Ask the Author: Peter Cawdron
Answered Questions (33)
Peter Cawdron
Hi Jeri, first, thank you for supporting independent science fiction. Indie writers like myself are the street buskers of the literary world.
I write 3-4 novels a year, and released Minotaur a few months ago. I've also just released Dark Beauty (which is a novella), and have Gold Rush coming out in July. If you want to stay up to date with new releases, you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter. https://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/s...
All the best,
Peter
I write 3-4 novels a year, and released Minotaur a few months ago. I've also just released Dark Beauty (which is a novella), and have Gold Rush coming out in July. If you want to stay up to date with new releases, you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter. https://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/s...
All the best,
Peter
Peter Cawdron
Good question, George.
In my short story anthology, Hello World, there's a story called The End that deals with this. The basic premise is that basing AI on binary choices will never work (and to be fair, LLMs today avoid this by using probabilities). Life evolved due to selective pressures, but these don't exist for AI.
From the story.... “Life has motive. A lizard warms itself on a rock for a reason. A bird soars through the air not just to get somewhere but to look for food or a mate. Computers have no intrinsic motive. That’s why they cannot approximate life.” ——and a little later in the story—— “Look at us. We’re intelligent. But we’re also selfish. We’re emotional. We’re driven by sexual selection. We’re curious. We’re a contradiction. We’re full of both hope and despair. This is why we cannot write an artificial intelligence program, because intelligence is a response to so many aspects of Nature. A computer can never experience these driving motivations. We can build a learning machine, but it can never learn anything beyond facts. It can never experience life. It simply doesn’t have the innate drive we all naturally share.”
If you're interested, check out Hello World, it's got a lot of great stories in it that explore concepts like this in detail. Thank you for supporting independent science fiction.
In my short story anthology, Hello World, there's a story called The End that deals with this. The basic premise is that basing AI on binary choices will never work (and to be fair, LLMs today avoid this by using probabilities). Life evolved due to selective pressures, but these don't exist for AI.
From the story.... “Life has motive. A lizard warms itself on a rock for a reason. A bird soars through the air not just to get somewhere but to look for food or a mate. Computers have no intrinsic motive. That’s why they cannot approximate life.” ——and a little later in the story—— “Look at us. We’re intelligent. But we’re also selfish. We’re emotional. We’re driven by sexual selection. We’re curious. We’re a contradiction. We’re full of both hope and despair. This is why we cannot write an artificial intelligence program, because intelligence is a response to so many aspects of Nature. A computer can never experience these driving motivations. We can build a learning machine, but it can never learn anything beyond facts. It can never experience life. It simply doesn’t have the innate drive we all naturally share.”
If you're interested, check out Hello World, it's got a lot of great stories in it that explore concepts like this in detail. Thank you for supporting independent science fiction.
Peter Cawdron
Hi Jerry, I'm actually not sure of the process for registering a book on GoodReads, but they seem to appear within a week or so of publication. I just checked and The Minotaur, which came out earlier this month, is there, as is The Simularcrum. Thanks for supporting independent science fiction, and thank you for leaving a review. Hope you enjoyed the novel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Peter Cawdron
Hi Robert, my novel Minotaur is kind of along these lines where we are the aliens, but I can't give too much away. It comes out in March, so be sure to check it out.
Peter Cawdron
Hi James. Good question. I lived in the US for about four years as an adult so I have a strong affinity with the Midwest in particular. As for spelling, I refer to my mother as Mum, so I get your point. The challenge is that the book is written using US English, so when Susan talks about colour, the spelling I use is color even though she's from England. Although, personally, I agree with you that Mum is much better. I think I'll quietly update it in the background :)
Peter Cawdron
Hi, I actually had a discussion about this with several US beta-readers and we debated whether it was better to use marks or credits. The pendulum swung both ways, but in the end it was agreed that marks would be true of homework or an exam, while credits would be toward the end-of-year report or a degree. Also, there seemed to be some difference between readers in different parts of the country (northwest didn't mind using marks. South preferred credits).
