Writing can be an incredibly tedious process. Whether it’s for an English class or for a test, writing is a process, yet writing an entire book is a task on its own. It takes an incredible amount of time and dedication to accomplish such a goal. Despite this, Aidan Mason accomplished this goal and got his book published on April 11, 2022. 

There are two main portions to the book. The first portion is the main series, “Blood and the Stars,” which has its first 10 parts included. This portion of the book talks about two warring planets in the 51st century. 

Part two of the book is exclusively print only and is a spin off to the first part. The second part is titled “ Blood and the Stars: Flashback.” This section of the book is set in the 24th century and it’s talking about extremist Christian, Muslims, and Jews attacking the world after the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

Finishing the entire book took around a year and a half, but the original content was written from June 15 to August 24th back in 2021, which was posted on his original website. The main reason for the time frame was not due to the writing aspect but for other reasons. “The exclusive spin-off took around a couple months or so. The main part of the wait was really formatting the book and getting the cover in order,” Mason said. 

Many resort to writing a book to express certain feelings or to tell a story, Aidan mentions his motivations to being slightly different. “ I was feeling kind of tired with a lot of mainstream stuff. Everything seems to be a sequel, reboot, or remake nowadays. So, I thought it would be worth it to write something original. And if you know writers, you know that we can’t keep ourselves if we have a creative burst,” Mason said.

The story he wanted to tell involved many aspects of European cultures, as he also really wanted to express certain issues when it comes to religious extremism. “I wanted to showcase some aspects of European culture, particularly Irish, German, anda  bit of French culture. You can see that in a lot of the character’s names (Jacques, Angelika, etc). In terms of the spin-off, it was also a story that I wanted to tell, and one that I felt would add depth to the main story. It also felt relevant because of a lot of religious extremism these days, especially from the big three,” Mason said

In hopes of promoting his series, he hoped publishing a book would grab more attention as opposed to only posting online. Not just that but writing relates heavily with his future career and what he hopes to do in the future. “I’m already working on getting ‘Volume Two’ ready and I have a novel in the works right now,” Mason said. 

Mason describes what he felt when his book was finally published as “one of the best feelings in the world when I got the book in my hand. To actually have something that has your name on it that other people can buy is properly amazing. It’s like my legacy is secured.”

Writing the book wasn’t the only checkbox that needed to be checked; creating a cover is crucial as well. In order to accomplish the creation of the cover he found an artist to illustrate one for him. Pondcell is a full time worker and student in another field, and their friend recommended the book cover position to them. “I met Aidan through his colleague after a friend recommended a book cover position to me, and after we were introduced I read his story collection and decided I wanted to illustrate for it,” Pondcell said. 

Pondcell describes why they wanted to create the cover for Aiden. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Science Fiction and have read Sci-Fi anthologies from the 70s-80s that I got from my dad when he was a teenager. I was always very inspired by the artwork featured on the covers for them and I was thrilled to have a chance to illustrate for someone else. I found Aidan’s world and characters intriguing and I love getting to be even a small part of the new generation of science fiction,” Pondcell said. 

Creating the book cover took around a month, and the artist described, “I usually start paintings by putting down large blocks of color and ‘cutting’ out basic shapes from these. Once I send this plan off to be approved I get to work on the rendering. I usually save detailing the face for last as that is the part I enjoy the most! The final stage of any of my paintings is to add more texture and smaller detail work as I find focusing on this earlier can distract from the overall composition,” Pondcell said. 

To purchase Aidan’s book, head to the Barnes and Noble website.