Пост 20.11.2025
1. What inspired you to create 'The Parallel Universes Bureau'?
As it turns out, the original Men in Black movie is one of those pieces of media that deeply imprinted on younger me without me even realising it. One scene in particular sums it up:
KAY All right, kid, here’s the deal. At any given time, there are around fifteen hundred aliens on the planet, most of them right here in Manhattan – and most of them are decent enough, they’re just trying to make a living.
EDWARDS Cab drivers?
KAY No, not as many as you’d think. Humans, for the most part, don’t have a clue. They don’t want one or need one either. They’re happy. They think they have a… good bead on things.
The MIB, or indeed any shadowy government agency, isn’t a new idea. But it is one I find compelling: an organisation which is compassionate, first and foremost, with the goal of peace and understanding, allowing everybody to live happy and comfortable lives.
There’s plenty of others – Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere is a huge one for both the British aesthetic of the first volume and the ‘parallel worlds’ concept – but Men in Black is certainly the key figure.
2. How do you usually start writing a new story? Do you have any specific rituals or habits?
The entire story? I don’t know if there are any habits. This sort of thing simmers in the back of your mind for months, if not years, before you even write anything down. After that, it’s the usual way: write everything down, leave it for a few months, throw half of it out, and refine, refine, refine.
3. Which stage of writing is the most difficult for you: planning, drafting, or editing?
Planning is easy and editing is enjoyable. There's genuine satisfaction in going back through a chapter and cutting sentences in half, removing repeated words, and generally getting everything as lean as possible.
If anything, working in the serialised format is the hardest part. Usually when writing something, you can let an idea sit for months before coming back to it with fresh eyes. That's when a lot of the important work happens - the realisation that a character is superfluous or a plotline doesn't go anywhere, and cutting or absorbing them into other areas.
Though I love the challenge, Romance Club does not afford that luxury. Every six weeks, the chapters have to be done - and once they're out, they're out. No going back.
4. Can you tell us something out of the ordinary about the main characters of the new volume of your novel?
Honestly, nothing comes to mind. What’s out of the ordinary? Who gets to decide that? They are who they are. It’s up to the reader to decide what, if anything, is unusual about them.
5. Who are your favourite writers or books that influenced your work?
Favourites change all the time. I mostly read classics and literary fiction in my spare time, so I would say:
John Wyndham for some really good speculative sci-fi. Day of the Triffids is my all-time favourite book, and for my money, Wyndham is second only to Ursula K. Le Guin in that sphere when it comes to really grappling with ideas. I’m actually re-reading Trouble with Lichen right now.
Sally Rooney is a more recent entrant. This year, I read Conversations with Friends and was so hooked by her vivid, genuine characters that I bought and tore through all her books in just a couple of months. Normal People in particular is a masterwork of humanity.
Just looking at my bookshelf, a shortlist of others: Douglas Adams, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jane Austen, Anne Brontë, Mark Z. Danielewski, Hernán Díaz, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ursula K. Le Guin, Franz Kafka, Min Jin Lee, Ottessa Moshfegh, Chuck Palahniuk, Max Porter, Terry Pratchett, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Saunders, Zadie Smith.
6. What advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters who want to create their own novel?
Garbage on the page is always worth more than even the most perfect idea. Work on it and keep working on it. Even if nobody ever sees it but you, the pleasure of creating something with your own two hands and your own one brain never loses its shine.
Study everything, not just your preferred genres. Read and watch stuff you don’t like, so you can learn exactly why you don’t like it. Go outside and experience life – fill up your cauldron, as it were, so the thing can bubble and brew. Even a bad experience becomes a good experience because everything is material.
Last of all, understand that most of the time, you’re going it alone. The hardest lesson for me to learn was that the people you love most – friends, family, partners – are probably never going to bother reading your work.
7. How do you find a balance between creativity and everyday life?
I don’t. 😂 This thing takes up all my energy and most of my time. I keep a good social life and healthy habits, of course, but even side projects fall by the wayside to keep moving at the pace we move.
8. What are the ages of the characters in real-world terms?
I made sure to supply this information to the wiki writers as soon as the stories dropped – yes, as well as their heights, I know you’re all terribly interested in those… Naomi (23), Luis (24), Nina (30), Lachlan (31), Colt/Clara (27), Jessie (22).
9. What did you do before your career as a screenwriter at Romance Club?
Like anybody in the arts, I spent a lot of time working retail. Aside from that, I’ve worked at storage facilities, been a cleaner, worked with the civil and criminal courts, and done a bit of time in psychiatrists’ offices.
10. Have you ever experienced periods of professional burnout, and how did you overcome it?
All the time. I’ve had anxiety and depression my whole life, and most of the time keep them pretty well managed. Even then, with everything we have to do, I hit a period of exhaustion or low mental health every couple of months.
Carefully managing your daily energy levels and mental health is really the only solution. It’s why I swore off all social media: as nice as the nice comments are, I can’t risk getting blindsided by somebody talking about how I’m awful and how everything I do is garbage.
Other than that, you’ve really just gotta work through it. Deadline’s coming and I do not allow myself to make excuses. Discipline kicks in where motivation fails.
11. Should we expect any Easter eggs in the second volume?
Of course! Keep those peepers peeled. You drove into town with one already…
12. What are the zodiac signs of the characters that we’ve seen already?
I never really consider zodiac signs. I’m sure readers can assign ones that make sense, though.
13. Why can only friendly relations be developed with Jessie?
She’s straight. I also think it’s nice for the MC to have good, platonic girlfriends in stories like these. “Girls hating girls” is right up there with “cheating” in the category of things I just do not want to have anything to do with as a creator.
14. Is there a plot connection that brought the main characters to this place?
15. Why did you decide to assign the main role to an inexperienced agent in this volume – is this important for future events?
The theme of this volume is “ambition”’. A young agent, hungry to prove herself, was important to express this theme.
16. When checking into the hotel, guests are offered rooms with rather intriguing names. Is that a reference to a work of fiction or to a card game?
They’re just playing cards. I figured something a little tacky would be appropriate to the Vegas-adjacent setting. Imagine my surprise when it turned out I’d referenced something without even realising it!
17. How did the idea come about to set the action specifically in the Wild West? Perhaps you are a fan of this era, and you have a cowboy hat hanging on your wall at home?
As above, the theme of “ambition” links in here. The USA is, of course, defined by the “American Dream” of boundless ambition. Of making it huge all on your own and not owing anybody anything. Both it and the Wild West are frontiers in that sense: wild places where anything goes and everything is what you make it.
What surprised me as I watched and read Western media more widely in preparation for this volume is that a lot of it is actually kind of slow! Gunfights are pretty rare, and minutes can go by without anybody saying a word. Red Dead Redemption is pretty much the only piece of cowboy media I’d say I unreservedly love.
18. We can't help but ask, although this might be a spoiler 👀. Are there plans for a third volume and if so, do you plan to make references to the previous volumes?
As a story concept, the PUB is designed specifically so we can have as many volumes as there are ideas, same as Te Amo. I’d love to keep going if I could.
We express our immense gratitude to Romance Club team for giving us the opportunity to arrange the interview, and to Jack, the author of our story, for his time. We hope you enjoyed it!