Peter Cawdron
Oh, it's an old photo. I'm turning 56 this year and the joints are starting to creak like floorboards. I didn't start writing until I was in my 40s, but I love the challenge of crafting a story and appreciate you taking a chance on my writing :)
Peter Cawdron
I wish I knew the answer. Marketing has been a flop for me. Sinking money into AMS ads or Facebook ads has never worked so I've given up on them. For me, they're a black hole. I have a very small email base of only about 2,000 and wish I'd focused on building that early in my career. I try to focus on good science and well-rounded characters. I focus a LOT on the quality of my writing and try to grow from one book to the next. I will NOT release a book that doesn't rate 4/5 or under on the Hemmingway App as I think there's a lot of unreadable science fiction out there and I don't want to be part of that. When I first wrote "Wherever Seeds May Fall" it came in with a rating of 11, so I rewrote it and got it down to 4. The result was that readers said they loved the way it was easily readable. I hope that helps :)
Peter Cawdron
I wrote a novel called Cold Eyes along these lines where there are only a few hundred years between humans and the Beebs (as they're known), but the Beebs have not ventured into space. The novel focuses on exploring why and leads to a fascinating story :)
Peter Cawdron
Hi Sarah,
Only a handful of my ebooks are available outside of Amazon. The reason for this is Kindle Unlimited has been a lifeline for me. It's like Spotify for books. Readers pay one amount for an annual subscription and read as much as they want. For an obscure author like me, this is a fantastic way of being discovered. Instead of agonizing over conflicting reviews when spending their hard-earned money on an ebook, KU readers can pick up my ebooks without any fuss. If they don't like one, they can just stop reading. They haven't wasted any money. If they do like one, by reading through to the end, I'll get paid on a per-page-read basis. For a full-length novel, it's not as much income as an ebook sale, but I get soooo many page-reads, this makes up 70% of my income. The only downside is to be in Kindle Unlimited my ebooks need to be exclusive to Amazon.
Without Kindle Unlimited, I wouldn't be a full-time author. I've tried going wide across Apple iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, B&N, etc and my income drops to morning coffee levels.
Most of my paperbacks are available through other retailers, like Barnes & Noble, but they're printed by CreateSpace (which is part of Amazon). https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/cawdron Oh, and don't be fooled by the price difference between ebooks and paperbacks. On several of them, I make less than I do on an ebook sale.
Big-name authors like Stephen King, John Green and Andy Weir have enough clout that they can be in Kindle Unlimited without being exclusive, but I'm a long way from that. Perhaps one day I'll land a book deal with a big traditional publishing house and see my novels on the shelves of a bookstore, but I doubt it. The competition is insane. The interest from traditional publishing houses is non-existent.
Sorry, I wish I had another answer for you. For now, this is the best I can do. Basically, KU allows me to write my next novel. Without it, I'd be sunk.
Only a handful of my ebooks are available outside of Amazon. The reason for this is Kindle Unlimited has been a lifeline for me. It's like Spotify for books. Readers pay one amount for an annual subscription and read as much as they want. For an obscure author like me, this is a fantastic way of being discovered. Instead of agonizing over conflicting reviews when spending their hard-earned money on an ebook, KU readers can pick up my ebooks without any fuss. If they don't like one, they can just stop reading. They haven't wasted any money. If they do like one, by reading through to the end, I'll get paid on a per-page-read basis. For a full-length novel, it's not as much income as an ebook sale, but I get soooo many page-reads, this makes up 70% of my income. The only downside is to be in Kindle Unlimited my ebooks need to be exclusive to Amazon.
Without Kindle Unlimited, I wouldn't be a full-time author. I've tried going wide across Apple iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, B&N, etc and my income drops to morning coffee levels.
Most of my paperbacks are available through other retailers, like Barnes & Noble, but they're printed by CreateSpace (which is part of Amazon). https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/cawdron Oh, and don't be fooled by the price difference between ebooks and paperbacks. On several of them, I make less than I do on an ebook sale.
Big-name authors like Stephen King, John Green and Andy Weir have enough clout that they can be in Kindle Unlimited without being exclusive, but I'm a long way from that. Perhaps one day I'll land a book deal with a big traditional publishing house and see my novels on the shelves of a bookstore, but I doubt it. The competition is insane. The interest from traditional publishing houses is non-existent.
Sorry, I wish I had another answer for you. For now, this is the best I can do. Basically, KU allows me to write my next novel. Without it, I'd be sunk.
Peter Cawdron
Oh, that's a bit like asking who is my favorite child :)
I try to address genuine possibilities in my stories, so I am drawn to some concepts more than others, but I love all of them.
As an example, Xenophobia was inspired by the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion which had aliens plundering Earth for its water. The movie is amazing. I love it. But stealing water is NOT a valid reason for aliens to visit Earth. There's more water on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn than there is on Earth. If they want water, why not go there as it would be easier (less gravity to work against)? And they can get that water without having to start a genocidal war. So Xenophobia answers the question—why would aliens visit Earth? What's the most compelling reason for them to come here? (You'll have to read the book for the answer)
Another example is my latest novel Clowns, which asks the question, what would an intelligent extraterrestrial species think of our intelligence? Again, the answer is core to the novel so I won't spoil that, but I love that book for how it tackles that topic head on.
