Nine Planets owes its existence to a Korean ESL student and a moment of divine inspiration.

Picture the scene.

I was teaching an adult ESL class in Perth many years ago, about a week before Christmas, and just before the end of the class, I asked my students, “How is Christmas celebrated in your country?”

It was a throwaway line and one I didn’t expect to remember so well.

But one student had other ideas. I cannot remember his name (although I have tried many times, and if you are reading this, please let me know!), but he said something utterly remarkable and life-changing, for me at least.

He said, “Santa can’t possibly deliver all the presents the night before Christmas, so he hires a network of retired postmen to help him.”

I remember the moment with extreme clarity! Within ten minutes of him uttering those words, I had a glorious inspiration / epiphany / revelation. It is hard to describe, but imagine God opening up your head, placing the novel inside and saying, Here’s the story. Now go and write it.

And so the novel landed in my head, a gift almost fully formed, one I felt I had been commanded to write down and then give again.

I completely abandoned the novel I had been writing at the time, and devoted the next four years of my life to Nine Planets. I knew the ending from the very beginning, but even so, it went through several iterations, name changes (Gift and The Boston Secret), and some serious editing.

I also remember clearly being terrified that I didn’t have the writing skill to handle a story of such importance, particularly the ending, which I was convinced had to be near-perfect to honour the gift. (It’s up to you to decide whether the ending worked or not.)

And then it was picked up by a small publishing house who took it to print. And here it is!

Holding the actual paper reality of my first published book was thrilling and quite surreal.