The inspiration for Mars Exile

Why did I write about Mars?

As I write small articles for a local newspaper and a fanzine I tend to stumble across things. Consider the book written by Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Paul Davies called 'A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet' (available on Amazon.) Originally titled 'To boldy go...' but that was probably going to run into copyright issues. They propose that is would be more cost effective to make a one way trip to Mars rather than go there and come back. The answer to all the other questions that come to mind is 'Yes. It's possible.' And so I started to write. This was at the end of 2010.

As time went by and I learned the art of writing, a simple story turned into a small novel, and then into a series of small novels. It just happened. Still the question remained: Am I writing rubbish? Is it possible that today people are actually thinking about going to Mars? Well, Elun Musk is counting on it.

The PayPal billionaire founded SpaceX, a company building and supplying rockets and capsules on a commercial basis. The company is leaping ahead of all it's rivals in terms of advancement. It even has a capsule certified for re-entry, the first certification of it's kind for a private company. His claims that the Dragon capsule could carry people to Mars have found their way to the BBC. This is no weird freak making outlandish claims. If you had said five years ago that a private company would be taking Americans into space you might think of Branson's sub orbital flights. Elon's SpaceX is within a hair's breath of doing what only the Space Shuttle did a few years back. The only people carrying astronauts to the ISS today are the Russians and that system is having its own problems.

But Elon is just one person following his dream. What about the rest of us? Well George W Bush sent NASA back to the moon. They started on this project in the days before budgets nose-dived. His successor, Barak Obama, cancelled this plan. Instead, he gave NASA a new goal: Get to Mars by the mid-2030s and then come back home. Obviously he had not read up on Dirk and Paul's writings on the matter. So actually the leading power in the Western World things that Mars is a possibility and has its people working on the plan as you read.

And so technically the stage is set. Progress is being made. Mars beckons. The only think to ask now is: Who will go? What will life be like for those first few?

Read about some of my thoughts on that in the fictional book Mars Exile: Second Chances and let your imagination go to Mars.

Second Chances kindle edition now available

'Mars Exile: Second Chances' is now also available for the Kindle from your local Amazon site or even directly from your Kindle. Just search for 'Mars Exile Second Chances' on the search page.


You can get the Kindle Reader App for just about any device so you don't even need to own a Kindle to get the Kindle version. Get you Kindle Reader App here.

Mars Exile: Second Chances Published

Mary Grenthorpe is a volunteer, an ex-astronaut with more missions behind than ahead of her. David Brennan os a young man who is banished to Mars for the crime of being in the wrong company at the wrong time. They find themselves at the beginnings of a new society.

As a new outpost is set up on Mars for the first time, will the differences between these two people create a two class society or will they learn from the lesons of the past on Earth? How hard is it to stop history repeating itself?

Set in the near future as mankind starts to establish outposts on its nearest neighbour. The battle for a just society wages between those who would bring old prejudices with them from Earth and those who would dream of a new society. Could Mars be a place where second chances become reality?


Published in Paperback and eBook. Purchase direct from Lulu.com. Available soon on Amazon and Nook.