Cold Eyes asked the question—given how much we lie, could we trust aliens and could they trust us?
Anomaly asks the question—what if aliens were so advanced we could barely recognize their presence on Earth?
3zekiel asks the question—what if an alien mission to Earth ran into technical problems akin to those that sometimes plague our attempts to explore places like Mars?
Jury Duty is subtle. I'm not sure how many people will realize this as most of the book is a redemption arc for the main character, but it asks the question—would aliens be able to distinguish between us and other animals with varying levels of intelligence? Would they treat us the same as them or would they treat us differently?
Ah, it's fun to think about these things, huh?
I try to address genuine possibilities in my stories, so I am drawn to some concepts more than others, but I love all of them.
As an example, Xenophobia was inspired by the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion which had aliens plundering Earth for its water. The movie is amazing. I love it. But stealing water is NOT a valid reason for aliens to visit Earth. There's more water on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn than there is on Earth. If they want water, why not go there as it would be easier (less gravity to work against)? And they can get that water without having to start a genocidal war. So Xenophobia answers the question—why would aliens visit Earth? What's the most compelling reason for them to come here? (You'll have to read the book for the answer)
Another example is my latest novel Clowns, which asks the question, what would an intelligent extraterrestrial species think of our intelligence? Again, the answer is core to the novel so I won't spoil that, but I love that book for how it tackles that topic head on.
Cold Eyes asked the question—given how much we lie, could we trust aliens and could they trust us?
Anomaly asks the question—what if aliens were so advanced we could barely recognize their presence on Earth?
3zekiel asks the question—what if an alien mission to Earth ran into technical problems akin to those that sometimes plague our attempts to explore places like Mars?
Jury Duty is subtle. I'm not sure how many people will realize this as most of the book is a redemption arc for the main character, but it asks the question—would aliens be able to distinguish between us and other animals with varying levels of intelligence? Would they treat us the same as them or would they treat us differently?
Ah, it's fun to think about these things, huh?
Peter Cawdron
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Peter Cawdron
"Too much regulation is bad" — yes, and not enough is worse! Fossil fuel companies themselves knew about climate change in the 1970s and understood the damage they were doing decades ahead of time. They chose to undermine public confidence and spread lies, which have irreparably damaged our planet. They should not have been free to spread disinformation. They should be held accountable for their lies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMo...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMo...
Peter Cawdron
Hi Rich. Back in 2013, Amazon launched a program called Kindle Worlds which allowed for fan fiction to be formalized and sold (with a percentage of profit going to the original copyright holder). I wrote Children's Crusade in Kurt Vonnegut's kindle world (which can now be found in my Hello World anthology) and Shadows in Hugh's world of Wool/Silos. Some readers look down on fan fiction, but I've always loved writing tribute pieces to stories that inspired me. My novella The Curious Case of the Hounds of Hell is a Sherlock Holmes story, while Mister Fluffy Bunny is a homage to Louis Sachar's Holes. Even full-length novels of mine, like Cold Eyes, is a homage to a 1974 classic—The Mote in God's Eye. I'm careful to avoid parroting or copying concepts, instead developing original ideas inspired by those works. Hugh completed three novels in the Silo universe (Shift, Wool & Dust) and is currently developing Wool into a series with Apple TV (launching later this year). He's also adapting his novel on Beacon 23 for TV (with Lena Headly of Game of Thrones as the lead actress) and his novel Sand is also in production, so keep your eyes peeled as there are a lot of Hugh's stories coming our way on various streaming services in the next 18 months! Thanks for supporting independent science fiction. Cheers, Peter
Peter Cawdron
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Peter Cawdron
Thanks for taking a chance on Jury Duty. Being from New Zealand, which is a major refueling and resupply point for Antarctica, I've always loved Antarctica. It's the last untamed wilderness—and long may it remain that way :)
Peter Cawdron
Hi Jackie,
The beauty of the First Contact series is it’s based around a concept rather than a character—like Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone. This means you can read the books in any order and skip any that don’t interest you. They’re all touching on the same subject from different angles.
Wherever Seeds May Fall, 3zekiel and Anomaly are the three most popular books in the series, but Cold Eyes was only released last month and is already hard on their heels.
I’m currently working on Generation of Vipers, which is the sequel to Wherever Seeds May Fall. It’s rare that I write sequels as I prefer self-contained story arcs, but Seeds had so much depth there was more to explore. Vipers comes out in Q1 2022, so you’ll get to join Nolan, Kath, Andy and Jorge on another adventure.
