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Peter Cawdron Print bio

Peter Cawdron

Peter Cawdron is an Australian science fiction writer, specializing in hard science fiction. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1967. He has published two independent novels. His second novel, Anomaly, rose into second place in Amazon’s Top 100 Science Fiction novels (hard science) within a month of being released and sold more than 75,000 copies around the world, while his zombie story What We Left Behind was selected by Kindle Scout for publication with Kindle Press.

Hard science fiction is a misnomer as far as categories of literature go, as it sounds harsh and difficult to understand, but that is far from reality. Hard science fiction is simply plausible science fiction, fiction that is written in such a way as it conforms to the known laws of science, and that makes it more interesting, as there’s no magic wand the protagonist can wave to get out of trouble. Peter’s forays into hard science fiction could best be described as informative science fiction or enjoyable science fiction.

His favorite books are Origin of Species, Sphere, and anything from Michael Crichton, World War Z, Ender’s Game, Forever War, Mote in God’s Eye, classic sci-fis, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, Is God a Mathematician?, A Devil’s Chaplain, and pretty much all of Richard Dawkin’s books.

His favorite TV shows include Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, Fringe, Dirk Gently, Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, State of Origin, The Blacklist, and QI. The movie list, that is favorite to Peter is not far from the types of the shows he enjoys. Among others are Reign of Fire, Monsters, Frequently Asked Questions for Time Travellers, Gravity, and Interstellar.

His advice to aspiring writers?

“Pace yourself and don’t let unrealistic expectations get the better of you. We live in an instant society. Instant coffee. Instant TV dinners. Streaming music and videos, etc, it is all just a mouse click away, but writing doesn’t work like that. Writing is an art. Writing takes incredible patience and perseverance. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t be impatient.

You’re not in competition with other writers. You’re in competition with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flappy Bird and a bazillion other colourful sparkly games. You’re in competition with movies and newspapers. Give them all a good run for their money by producing something that drags people away from those devices and into the pages of your book.

You’re going to be criticized, and it won’t be easy to take, but learn from that criticism. You can’t please everyone, but you want to be open to learn what you can do better, and that means listening to your critics and recognizing the truth in what they say. Sure, there’s plenty of trolls. Don’t feed them. And yet for every troll there’s thousands of readers that want to be entertained, so take heed to their response to your work.

Be professional. Get your work edited. Polish your writing. Never be satisfied with anything less than your best.”

Peter is a fan of such classic science fiction writers as Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, and Michael Crichton and their influence on his style and story lines is readily apparent.

He loves to go for a run in the forest, read Winnie the Pooh or Dr. Seuss to his kids and spend endless time looking up stuff on the internet and trying to wrap his head around it all. Subjects he loves to research and learn the most are biology and physics. You can find him writing most Saturdays at the San Churro chocolate shop in South Bank.

Peter works in the technology industry and is currently General Manager/Senior Consultant at JDS Australia in Brisbane, Australia, where he lives with his wife and three children.

His books include:

Read the interview with Peter by MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape.

Read his blog posts including his Anti-Science Fiction post. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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