grumpy teenager aspect in this new segment of the story. He definitely shows his best side when under pressure. Do you see his grumpy phase in Zero Moment as something teen and pre-teen boys will readily identify with?
I suspect it is something that anyone, male or female, who has ever suffered from sexual jealousy will identify with. Don’t forget that people commit murder because of such jealousy – that is how extreme it can get! Josh suffers from jealousy, which stems from his being raised as an only child. Of course your parents dote on you if you are all they have. But what if they had someone else? That’s his eternal torment. So when people get between Josh and his mother or Josh and his girl, he tends to see red. It’s one of his major flaws.
Your action scenes are always vividly described. Are you a bit of an action girl yourself? The motor bike race near the beginning of the book is a great example. Have you ridden motorbikes at high speed and do you like doing practical research of this sort to be able to see the scene through the character’s eyes?
Once, when I was about 19, a mate of mine from University picked me up outside the lab on his new motorbike and took me for a pillion ride. We tore down the motorway at 80 miles per hour. I was scared, wobbling around on the back and thinking that I’d fly off, but at the same time it was a major rush and a thrill. My father bribed me into not getting a motorbike, by promising me a car when I was 21. Well, he died before he could make good on that but I had time to reflect on how very much he didn’t want me to ride a motorbike. So since then, I never have. I don’t do anything dangerous now, not even skateboarding or skiing (I used to). I’m just not hardcore enough, and I don’t want my family to suffer again if I have an accident.
I would like to thank MG for taking the time to answer my questions. I still get very excited about meeting authors and getting their autographs (does that make me a geek?). I cannot recommend The Joshua Files series highly enough. Go and give Invisible City a read. You won’t regret it. It’s a brilliant start to a fantastic series.
The attached thumbnail is of Book 3 - Zero Moment, but start with Invisible City.
MG, despite your rapid rise in the world of YA fiction, it’s possible that some of the SFF Chronicles readers may not have come across you before, so could you summarise your background and your path into writing novels up in a few sentences?
I was born in Mexico City and grew up in Manchester, England. As a teenager, during regular visits to my father in Mexico, I became fascinated by Mayan archaeology. A skiing accident in 2004 forced me to spend many weeks recuperating from surgery. I decided to keep a promise I’d made to myself to one day pursue a career as a novelist. I began work on a techno thriller which combined two obsessions – archaeology and biology. From this initial manuscript came the idea for a story featuring a boy searching for a lost Mayan codex … and The Joshua Files were born.
It was a timely and (if I may say so) commercially inspired idea to write a thriller series based around the Mayan predictions for 2012 in the years running up to this date. Why five books, though? Why not three or four? Did you always have that number in mind?
At first I thought maybe three, but the publishers wanted more instalments. Five parts would end the series in 2012, which I thought would be fitting. As the story took shape also, it seemed that five would be a natural fit, with two halves to the overall story: before Josh cracks the secret of time travel and beyond.
Each of the Joshua Files books has a distinctly different flavour to the story. Is this deliberate? Do you ever worry that the readers might just want more of the same each time?
Yes, for two reasons. Partly because remember that I’m still new to writing and I want to improve my craft. So I need to set myself challenges and learn by playing with different types of plot structure; the quest, the kidnap-and-rescue, the mystery-puzzle, the romance. And partly because I didn’t want there to be any obvious ‘favourite’. I wanted different books to be favourites of different types of readers. If all the flavours are all quite different then you don’t get the ‘vanilla issue’ (where vanilla turns out to be the most popular ice cream.)
I’ve always loved stories involving time travel, but the consequences of characters’ actions often give me a headache as I try to work them through in my mind. In Dark Parallel, it almost felt as if I was reading a high octane Dr Who episode (which is a very positive thing as far as I’m concerned). Swap Josh for the Doctor and Ixchel for his assistant, and who needs a Tardis when you have a bracelet that zaps you back mind. In Dark Parallel, it almost felt as if I was reading a high octane Dr Who episode (which is a very positive thing as far as I’m concerned). Swap Josh for the Doctor and Ixchel for his assistant, and who needs a Tardis when you have a bracelet that zaps you back and forth in time! The obvious question here is: Are you a big Doctor Who fan? If so, who is your favourite Doctor?