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction.
The beauty of the First Contact series is it’s based around a concept rather than a character—like Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone. This means you can read the books in any order and skip any that don’t interest you. They’re all touching on the same subject from different angles.
Wherever Seeds May Fall, 3zekiel and Anomaly are the three most popular books in the series, but Cold Eyes was only released last month and is already hard on their heels.
I’m currently working on Generation of Vipers, which is the sequel to Wherever Seeds May Fall. It’s rare that I write sequels as I prefer self-contained story arcs, but Seeds had so much depth there was more to explore. Vipers comes out in Q1 2022, so you’ll get to join Nolan, Kath, Andy and Jorge on another adventure.
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction.
Peter Cawdron
Hi, Kim. That is a great question that has a number of layers to it so thank you for asking.
During the Cold War, America had a massive impact on western countries like Australia and New Zealand. I remember when the first McDonalds opened in Auckland, NZ. We were baffled. All our restaurants were for fine-dining. Suddenly, fast food had arrived. McDs lost money for the first year or so as no one knew what to make of it. I remember my mother asking, where are the waiters? Now, of course, it’s hugely popular.
Back in the 70s in NZ & Australia, shops would close at 5pm weeknights, and only a handful of small supermarkets would be open on a Saturday. On Sundays, major cities were ghost towns. When I first visited the US in the 80s, it was a culture shock—21 ice cream flavours, you’ve got to be kidding me! All day breakfast—what is this witchcraft? 24x7 fast food? Mind = blown. These days, though, I could take you to a dozen nearby places and you’d be hard pressed to know you were in Australia rather than the US (except for the vehicles driving on the other side of the road). So the US has shaped modern life Down Under.
We’ve adopted the good and the bad. This weekend, there was a “freedom” rally in Melbourne protesting against vaccines and lockdowns (even though Melbourne is not in lockdown and vaccines save lives) and—I’m not kidding, this is all over the news here—there were people with Trump 2020 flags (it is 2021, right?) and makeshift gallows reminiscent of the ones used in the Jan 6th attack on the US Capitol. So to say the US influences Australian culture is quite the understatement.
In my 20s, I spent 4 years living in the US (Kansas, Ohio & Indiana). I have a lot of friends there and love the best parts of American culture. I got to see a side of US culture that doesn’t make it into sitcoms and movies. I love the warm, friendly, open aspects of American culture. I love the diversity and the passion for equality so famously captured in the Declaration of Independence. I try to balance the good and the bad in my stories. In Wherever Seeds May Fall, as an example, there’s a YouTube Conspiracy Theory nut, but his worldview is negated by a US scientist and a US general. So I’m trying to capture the broad dynamic within US culture as it has a real impact on the rest of the world.
In novels like Jury Duty, I tackle issues that span multiple cultures (domestic violence is a real problem here in Australia and NZ as well as the US). In that book, the US protagonist starts out as a bad guy, meets some fascinating people from a number of different countries (including a Maori from NZ), and that changes his world view. That’s me trying to say cultural exchanges can be a two-way street.
In economics, we’re told, “When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.” Meaning, the influence of the US is so dominate, the rest of us get caught up in its wake and dragged along regardless. And that’s not just true of economics, it’s true in so many fields.
So why do I feature so many US citizens? Because the US has and will continue to influence the rest of the world—I’d like that to be for the better and so write from that perspective in my novels. The US is in the grip of a cultural war. I’d like the justice and equality to prevail.
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction
During the Cold War, America had a massive impact on western countries like Australia and New Zealand. I remember when the first McDonalds opened in Auckland, NZ. We were baffled. All our restaurants were for fine-dining. Suddenly, fast food had arrived. McDs lost money for the first year or so as no one knew what to make of it. I remember my mother asking, where are the waiters? Now, of course, it’s hugely popular.
Back in the 70s in NZ & Australia, shops would close at 5pm weeknights, and only a handful of small supermarkets would be open on a Saturday. On Sundays, major cities were ghost towns. When I first visited the US in the 80s, it was a culture shock—21 ice cream flavours, you’ve got to be kidding me! All day breakfast—what is this witchcraft? 24x7 fast food? Mind = blown. These days, though, I could take you to a dozen nearby places and you’d be hard pressed to know you were in Australia rather than the US (except for the vehicles driving on the other side of the road). So the US has shaped modern life Down Under.
