Independent Author
<i>The Sapling Method &</i> <i>The Tolworth Beacon</i> <i>by Huw Langridge</i>
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The Sapling Method & The Tolworth Beacon by Huw Langridge

Huw Langridge discusses his novels ‘The Sapling Method’ and ‘The Tolworth Beacon’

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My two most recent science fiction short novels, The Sapling Method and The Tolworth Beacon both play with the idea that unseen forces engineer our universe and our place within it.

My most recent novel, The Sapling Method, is about a young man named James Lewis who lives in a forested hillside house overlooking the coastal town of Prestatyn in North Wales. His house is fairly secluded and that enables him to develop a technology in secret which allows him to contact his future self, to take advantage of the temporal opportunity to ask questions about the man he will grow to be. Of course, information is only ever meant to travel forwards in time. When it travels backwards it becomes the wrong kind of knowledge, and that makes it dangerous. Although James takes precautions, ultimately paradoxes occur, and there are dark forces at work which will try to fix things, by whatever means necessary.

Time travel stories are my favourite kind of fiction and I love the exhilaration they can provide when events in the narrative fold in on themselves. I really wanted to try writing a tightly plotted time travel tale, and The Sapling Method is the kind of book I’d like to read.

I wrote The Tolworth Beacon after I became fascinated with Numbers Stations. I would frequently listen to these shortwave radio broadcasts via the internet late at night. These very real stations are mysterious, chilling, and fascinating to listen to. I loved to read about them. Eventually I set about looking for a novel that incorporated them into its plot, and couldn’t find one, so I decided to write one myself.

The story takes place during a British summer heatwave in the fictional town of Chalkweald. A much-loved supermarket prepares to celebrate a historic milestone, and Store Manager Chris Powell is coming to terms with his fractured marriage while planning the Royal visit. Told over the course of a week, events begin with an attempted burglary at the house across the street from where he lives, and an encounter with a nocturnal dog walker who doesn’t seem to have a dog. Chris soon becomes aware of a broadcast frequency that might provide some of the answers he’s looking for, and this sets him on a race against time to put the puzzle pieces together before he runs out of time.
For more details about books by Huw Langridge, visit huwlangridge.blogspot.com or follow @huwlangridge on Twitter.
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