Thank you, to be compared to Doctor Who is the highest compliment you could pay The Joshua Files! I love and have always loved Doctor Who. I don’t think I was very happy, as a small child, to be brought to a cold, miserably decorated flat in Stockport after living in Mexico, Frankfurt and briefly, the Cotwolds. I do remember all that changing when I discovered Doctor Who, as a six-year old.
My favourite Doctor is Jon Pertwee, simply because he was ‘my Doctor’. Planet of the Spiders was a bit of a trauma, actually. But I think the best stories were in the John Nathan Turner/Tom Baker era and the recent Stephen Moffat episodes with both David Tennant and Matt Smith. And – I think Matt Smith may be my second-favourite…
Have you always had a fascination with the concept of time travel, or was it simply a plot device to spice up the story?
Yes, always been obsessed with time-travel, portals to other worlds, the whole bit. Time-travel was always going to be intrinsic to Josh’s story because when I ask ‘how could you categorically know what is going to happen in the future’ one of the most logical answers is ‘because you’ve been to the future’.
Keeping track of parallel time-lines and possible futures must be a nightmare. How much planning do you do before you start each book? And do you have a particular method of keeping track of all the story aspects?
The keeping track is tricky. I have timelines for everyone and everything who has significantly time-travelled, as well as for the city of Ek Naab itself. I always plan about 85% of the story before I start on chapter one. That’s just my methodology, but you can always retrofit things too…as Agatha Christie allegedly did!
The relationship between Josh and Ixchel is developed a lot in this installment. Do you find boy readers appreciate the romantic aspect of your story, or is this element specifically there to appeal to girl readers?
Girl readers have been coy about it, boy readers are the ones who put it most bluntly: when is Josh going to get off with Ixchel? I do enjoy the contrast, or perceived contrast between boys and girls when it comes to romantic situations. Josh would love to be blunt and get to the point with Ixchel, but he just can’t do it. Because what is at stake are his innermost feelings…and there he’s pretty vulnerable.
Josh shucks off his grumpy teenager aspect in this new segment of the story. He definitely shows his best side when under pressure. Do you see his grumpy phase in Zero Moment as something teen and pre-teen boys will readily identify with?
I suspect it is something that anyone, male or female, who has ever suffered from sexual jealousy will identify with. Don’t forget that people commit murder because of such jealousy – that is how extreme it can get! Josh suffers from jealousy, which stems from his being raised as an only child. Of course your parents dote on you if you are all they have. But what if they had someone else? That’s his eternal torment. So when people get between Josh and his mother or Josh and his girl, he tends to see red. It’s one of his major flaws.
Your action scenes are always vividly described. Are you a bit of an action girl yourself? The motor bike race near the beginning of the book is a great example. Have you ridden motorbikes at high speed and do you like doing practical research of this sort to be able to see the scene through the character’s eyes?
Once, when I was about 19, a mate of mine from University picked me up outside the lab on his new motorbike and took me for a pillion ride. We tore down the motorway at 80 miles per hour. I was scared, wobbling around on the back and thinking that I’d fly off, but at the same time it was a major rush and a thrill. My father bribed me into not getting a motorbike, by promising me a car when I was 21. Well, he died before he could make good on that but I had time to reflect on how very much he didn’t want me to ride a motorbike. So since then, I never have. I don’t do anything dangerous now, not even skateboarding or skiing (I used to). I’m just not hardcore enough, and I don’t want my family to suffer again if I have an accident.
I would like to thank MG for taking the time to answer my questions. I still get very excited about meeting authors and getting their autographs (does that make me a geek?). I cannot recommend The Joshua Files series highly enough. Go and give Invisible City a read. You won’t regret it. It’s a brilliant start to a fantastic series.
The attached thumbnail is of Book 3 - Zero Moment, but start with Invisible City.