We’ve adopted the good and the bad. This weekend, there was a “freedom” rally in Melbourne protesting against vaccines and lockdowns (even though Melbourne is not in lockdown and vaccines save lives) and—I’m not kidding, this is all over the news here—there were people with Trump 2020 flags (it is 2021, right?) and makeshift gallows reminiscent of the ones used in the Jan 6th attack on the US Capitol. So to say the US influences Australian culture is quite the understatement.
In my 20s, I spent 4 years living in the US (Kansas, Ohio & Indiana). I have a lot of friends there and love the best parts of American culture. I got to see a side of US culture that doesn’t make it into sitcoms and movies. I love the warm, friendly, open aspects of American culture. I love the diversity and the passion for equality so famously captured in the Declaration of Independence. I try to balance the good and the bad in my stories. In Wherever Seeds May Fall, as an example, there’s a YouTube Conspiracy Theory nut, but his worldview is negated by a US scientist and a US general. So I’m trying to capture the broad dynamic within US culture as it has a real impact on the rest of the world.
In novels like Jury Duty, I tackle issues that span multiple cultures (domestic violence is a real problem here in Australia and NZ as well as the US). In that book, the US protagonist starts out as a bad guy, meets some fascinating people from a number of different countries (including a Maori from NZ), and that changes his world view. That’s me trying to say cultural exchanges can be a two-way street.
In economics, we’re told, “When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.” Meaning, the influence of the US is so dominate, the rest of us get caught up in its wake and dragged along regardless. And that’s not just true of economics, it’s true in so many fields.
So why do I feature so many US citizens? Because the US has and will continue to influence the rest of the world—I’d like that to be for the better and so write from that perspective in my novels. The US is in the grip of a cultural war. I’d like the justice and equality to prevail.
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction
Peter Cawdron
Hi Steven,
I only have one novel set in Hugh Howey's Silo Universe (Wool, Shift, Dust), but there are a number of books by other authors as Hugh allowed fan fiction back in the days of Kindle Worlds.
My novel Shadows is set at roughly the same time as Dust and includes an event from that book as a turning point. I tried to stay as close as possible to his source material, the only major difference being the action takes place in another silo.
Also, FYI, Wool is being produced as a streaming TV series for Apple, with the first episode due in 2022, so keep your eyes out for that.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I only have one novel set in Hugh Howey's Silo Universe (Wool, Shift, Dust), but there are a number of books by other authors as Hugh allowed fan fiction back in the days of Kindle Worlds.
My novel Shadows is set at roughly the same time as Dust and includes an event from that book as a turning point. I tried to stay as close as possible to his source material, the only major difference being the action takes place in another silo.
Also, FYI, Wool is being produced as a streaming TV series for Apple, with the first episode due in 2022, so keep your eyes out for that.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Peter Cawdron
Thanks for asking about my novels. I can't speak for other writers, but my titles tend to remain quite static from conception to publication. When I start writing, I've got a broad idea of what I want to accomplish and the title stems from that. The act of writing is then a case of expanding on the principle idea captured in the title.
* Galactic Exploration, as an example, was my take on Star Trek reimagined. (Galactic => Star, Exploration => Trek)
* Starship Mine is grammatically clumsy as far as titles go, but I knew I was going to be working with someone recovering from brain surgery, summarising their own personal journey in life. In the context of where it's spoken within the book, it fits beautifully.
* Alien Space Tentacle Porn is Men in Black reimagined. The title came about because my teenaged kids told me My Sweet Satan was the worst book title ever. Off the top of my head, I said, "Oh, I can think of something worse." And they dared me to write ASTP. I had a lot of fun with that cheeky novella.
* Trixie & Me is the most audacious title I've ever developed. The title itself is a spoiler, but how/why doesn't become apparent until the last three words of the story, which, incidentally are "Trixie & me." So the title is echoed back at the reader in the very moment they become aware of the twist.
* Galactic Exploration, as an example, was my take on Star Trek reimagined. (Galactic => Star, Exploration => Trek)
* Starship Mine is grammatically clumsy as far as titles go, but I knew I was going to be working with someone recovering from brain surgery, summarising their own personal journey in life. In the context of where it's spoken within the book, it fits beautifully.
* Alien Space Tentacle Porn is Men in Black reimagined. The title came about because my teenaged kids told me My Sweet Satan was the worst book title ever. Off the top of my head, I said, "Oh, I can think of something worse." And they dared me to write ASTP. I had a lot of fun with that cheeky novella.
* Trixie & Me is the most audacious title I've ever developed. The title itself is a spoiler, but how/why doesn't become apparent until the last three words of the story, which, incidentally are "Trixie & me." So the title is echoed back at the reader in the very moment they become aware of the twist.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more
Jun 27, 2025 04:21PM