Welcome to the Author Interview. This time, it features the lovely Christian Meddelton author of Dreamwalkers.
If you’re an author who’d like to take part in the series, email me: debbie@myrandommusings.co.uk
Now over to Christian.
1 Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m Christian Meddelton, a writer based in Plymouth, in the southwest of England. I’m a dad, a lover of a good story, and someone who has spent a rather unreasonable amount of time wondering about things that science hasn’t quite managed to explain yet.
I’ve been working on my debut novel, Dreamwalkers, in one form or another for nearly twenty years. Along the way, I’ve also established JensonPanda, my own independent publishing imprint, which has been quite an education in itself.
2 Tell us a little bit about your books.
Dreamwalkers is my debut science fiction thriller, published on 30 October 2026.
It begins with a question: where does human consciousness actually exist? When a British soldier experiences something that shouldn’t be possible, it leads towards a scientific discovery with extraordinary implications for humanity.
At the centre of the mystery is another world. Somewhere beautiful, peaceful and apparently impossible, with warm rivers, endless green hills and two suns.
As conditions on Earth deteriorate, that discovery begins to look increasingly attractive. But humanity has a habit of embracing extraordinary possibilities before fully understanding them.
Although Dreamwalkers has a big science fiction premise, it’s very much a story about people. Family, grief, love, belief and the lengths we’re prepared to go to for those we care about.
3 Where do you find your inspiration for your books?
Usually in questions that don’t have straightforward answers.
Consciousness has fascinated me for years. We know an enormous amount about the physical workings of the brain, but explaining why those processes produce our subjective experience of being alive is something else entirely.
I started wondering what would happen if our understanding of consciousness was fundamentally incomplete. From there, the story grew into something much bigger.
I also draw inspiration from ordinary human behaviour. People are wonderfully complicated. We make extraordinary decisions for reasons that seem perfectly logical to us, even when everyone else thinks we’re completely mad.
Give me an interesting scientific question and a group of flawed human beings, and I’ll generally find a story somewhere between them.
4 What, for you, is the best thing about being a writer?
Creating something that didn’t exist before.
You can start with a single question, a sentence, or an image in your head, and eventually build an entire world around it. Then you populate that world with characters who begin to feel like actual people.
There’s also something quite extraordinary about the idea that someone you’ve never met might read your book, care about those characters and experience emotions because of something you imagined.
That’s what I’m most excited about with Dreamwalkers. After living with the story for so long, I finally get to share it.
5 And the worst?
Knowing when to stop.
I’m quite capable of spending an unreasonable amount of time worrying about a particular sentence, a character’s motivation or whether something that happens in Chapter Thirty still makes perfect sense alongside something established in Chapter Four.
With a novel that covers several decades and has multiple interconnected storylines, continuity becomes particularly important.
And independent publishing brings its own challenges. Once you’ve finished writing the book, you suddenly discover that you’re also responsible for production, distribution, publicity and about a hundred other things you never imagined you’d need to understand.
Writing the novel was the first mountain. Getting it published has been another one entirely.
6 If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
I’d stop time, without question.
When I was younger, I absolutely loved a children’s television programme called Bernard’s Watch. Bernard had a magic watch that allowed him to stop time, and I desperately wanted one of my own. Imagine the possibilities. You could have all the time in the world to do whatever you wanted, without anyone else even realising.
Would I use that power entirely responsibly? Would I be a completely upstanding, moral citizen? I’d like to say yes. But I’m not making any promises.
7 Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to write their first book?
Write about something you genuinely care about. Something you know, something that interests you, or something that gets you excited enough to want to explore it.
Will the market love it? Perhaps not. Will it become a bestseller? Who knows?
But one thing I think you can almost guarantee is that you’re far more likely to finish a book if you’re genuinely passionate about the story you’re telling.
Writing a novel takes an enormous amount of time, patience and determination. If you’re only writing something because you think it’s what people want to buy, those difficult days are going to feel considerably harder.
Write the story you’d love to read. Give yourself a reason to keep coming back to it. Everything else can come afterwards.
8 Tell us one random fact about you.
My publishing imprint, JensonPanda, has a rather ridiculous origin story.
It takes its name from my son Jenson and his panda muslin, which I once ended up using to press cider.
The cider became known as Jenson’s Panda, and the name somehow survived long enough to become a publishing company.
I’m not entirely sure that was the intended career trajectory for a child’s muslin, but there we are.
9 Who is your favourite author?
Dan Brown.
I remember reading The Da Vinci Code for the first time and being absolutely fascinated. The way he combined conspiracy, history, religion and mystery into a fast moving thriller felt revolutionary to me at the time.
I loved the idea that you could take things people thought they understood, introduce an extraordinary possibility, and suddenly make the familiar feel mysterious.
That ability to make readers question what they think they know is something I’ve always admired.
10 And your favourite book(s)?
I’ve always loved a good conspiracy thriller. The Da Vinci Code was a particular favourite, and Terry Hayes’s I Am Pilgrim absolutely fascinated me. I love stories with enormous stakes, intricate mysteries and that wonderful feeling of needing to read just one more chapter.
But I’m also a huge closet horror fan. I grew up reading R. L. Stine before eventually discovering James Herbert, at an age that even the most liberal parents would probably have considered far too young.
I’ve always loved that feeling of being genuinely unsettled by a book. Not necessarily through blood and gore, but through atmosphere, uncertainty and the suggestion that something might be terribly wrong.
Looking at Dreamwalkers, I suspect those two sides of my reading tastes have influenced me more than I initially realised.
11 What book are you reading right now?
Dreamwalkers.
I know. It sounds absolutely terrible, doesn’t it? An author admitting that he’s currently reading his own book. But after spending so many years writing, rewriting and editing it, I’m finally trying to experience the story as a reader rather than its author.
For so long, every time I opened the manuscript, I was looking for something to improve. Now I’m trying to put that part of my brain aside, stop analysing every sentence and simply enjoy the story. It’s a surprisingly difficult habit to break.
12 Where is your favourite place to write?
Home. Absolutely home. I like being in familiar surroundings, somewhere I can settle down and get lost in whatever I’m working on. I don’t need an elaborate writing retreat or a picturesque cabin in the woods. As lovely as those might sound, I’m perfectly happy writing at home.
13 Do you prefer to write in silence or do you have a writing soundtrack?
I’m actually quite happy with either, although I don’t particularly enjoy complete silence.
More often than not, there’ll be some sort of trashy television programme playing in the background.
You’d be surprised how much inspiration can come from having something rolling along while you’re working. A name, a location, an event, or even a completely throwaway comment can suddenly spark an idea.
Sometimes the most unexpected little details find their way into your imagination.
I’m not suggesting that watching terrible television is an essential part of the creative process, but it certainly hasn’t done me any harm.
14 What can we expect from you next?
I’ve got several ideas I’m developing.
I’m exploring the possibility of returning to the world of Dreamwalkers, although I’d only want to write a follow up if it genuinely expanded the story rather than simply revisiting familiar ground.
I’m also developing a separate psychological thriller called What Fear Keeps, which explores fear, human behaviour and what might happen if one of our most important protective instincts stopped working as it should.
It’s a very different story, but it comes from the same place creatively. I’m fascinated by the things we think we understand about being human, and what might happen if those assumptions turned out to be wrong.
For now, my priority is getting Dreamwalkers into the hands of readers.
15 Anything else you’d like to share with us?
Just that Dreamwalkers has been an enormous part of my life for a very long time, and seeing it finally become a published novel is something quite special.
It’s also been a reminder of just how much work happens behind the scenes, particularly when you’re publishing independently.
If you enjoy science fiction with a mystery at its heart, believable characters and some uncomfortable questions about what it means to be human, I really hope you’ll give Dreamwalkers a chance.
And if you do read it, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think.
16 Where can we find you?
Dreamwalkers by Christian Meddelton was published on 30 October 2026 through JensonPanda. You can find me and my book on my website, Amazon, Facebook and Instagram.
You can also find Dreamwalkers through participating booksellers and eBook retailers.
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