Pump Up Chats with Philip Stott

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Philip Stott photo Philip Stott was born in England in 1943. In 1967 he moved to Nigeria to lecture at Ahmadu Bello University and from there he moved to South Africa to lecture at Wits. University. In 1976, while an ardent atheist, he met the Lord Jesus Christ and his perspective on life changed completely. For many years he has been passionately concerned with the relationship between Scripture and Science. He has been an invited guest lecturer at The Russian Accademy of Sciences, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, a UNESCO conference on the teaching of Physics, the State University of St. Petersburg and many other places of learning in Europe, Africa, USA and Canada. He has a web site scripture-and-science.com which is part of the Reformation Christian Ministries web site. You can read more about Philip and his novel, Another World at http://nordskogpublishing.com/book-another-world.shtml.

Thank you for this interview, Philip. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

As a child I used to tell stories. Sometimes I was even invited by the teacher to tell stories to the whole class. But I never wrote them down. I certainly remember my first published piece. It won a medal, being judged an “outstanding research paper”. Until my early thirties, when I started writing short stories, all my writing was technical. Much of it still is, but I like writing stories best.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

It takes a lot of time and effort to develop the writing skills to tell a story in such a way that other people will be happy to read it. Having a great idea is not enough. Your ideas have to be put across with clarity and punch, otherwise readers have such a job trying to see what is perfectly obvious to you that they give up and look somewhere else. I think for me the most rewarding side has been finding that my story can gain a life of its own. It can sometimes lead me in directions I had not thought of. Characters can become more complex and interesting than I had originally planned. In stead of just being a matter of getting a story down on paper (which is hard, disciplined work) writing can become an exciting experience – a journey of discovery.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

I am married, with two delightful children, a treasure of a daughter-in-law, and two lovely grandchildren. My writing does not interfere much with family life for several reasons. First, I like to get up at 4am or even earlier and write before anyone else is awake. I write best when the only sound is the distant crowing of cocks. Second, both my children are published authors, in fact one of my books, a life-sciences text book, is a joint effort with my daughter. And thirdly, my wife loves books – looking at them, handling them, arranging them on the bookshelves. Her father, a historian, wrote three books about David Livingstone. She seems quite happy that I and the children supply her with more for her collection!

As far as support goes, the family all give comments and advice on each others “works-in-progress”. I am also a member of a writers guild, and I have a number of friends who are very helpful in reviewing my work.

Can you tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it?

Another World is about the count-down to the flood. I wrote it firstly because the pre-flood world is so fascinating I could not think of a more wonderful setting for a story. I started researching the flood about twenty years ago, and it is one of the topics I have lectured on all over Europe, Africa, the USA and Canada. The pre-flood world almost certainly had a very advanced civilization, with highly developed science and technology. In fact, in some things, like metallurgy and materials handling capabilities, they appear to have been more advanced than we are today. And secondly I think the mechanism for the flood, the trigger for the onset and the astounding enormity of the catastrophe itself are absolutely mind-boggling. Scientific discoveries over the last century have made it possible to reconstruct what probably happened physically. Using the Bible and a bit of imagination I have tried to reconstruct what might have happened socially.

Can you share an excerpt?

The animals of the floating forest play a big part. Here is just a snippet from Lano exploring his island of floating forest:- He could sense animals nearby. He listened. Stegos. He moved silently in their direction, hugging the cover of the undergrowth, alert for the slightest change in the direction of the breeze, eyes darting from the trees ahead to the forest floor in front of his feet. He soon spotted them. Three young ones whose plates had barely started to change from the dull olive drab of babyhood to the iridescent colours of their sex. He edged forward towards the biggest, the only female, till he could see her head, low down next to the ground, chomping her way through the lush undergrowth; seeming to have no preference for thorns, ferns, flowers or creepers. His eyes followed the line of her body with its plates sticking out left and right, arching far above the tallest undergrowth and down to the tail resting on the ground. He moved to his left and slid forward till he could have touched the sharp spikes on the end of her tail. What a thrill to come so close to death and slip away without her even knowing he had been there!

Robbers pop up repeatedly. Here is a little glimpse of Japh’s first brush with a gang of them: They raced to the pool, grabbed their weapons and made for the Flying Viper. Cush slipped behind the controls and pushed the lift lever while the last men were jumping on board. The Viper was Cush’s pride and joy. Sleek, streamlined and powerful, it was one of the fastest, most expensive mag-sleds on the market. It was a bit sluggish and touchy till he got it over the mesh of the sled-way, but then it surged forward, pushing Cush back in his seat, streaking towards the rapidly disappearing smudge in the distance.

Salem University’s students and professors are important in the story too. Here we meet a few of the research students:- Johab let himself into the observatory, crossed to the power panel and pushed up the main switch. Wall-mounted discharge lamps brightened slowly to reveal the telescope room, clinical, forlorn and deserted. Johab was always first to arrive, but the hollow ring of his footsteps echoing down the hall still gave him a creepy feeling in the back of his neck. Today the sound was slightly different. There was an urgency in his step as he walked to the battered old table and put down his briefcase. That new girl from Noph had joined Irab’s group and tonight would be her first time at the telescope. He hoped she would arrive early—well, at least before Mathian—so he could show her the ropes. He went over in his mind exactly what he wanted to say for the fourth time since leaving home that evening. He patted his hair straight, practiced holding his shoulders back and pulling his stomach in, and launched into his speech for the fifth time.

But the new research student came on the same outer-ring transit sled as Mathian, and they walked in through the door together.

“Hi Johab, this is Leisha.”

Johab felt his knees turn to water when Leisha came forward beaming at him with a radiant smile. Her even, perfect white teeth made a stunning contrast to her dark complexion and big black eyes. “Glad to meet you, Johab.”

“Oh . . . Hello . . . er . . . what a pleasure . . . er . . . can I show you the telescope.”

“Why yes, that would be very much appreciated. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Prof Zalomo’s masterpiece.”

“Oh yes, it’s a beauty.” Johab sounded a little bigger and almost managed the first half of a smile.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

I have a small room I call “the study”. Nobody else is supposed to come in, so it only gets tidied up when the clutter becomes so thick that I can’t move anymore. It contains a desk with a computer. Bookshelves on two walls from floor to ceiling, a filing cabinet and assorted junk which somehow accumulates all by itself.

What is one thing about your book that makes it different from other books on the market?

I don’t know of any other novel which attempts to deal with this important and exciting part of our history. I have tried to make the setting and the events of the flood itself as close to the probable truth as possible using the findings of science and a straight-forward, literal interpretation of the Bible. The story is, however, pure fiction – Scriptural science fiction.

Tables are turned…what is one thing you’d like to say to your audience who might buy your book one day?

There is an old, but true saying that if you do not know your past you will not be prepared for your future. The flood was a judgment from God. The Bible tells us there will be another judgment in the future. I personally believe it is not far away. I hope you will be well prepared for it.

Thank you for this interview, Philip. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

And thank you for the opportunity to share a little with your readers.

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach