Chris Draper is a Kiwi IT engineer with a passion for writing optimistic, techno-thrillers like Goodbye Woomera Belle the first in a series of five planned action-filled futurist thrillers suitable for young adults, as well as adult readers. Hi, I'm your host, Jenny Wheeler, and in this week's Binge Reading episode, Chris talks about how he fell in love with the Australian Outback while working in Adelaide, South Australia, and decided it would be the perfect location for the fast paced, optimistic techno thriller he’d been dreaming of writing for years. And so was born Goodbye Woomera Belle, a world changing story that unfolds in 116 hours. And it couldn't be more topical, revolving as it does around artificial intelligence and inter-governmental tensions between friendly and not so friendly powers. Erin Brightwell is a brilliant young mind whose research is critical to national security and lots of people want to get their hands on it. This week's Giveaway - Woomera Belle We'll get to our chat with Chris in a moment. But first this week's book giveaway; Chris has kindly offered 10 free copies of his book. Goodbye Woomera Belle to the first 10 readers who go online and claim it. Links for the download can be found in the show notes for this episode on the website, thejoysofbingereading.com. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/gjhqvpno2v BE IN FOR DOWNLOAD OF WOOMERA BELLE Buy me a coffee and defray costs And before we get to Chris, a reminder; you can help me defray the costs of production of the show by buying me a cup of coffee on buymeacoffee.com/jennywheelx, (little x, like a kiss.) My time in preparing the show is freely given, but any support from you will help kindly pay for the web posting and editing costs. BUY ME A COFFEE And if you enjoy the show, leave us a review so others will find us through word of mouth is still the best way for others to discover the show and great books they would love to read. Links to things mentioned in the show Woomera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woomera,_South_Australia Tom Clancy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy Dan Brown: https://danbrown.com/ Dan Brown series Robert Langdon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Langdon_(book_series)#: Maralinga: https://www.indaily.com.au/opinion/2021/05/25/sas-nuclear-testing-legacy-still-unfolding-in-outback https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_tests_at_Maralinga Deep Space Station 41 and the Island Lagoon Base, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Lagoon_Tracking_Station Spacecraft: Voyagers: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ Pioneer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10 The James Webb Space telescope: https://webb.nasa.gov/ Nevil Shute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Shute A Town Like Alice: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107301.A_Town_Like_Alice On The Beach:  https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38180 Trustee From The Toolroom: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107300.Trustee_from_the_Toolroom P F Hamilton Space opera series:  https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/peter-f-hamilton/1507 Isaac Asimov  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov The Foundation series: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Foundation-by-Asimov Isaac Asimov: iRobot: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41804.I_Robot Arthur C. Clarke: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7779.Arthur_C_Clarke Brandon Sanderson, https://www.brandonsanderson.com/ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5326.A_Christmas_Carol A Tale of Two Cities, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities. Enid Blyton: https://www.enidblyton.net/ Where to find Chris Draper online On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Draper/author/B09XZJQWJS Email: ChrisDraperWriter@gmail.com Introducing techno-thriller author Chris Draper But now here’s Chris. Hello there, Chris. And welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Chris Draper - techno thriller author of Solar Cradle series Chris Draper: Hi, Jenny. It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Jenny Wheeler: This is a debut novel, and usually we have multi published authors on the show, but I loved the idea of having you on for a number of reasons. You are a friend and I heard about the book personally. I think it's a really interesting book. We don't often do techno thrillers either, so for all those reasons, I think people will be really interested in what you've got to say about it. It's called Goodbye Woomera Belle. Am I saying it correctly? Chris Draper: Yeah. The Australians normally say Woomera as in woo. Yep. Jenny Wheeler: Goodbye Woomera Belle. You are a techie person, so the first up question really is, how did you make this leap from being a technical person to being a creative person in terms of writing fiction? How did that come about? Chris Draper: I guess it's got a lot to do with the fact that my job is a creative job. I never thought so when I was at school. I always thought that art was a creative pursuit. But I also do a lot of writing. I've built a couple of tech companies in the nineties and now I'm semi-retired, but technical writing remains a huge part of my workload for the company that I work for. And as you can imagine it takes a bit of skill to take something that's relatively complex and put it into the plain, easy to read writing, especially when it's safety critical, which the stuff I do is. The idea of writing a book has been in the back of my mind, like a lot of people. But I've just managed to bite the bullet and achieve that and have four more on the go at the moment. Chris is planning a five book series Jenny Wheeler: I was going to say you are planning a five book series. What was the specific genesis for setting a book in the Outback and choosing these particular characters? How did that all come about? Chris Draper: It's quite a long story. There was the genesis of an idea that stayed with me and just wouldn't leave me alone. And I scratched out a few bits and pieces here and there, and it all really came together when I did a large contract in Adelaide about a dozen years ago and realized that Woomera was the absolute perfect setting for what I wanted to do. The original characters have changed a little bit. We can talk about that now or do you want to move into that a little later? Jenny Wheeler: Firstly just tell me what that original idea was that itched away at you? Chris Draper: Sure. It's to do with the AI itself, the Artificial Intelligence, and particularly during the noughties, if you like. It started to bug me that science fiction, which has always been a genre I enjoy, turned very dark and it was all dystopian. You couldn't have any new technology came along without scaring people into a George Orwell type universe or other such nonsense. And of course technology itself is neither good nor bad. It's got a lot to do with how people use it or abuse it. And I felt the tables needed to be turned a little bit, or the playing field leveled, if you like, to leap around for concepts. The thriller mystery format fitted what I wanted to do with the technology. You've got Tom Clancy who created the techno thriller genre and then Dan Brown showed us how history can come alive, real history, and Woomera just ended up being the perfect combination of the two. Yes - Woomera is a real place! The places there are all about technology. For people that don't know it, Woomera is the world's largest weapons test facility on land at 127,000 square kilometers. There's a great little museum there and a good summary about Woomera on Wikipedia if anyone wants to look it up. And there's some fascinating links. Many countries and private companies continue to use the facility to this day. And I think perhaps a couple of things that might interest some of your listeners would be that the UK performed its initial nuclear tests there known as Maralinga, which features in the book a little bit. And the US had a facility there Deep Space Station 41 and the Island Lagoon Base, I also use in the book. I've generally tried to use real places wherever possible. The apartment that Erin lives in, for example was our apartment for the 18 months that I was in Adelaide. But of course, a few details have to be tweaked. Jenny Wheeler: I see that you've said that some readers do actually ask you whether Woomera is a real place. So you've cleared that up pretty well. right at the beginning, which is great. Obviously, people outside of Australia may be less aware of it. Chris Draper: There's also a QA at the back of the book on a lot of questions like this as to where some of these sites come. I've naturally put it at the back of the book so it doesn't spoil a couple of twists while people read the book. International competition and rivalry Jenny Wheeler: Now the plot revolves around international competition and rivalry. Chris Draper: Yeah. Jenny Wheeler: Between the US and Australia, which we all know that they are actually great friends and allies, but occasionally we can have misunderstandings. So several different entities are chasing some research that Erin has done. Tell us a bit about the nub of the plot. Chris Draper: It's really a case of if somebody leaps ahead in a particular area, especially a hot technology like artificial intelligence. And as the book will talk about this particular artificial intelligence was capable of breaking just about any code going out there. You can imagine that there would be a lot of governments, good and bad, wanting to get their hands on it, but also some pretty big corporations. That's the background. The tête-à-tête, if you like, between Australia and the US, really centers around the history of Woomera,